 Unauthorised plumbing into Rome's aqueducts had always been a problem, as Frontinus records much later.Cato also ordered the demolition of houses which encroached on the public way, and built the first basilica in the Forum near the Curia (Livy, "History", 39.44; Plutarch, "Marcus Cato", 19).He raised the amount paid by the publicani for the right to collect taxes and, at the same time, reduced the contract prices for the construction of public works.