Why is it called Monte Porzio Catone?

People arriving for the first time read the sign and wonder: who is Porzio? And what does Cato have to do with it? The answer lies in two stories almost two thousand years apart, which met in an office of the Kingdom of Italy in 1872.

Where does “Monte Porzio” come from?

The first documents that name the hill are medieval and use a name that sounds odd today: Monte Porculi or Monte Porculo.

• From the eighth century there is mention of a Massa Porculis, a large farming estate in the area.
• In 1068 the name “Monte Porculo” appears in a donation by the Counts of Tusculum to the church of Sant’Antonino.
• In 1074 a bull of Pope Gregory VII lists “Monte Porculi” among the possessions of the monastery of San Paolo fuori le Mura.
• At the beginning of the twelfth century the place is a Castrum Montis Porcii, a small fortified village; in 1303 the form Castrum Montis Portii appears, by now close to today’s name.

From Porculi to Porcii to Portii, and finally Porzio: the name grew more refined over the centuries.

The gens Porcia

The traditional explanation, given by the town council’s guides and by local historians, links the name to the gens Porcia, the Roman family of the Porcii, who are said to have had a villa on this hill. It is a plausible idea, because the area was full of villas of the Roman aristocracy, but no document proves it for certain.

A curious detail: in 1167 the great battle between Tusculans and Romans was fought on the plain called Prata Porci, at the foot of the hill. The name of the family, the hill and the meadows keeps coming back, however you explain it.

And “Catone”?

Until 1872 the town was simply called Monte Porzio. After unification, however, the Kingdom of Italy had two towns with the same name: ours and Monte Porzio in the Marche, in the province of Pesaro e Urbino. To tell them apart, a royal decree of 30 December 1872 added “Catone” to the name.

The choice was not random. It refers to Marcus Porcius Cato, called the Censor or the Elder, one of the most famous figures of republican Rome. Cato belonged to the gens Porcia and was born at Tusculum, the city on the hill above the town, around 234 BC. Joining “Porzio” and “Catone” tied the name of the town to its oldest history.

Who was Cato the Censor?

• Born at Tusculum around 234 BC into a farming family, died in 149 BC at about 85.
• Consul in 195 BC and censor in 184 BC: his censorship was so strict that the title stuck to him as a nickname.
• Famous for his strict morals and for the sentence with which, so the story goes, he ended every speech in the Senate: Carthago delenda est, Carthage must be destroyed.
• Author of De agri cultura, the oldest Latin prose treatise to have come down to us, on running a farm, a vineyard and an olive grove. A book that, in Monte Porzio, among vines and olive trees, seems written for us.

His great grandson, Cato the Younger, Caesar’s opponent, belonged to the same family: that is why some texts credit the name to him. The link with Tusculum, however, is the Censor’s. His full story is in Cato the Censor, the Roman born at Tusculum.

How is it spelled: Monte Porzio Catone or Monteporziocatone?

As separate words: Monte Porzio Catone. For years the motorway signs read “Monteporziocatone”, all run together, until in 2022, after complaints from residents, the sign was corrected.

In short

• Monte Porzio: from the medieval Monte Porculi / Castrum Montis Porcii (eleventh to fourteenth century); traditionally linked to the gens Porcia.
• Catone: added by royal decree of 30 December 1872, to tell the town apart from Monte Porzio in the Marche.
• Which Cato: Marcus Porcius Cato the Censor, born at Tusculum around 234 BC.
• Spelling: separate words, Monte Porzio Catone.
• Read next: Tusculum and its ruins, the history of the town.