Fronte capillata

The couplet is much older than G. A. S. seems to think. The author is Dionysius Cato,—"Catoun," as Chaucer calls him—in his book, *Distichorum de Moribus*, lib. ii. D. xxvi.: "Rem tibi quam nosces aptam, dimittere noli: Fronte capillata, post est Occasio calva." *Corp. Poet. Lat.*, Frankfurt, 1832, p. 1195. The history of this Dionysius Cato is unknown; and it has been hotly disputed whether he were a Heathen or Christian; but he is *at least* as old as the fourth century of the Christian era, being mentioned by Vindicianus, chief physician in ordinary to the emperor, in a letter to Valentinia…