Cato the Younger

For his great-grandfather, see Cato the Elder.

C
Inscribed bronze bust from Volubilis
Personal details
Born	95 BC Roman Republic
Died	April 46 BC (aged 49) Utica, Africa, Roman Republic
Nationality	Roman
Spouse	Atilia Marcia
Children	Marcus Porcius Cato Porcia
Occupation	Politician
Military career
Allegiance	Roman Republic (72–49 BC) Pompey (49–46 BC)
Rank	Praetor
Wars	Third Servile War Second Catilinarian Conspiracy Caesar's Civil War†

Marcus Porcius Cato "Uticensis" ("of Utica"; /ˈkeɪtoʊ/; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (Latin language: Cato Minor), was a conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, he is remembered for his stubbornness and tenacity (especially in his lengthy conflict with Julius Caesar), as well as his immunity to bribes, his moral integrity, and his famous distaste for the ubiquitous corruption of the period. The epithet "the Younger" distinguishes him from his great-grandfather, Cato the Elder.

Early life

Cato was born in 95 BC, the son of Marcus Porcius Cato and his wife, Livia. He was descended from Cato the Elder – Cato Uticensis' great-grandfather – who was a novus homo (new man) and the first of his family to be elected to the consulship. The elder Cato was famed for his austerity and "aggressive[] championing [of values] he considered to be traditionally Roman", which in part was "partly a façade or political tool" and meant to embellish his reputation as "the foremost representative of the mos maiorum.

He and his sister Porcia were orphaned, probably before Cato was four years old, and the children were taken in by their maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus. After Drusus' death and resulting start of the Social War in 91 BC, Cato and his sister probably came into the household of his mother's older brother, Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus. Moving along with Cato and his sister were a half-brother and two half-sisters from his mother Livia's first marriage to Quintus Servilius Caepio. Cato was especially close with his half-brother, Gnaeus Servilius Caepio, and his elder half-sister, Servilia, who would later marry Marcus Junius Brutus (the father of the tyrannicide) and become the mistress of Julius Caesar.

Stories of Cato's early childhood are broadly unreliable and told mainly to suggest that Cato's character as an adult "had been established in childhood". They include claims that Cato was a "dull and slow" student whose "famous steadfast tenacity was in reality the result of a lack of imagination", a dubious tale that Quintus Poppaedius Silo once threatened to hang Cato out of a window unless he supported Italian citizenship (Cato remained silent), and a claim that Cato asked his tutor for a sword with which to assassinate Sulla during his proscriptions.

Around the age of 16, Cato was inducted into the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, a board of priests in charge of the consultation and interpretation of the Sibylline Oracles. This was a prestigious honour, for which he was likely selected on the initiative of his uncle Mamercus Lepdius, and it introduced Cato "to a powerful circle of influential senators".

Political development

Statue of Cato the Younger in the Louvre Museum. He is about to kill himself while reading the Phaedo, a dialogue of Plato which describes the death of Socrates. The statue was begun by Jean-Baptiste Roman (Paris, 1792–1835) using white Carrara marble. It was finished by François Rude (Dijon, 1784 – Paris, 1855).

Shortly after his induction into the quindecimviri, he received his father's inheritance, which immediately made him a wealthy, though modest among the elite, citizen. Plutarch reports around this time, he also began to study Stoicism under the philosopher Antipater of Tyre, Epicureanism under a Philostratus, and Peripatetism under a certain Demetrius. His education in popular oratory and rhetoric was "highly unusual for a student of Stoic philosophy", implying that philosophy was only one part of his wider education.

Embodying the mos maiorum

Around this time, he also started to adopt an ostentatious pattern of public antiquarianism. To that end, he adopted an austere life-style where he refused to travel long distances on horseback, preferring to walk, travelled the city barefoot, and wore only a toga without a tunic. His sartorial choices were modelled on statues of Rome's legendary founders and heroes, who were depicted wearing togas alone, rather than any philosophical inclinations. His choices were deliberate and political:

He was raised in a wealthy aristocratic house that is not known to have departed from mainstream contemporary culture... He made a deliberate decision to break with the norms of his peers... faced [with] daunting challenges in his intended political career[,] he leveraged his strongest asset – his great-grandfather's reputation as a champion of tradition – to enhance his own status.

