Origines

'''''' (, "Origins") is the title of a lost work on Roman and Italian history by Cato the Elder, composed in the early-2nd centuryBC.

==Contents== According to Cato's biographer Cornelius Nepos, the Origins consisted of seven books. Book I was the history of the founding and kings of Rome. Books II and III covered the origins of major Italian cities and gave the work its title. The last four books dealt with the Roman Republic, its wars, and its growing power, focused on the period between the onset of the First Punic War up to 149BC.