The Life of Cato - The Burning of Rome and The Rise of a New City (not primary, do not count)

On the night of July 18th a fire had broken out in the plebian area of the city of Rome. This was considered the market place area and a place where people came to shop. As you can imagine, that means that things were pretty close and stacked up next to one another. This let the fire grow easily and started ripping through the town. The materials used on the roads and houses of this region were flammable and before we knew it a week went by and a city was buried. There was a halt in productivity and public activity for some days. Family members, friends, and homes all lost in the chaotic surge of the horrible fire. My house was close to the inner city so I headed into town to check it out. What I came upon was absolutely miserable. Decent houses that I used to walk by were now leaning over themselves in shambles, kids and dogs flooded the streets as they had nowhere to go, and the entire city was now littered with black ash everywhere you looked. An order was sent out for builders to meet that weekend and start to organize a task force to help the people in need find shelter while builders went to work repairing the damages and rebuilding houses. My father's company was ordered to rebuild public spaces and the major public street. However, my father put me in charge of redoing the whole street myself along with any employees that I needed to finish it. My father made it very clear that we were only to be ordering and using non-flammable materials like rock and marble. Unlike my first road that I put together which was wood, clay, dirt, and stone, this new road had to meet brand new material requirements. The road still must be eight feet wide straight and sixteen feet wide on turns, but the only materials that were to be used was stone and marble. While this made roads more efficient, less flammable, and called for less maintenance, the initial process of breaking down these materials takes twice as long as before. My father made it very clear that no shortcuts were to be taken and that I ordered the best quality stone and marble. My two employees and I spent three days pounding marble and throwing stone on the ground. By two weeks the city had looked completely different; my fathers new buildings looked amazing and the new road that I made was a lot smoother. It was the work of my father and I that had made this new place. From the dark ashes of a devastating fire rose a brand new stone city.

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The Life of Cato: Cato The Elder Speech on Woman and Equality (primary)

Today after lunch, Cato The Elder has ordered a senate meeting in which my father and his company had to attend. I also had to come because we were going to work on some destroyed roads afterward. It will be my first time seeing Cato The Elder in person. From what I have heard and from what my father has told me, he is not the nicest guy in the world. When we arrived, I imagined Cato The Elder to be a bigger man, he was small and lanky and didn't really possess the looks of an emperor. However, when he began to speak my heart dropped off for a second. He had this cold, stern voice that was deep. I looked at my employees and they started giggling, but I was not laughing at all. Cato The Elder ordered everyone in the room to stand up and greet each other and after that started his speech. He began talking about problems within the senate and that there needed to be more taxes raised for the military. Then he started talking about women and what role they were to play in society. No

The Life of Cato: Spatial Organization and Urbanization in Rome

As a city planner my father always had to take close notes on the laws of the land and if their were no laws in place, he would take consideration and suggestion from the locals. Sometimes when an order is given to start a development, my father tells me that they send him grids on tablets with exact location, measurements, and a list of materials to be used. This development was probably sent out by a political leader and will either be used for patrician residence or some sort of city council building. Most times when my father is working on buildings there is a verbal plan and a list of materials, but most of his building is done organically. Now, he still has to meet spatial and development requirements, but my father can make the dimensions and measurement of the building exactly how he thinks fits best. If there are no laws in place of the town, my father will ask the locals about how they want the new building to be and my father will draw a template of what it could be based on

The Life of Cato: The Introduction of Cato and The Twelve Tables of Roman Law (primary)

Preface: We begin our journey with the introduction of Cato Brutius, a young Roman male citizen like any other, working and going to school in the late Era of the Ancient Roman Republic around 190 BC. His father and family are great city planners and politicians and his mother loves crafting jewelry and keeping up with the home. Cato wants to grow up to be a great city planner and develop significant buildings like his father one day, but to earn the respect of his peers and most importantly his father, he has to work his way up and cover all aspects of construction before diving head first into Roman city planning. His father wanted Cato to get his hands dirty and have opportunities to perform for the family business while also getting an education, so Cato would often follow his father around to learn and help on job sites. Now, we will take a first hand look at Cato's life and the beginning of his construction career. My father woke me up today and told me that I was going to ha

The Travel Log of Cato Bruttius

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