By adopting the archaic style of dress found on statues of Rome’s ancient heroes, he sought to present himself as the ideal of Roman virtue. This presentation of tradition was sure to appeal to the conservative senators... but there was also a strong popular appeal in Cato’s unique behaviour...

His first appearance on the public stage was to oppose changes to the Basilica Porcia, a public building commissioned by his great-grandfather Cato the Elder during his term as censor in 184 BC. The plebeian tribunes proposed moving a column that impeded their view of the Forum. Cato may have been expected to defend the monument – "public buildings such as the Basilica Porcia were prized heirlooms that perpetuated a family's fame and greatness, so men could be expected to defend their family monuments" – but the column may not have actually been part of the Basilica. Regardless, Cato used the opportunity to enter public life with a "showy" appearance defending his family's honour and reputation while also allowing him to display his pietas and connect himself to his famous ancestor.

Marriage

Cato's first marriage was early, in his twenties, and he was betrothed to his cousin Aemilia Lepida (and daughter of Mamercus Lepidus). His reasons were unclear: because of his close relations to Mamercus Lepidus, the match would not have been very useful politically in building new alliances, and he may have been motivated by love or by the large size of the dowry. Aemilia Lepida had previously been betrothed to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, but he broke off the match, after which Cato was betrothed. However, some time later, Scipio changed his mind and, Aemilia Lepida's father evidently decided that a match with Scipio was more desirable and the two were married shortly after. Cato was angry and threatened a lawsuit against his uncle to enforce his engagement, but was dissuaded by his friends.

He married Atilia, the daughter of an Atilius Serranus (the specific identity is unknown). While the gens Atilia had consular ancestors, it had not been successful in reaching the consulship after the end of the second century BC. By her, he had a son, Marcus Porcius Cato, and a daughter, Porcia. Around this time he also secured an excellent marriage for his sister in Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. That his half-sisters had also secured very favourable matches meant he had a developed network of political allies.

Military service

In 72 BC, Cato volunteered to fight in the war against Spartacus, presumably to support his half-brother Caepio, who was serving as a military tribune in the consular army of Lucius Gellius. Although the army was defeated twice in battle, leading to its reassignment to Marcus Licinius Crassus, Cato's valour was recognised by the commander, though he "strangely" refused "much-coveted military awards" by questioning Gellius' judgement that he had earnt them; doing so "in this very public way[,] advertised that his standard for military accomplishment were much more stringent than the consul's, and the strangeness of this act was so shocking that it was talked about and remembered back in Rome".

A few years later, in 67 BC, he stood for the military tribunate. In doing so, he publicly broke form his peers who widely employed slaves to whisper the names of people met when canvassing for votes (nomenclatores), to both the annoyance of the other candidates and with the respect of many voters. After winning election, he was dispatched to Macedonia under propraetor Marcus Rubrius, where he earned the respect of the soldiers by sharing their burdens and treating them justly. He also maintained his "unusual habit of walking everywhere instead of riding a horse". Over a winter, he travelled to Pergamum and became the patron of a Greek Stoic philosopher named Athenodorus, notably contradicting Cato the Elder's "famous position against Greek philosophers", who accompanied Cato back to Rome.

During his service in Macedonia, he received the news that his beloved half-brother Caepio was ill and dying in Thrace. He immediately went to see him but was unable to arrive before his brother's death. Cato was overwhelmed by grief and, ignoring Stoic principles of apatheia (living without passions), he spared no expense to organise lavish funeral ceremonies. After the end of his military commission, he travelled through Asia Minor and through Galatia "in such a quiet and unassuming way that he was often mistaken for a man of low status". Before returning to Rome, he also visited Pompey, who was then supervising the final stages of the Third Mithridatic War. Cato, according to Plutarch, received an exaggerated and deferential welcome from the proconsul, which most scholars doubt actually occurred.

Entry to politics

Cato returned to Rome in early 65 BC and intended to stand for the quaestorship later that year. He spent substantial time familiarising himself with the laws related to the office - which related to administration of state finances both in Rome and in the provinces – and may have been angling to engage in reforms of state treasury operations. He was easily elected and took office on 5 December 65 BC.

