Cats were introduced around the same time trade with Egypt was established, so around the 5th century BC. It was only around the 5th Century AD that cats became popular in Ancient Rome and took the weasels and snakes place as a rodent exterminator.

Cats in fact became so popular as rodent repellents that they accompanied Roman Legions on trips across Europe, which is one of the reasons they are so widespread.

Ancient Romans associated cats with liberty and divinity. Libertas, the goddess of freedom, was sometimes accompanied by a cat at her feet.