According to an Oxford dictionary of Roman jurists,[3] Paetus Catus's rapid rise from curule aedile to the consulship and censorship was not due to his father's death or his elder brother's successes, but his aptitude for the law.
Catus may have given up other aspects of his public career (he is not mentioned in any military action by Livy) to devote his time to the study of law.
(It is not clear if earlier jurists were not professional, or were part-timers, but a Roman paterfamilias of rank and status, or his grown sons, would be expected to defend his family's clients in legal matters.
[citation needed] His brother Publius Aelius Paetus had been consul three years earlier in 201, and was elected censor 199.
Publius's success may have helped Sextus to the consulship in 198, but he was overshadowed by his younger and eventually more famous patrician colleague, Titus Quinctius T.f.
[4] The former work was praised by no less a judge than Cicero, and was evidently extant during the lifetime of his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus who refers to it.