Around this time, Lucullus – one of the wealthiest men in Rome and long-time commander of troops against Mithridates VI Eupator in the Third Mithridatic War – approached him about marrying Cato's younger half-sister Servilia. This was likely part of Lucullus' attempt to win allies in his bid for a triumph against Mithridates, which had been stymied by Pompey's supporters, who wanted to permit Pompey (then in Asia) to return and claim all the credit. After the marriage, during his quaestorship, he helped Lucullus (by this point in the second or third year of campaigning for a triumph) in browbeating his opponents into eventually granting a triumph in 63 BC.

Quaestorship (63 BC)

Cato was assigned to the state treasury (the aerarium) in Rome as one of the urban quaestors. The complexity of Roman financial law and the treasury's record-keeping had led to Roman aristocrats "abdicating their supervisory roles to the professional clerks who worked in the treasury" and resulted in widespread corruption. Cato started his term by prosecuting a number of the clerks and firing a number of others; even after one was acquitted after intervention from one of the censors, Cato refused to rehire him.

He also started the process of collecting on long-standing state debts and made prompt payments to state creditors. In doing so, he cooperated with Julius Caesar, who had then just completed a term as curule aedile and was acting as a prosecutor in court, in challenging the legal immunity and payments given to men who had received bounties for killings during the Sullan proscriptions. He also changed procedures to ensure that the treasury archives rejected fraudulent documents.

On his last day in the aerarium, Plutarch reports that he discovered that his old friend and colleague in the urban quaestorship, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, was entering fraudulent records; Cato apparently stormed back to erase them before the end of his term. He also spent an enormous amount of money – some five talents, about four per cent of his inheritance - to make copies of all the treasury archives from Sulla to his own day "to facilitate the prosecution of future wrongdoers" that might succeed him in the aerarium.

Cato's reputation in the aerarium was exemplary. According to Plutarch's biography, he "taught men that a city can be rich without treating its citizens unjustly" and "brought the quaestorship into greater esteem than the senate, so that everybody thought and said that Cato had given the quaestorship the dignity of the consulship".

Tribunate (62 BC)

Propaganda cup of Cato (the cup to the left, the one to the right being dedicated to Catiline), for his canvass for the plebeian tribunate of 62 BC. These cups, filled with food or drinks, were distributed in the streets to the people, and bore an inscription supporting the candidate to the election.

A 1889 depiction by Cesare Maccari of Cicero, then consul, speaking against Catiline, at right.

In 63 BC, he stood for the plebeian tribunate of 62 BC. After his election but before his term started in December, he opposed granting additional honours to Pompey, engaged in an unsuccessful prosecution of Lucius Licinius Murena, and was part of in a famous debate on the Catilinarian conspiracy.

Catilinarian conspiracy

Lucius Sergius Catilina, a noble patrician, led a rebellion against the state, raising an army in Etruria. Upon discovery of an associated plot against the lives of the consuls and other magistrates in Rome, Cicero arrested the conspirators within the city and proposed executing them without trial, a violation of citizen rights to appeal. While Cicero could have done this on his own authority (augmented by a senatus consultum ultimum), he convened the senate, almost certainly to diffuse responsibility. The matter of killing the conspirators was a novel one: while the use of deadly force against citizens under arms was generally accepted, "the disposal of captured and unarmed conspirators was a more difficult matter".

Cato's half-father-in-law, Decimus Junius Silanus, who was consuls-elect, spoke first in favour of death, as did the rest of the former consuls. But Julius Caesar, then praetor-elect, countered with a proposal to imprison the conspirators, which started to gain the support of the house. Cato spoke two or three speeches after Caesar. According to Sallust, among other things he argued that the senate was being too soft against enemies of the state, that it was folly to await the ultimate test of the conspirators' guilt – the overthrow of the state – because the very proof of their guilt would make it impossible to enforce the law, and that precedent and religious scruples demanded severe action. In Sallust's depiction, both Cato and Caesar make appeals to precedent and mos maiorum: Caesar calls executing the subdued conspirators "a new type of punishment" and attempted to draw Cato into contradicting his great-grandfather's lenient stance on the Rhodians after the Third Macedonian War; Cato viewed executing the traitors as consistent with ancient Roman tradition. While, Caesar's speech – due to the fact he would be praetor in the next year – seemed to come with "an unspoken threat... of prosecution under a hostile judge", Cato's counter-arguments "stiffened [the senators'] resolve [exciting] their fears that they may not even live to see the next year if they did not take the hardest line possible".

Cato and his political allies also saw in the Catilinarian crisis an opportunity to ruin Caesar's career, if not have him killed, by falsely incriminating him as being a part of the conspiracy. The famous story of Cato's misinterpreting a love letter from Servilia – Cato's half-sister and wife of, the consul-elect, Silanus – to Caesar as incriminating evidence comes from this episode and "highlights how desperate Cato was to destroy Caesar". The source of the enmity was both political and personal: historians speculate various reasons, from political opposition to envy of Caesar's social and political success (by this time he had already been elected pontifex maximus) to more malicious rumours of Caesar's having been Cato's nephew's father or that Caesar was purchasing sexual favours from Servilia's daughter. At the same time, it is easy to see contemporary parallels between Caesar and Catiline: Caesar had likely supported Catiline's bids for the consulship; Caesar, like Catiline, was buried under massive debts; Caesar too hailed from an ancient patrician clan that had fallen on hard times; and Caesar too would have been forced into exile or bankrupt obscurity if he were to fail in his political career.

As tribune

Ruins of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. The ruins visible today date to the time of Tiberius.

Cato's first action on entering his tribunate in December 63 BC was to propose a law expanding the grain dole. He brought the bill with the support of the senate late in the year, according to Plutarch, to calm discontent in the city and strengthen the senate's political position. The law more than doubled the number of people receiving subsidised grain, placed a considerable burden on the republic's finances, and possibly made Cato one of the most generous politicians in the history of the grain dole. His grain bill also showed that the lex frumentaria was not the exclusive preserve of the so-called "populares", but rather, that "the advocacy of corn distribution knew no party".

One of the other tribunes of the plebs, Metellus Nepos, proposed two bills to grant Pompey additional honours. The first would transfer command of the (nearly completed) campaign against Catiline in northern Italy to Pompey. The second would have allowed Pompey to stand in absentia for the consulship of 61 BC and to lead troops into the pomerium (the sacred boundary of the city). Cato strongly opposed both. When Nepos initially presented the bill, Cato tried to talk him down as a friend but was unsuccessful and returned to invective when Nepos refused. The senate, at Cato's urging, voted down the bills; Nepos therefore moved to bring them before the popular assemblies regardless.

Nepos, along with his ally Caesar, assembled the assembly at the Forum before the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Cato and one of his allies, another tribune by the name of Quintus Minucius Thermus, forced their way to the front and Cato then "brusquely took a seat between Nepos and Caesar [to prevent] them from communicating privately". When Nepos directed the bill to be read, he vetoed it; when Nepos started to read it himself, Cato snatched the draft from his hands; when Nepos started to recite it from memory, Thermus put his hand over the Nepos' mouth in an attempt to stop him from speaking. In response, a fight then broke out in the forum. In response to the mob violence, the senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum; Nepos fled Rome to Pompey in the east and Caesar backed down. Suetonius and Plutarch then assert that Nepos, Caesar, or both were removed from offices, but the senate attempting such a thing is a legal impossibility and "Plutarch and Suetonius are certainly in error". More contemporaneous sources imply that the senate may have moved to ratify Nepos' departure from the city (tribunes were legally forbidden from leaving the city), which Cato likely objected to.

Later, Cato, with another fellow tribune named Lucius Marius, passed a law establishing penalties for military commanders who misrepresented the number of enemies or Roman soldiers killed in battles and required commanders to swear as to the accuracy of the numbers in their reports when returning from campaign. The law may have been aimed at Caesar, who would take up in the following year a governorship in Spain, where he would have opportunities to campaign against the Spanish tribes. Cato may also have been involved in the passage of a law requiring candidates at elections to make their official declarations of candidacy in person before an official within the city; such a law precluded a general from holding a military command and standing for office, as entering the pomerium vitiated promagisterial imperium (military command authority). This law may have been aimed at Pompey, who was thought to desire another consulship on his return, or Caesar, to force him to choose between the consulship and military glory.

Senatorial leadership

Cato was fortunate to emerge into politics during a "changing of the guard" in the senate. The previous Social War, followed by Sulla's civil war and then the proscriptions, had destroyed a great number of senatorial families. Because of the great bloodletting of previous decades and a growing trend toward semi-retirement rather than active political life after leaving office, by 65 BC, the number of senior leaders – all consulares, that is, former consuls – in the senate had fallen to just nine. Cato's pro-senatorial beliefs and oratorical skills positioned him in taking an active role in opposing those "men who[,] in his view[,] threatened the conventional order of the senate":

Since the optimates were not a political party, Cato was not joining a specific group of senators linked by a particular social or political outlook, but was claiming a prominent place among those who championed the traditional conduct of politics and the senate's claim to lead the state.

Moreover, his archaic mannerisms also helped him gain influence among the senators and the people: by making "himself into a living example of the old-fashioned Roman... [he] tapped into the deep vein of patriotism and conservatism that ran through the blood of every Roman citizen... disagreeing with [Cato] seemed to be a rejection of Roman tradition and therefore of Rome itself".

For Fred Drogula, Cato's posturing "the voice of the ancestors enabled him to push or shame others into agreeing with his opinions", which also helped to make up for his meagre financial resources in an increasingly expensive political environment. His policies also symbolised "for the aristocracy a nobility of purpose and principle that they liked to associate with their whole order". It also, however, made him a difficult ally or potential ally whose "extreme interpretation of conservatism gave him little room to compromise without seeming to abandon his principles".

By the end of his tribunate, he was very popular among the nobility: "such influence was remarkable for a man who had not yet reached the praetorship or commanded an army". He also was instrumental in uniting the senate, even at this earlier time, against Caesar; his success in his anti-Caesarian politics, however, forced Caesar "look elsewhere to achieve political success" and thereby forced Caesar to adopt more aggressive popularis tactics.

The First Triumvirate

Aftert his tribunate, Cato turned all of his political skills to oppose the designs of Caesar and his triumvirate allies, Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had among them held the reins of power in a finely balanced near-monopoly. Caesar gained influence over the senate through Pompey and Crassus. Pompey gained influence over the legions of Rome through Crassus and Caesar. Crassus enjoyed the support of the tax-farmers and was able to gain a fortune by exploitation of the provinces controlled by Caesar and Pompey.

Cato's opposition took two forms. First, in 62 BC, Pompey returned from his Asian campaign with two ambitions: to celebrate a Triumph and to become consul for the second time. In order to achieve both goals, he asked the senate to postpone consular elections until after his Triumph. Due to Pompey's enormous popularity, the senate was willing to oblige Pompey at first, but Cato intervened and convinced the senate to force Pompey to choose. In opposition to this action, Quintus Metellus Celer, Pompey's brother-in-law, attempted to repeal the act, but he was unsuccessful. Pompey did not run for the consulship that year, choosing instead to hold his third Triumph, one of the most magnificent ever seen in Rome.

When faced with the same request from Caesar, Cato used the device of filibuster, speaking continuously until nightfall, to prevent the senate from voting on the issue of whether or not Caesar would be allowed to stand for consul in absentia. Thus Caesar was forced to choose between a Triumph or a run for the consulship. Caesar chose to forgo the Triumph and entered Rome in time to register as a candidate in the 59 BC election, which he won. Caesar's consular colleague was Marcus Bibulus, the husband of Cato's daughter Porcia.

The next year Cato attempted to obstruct the syndicate tax contractors seeking to collect taxes in the province of Asia. The syndicate's winning bid was far greater than the syndicate was able to recoup through the tax collection. Because the bid was paid in advance, the heavy losses prompted them to ask the senate to renegotiate and thus refund a fraction of the bid. Crassus gave strong support to the plea, but Cato then promptly succeeded in vetoing it, regardless of the likelihood of a backlash from other equites with business interests the Roman government could affect.

When Caesar became consul, Cato opposed the agrarian laws that established farmlands for Pompey's veterans on public lands in Campania, from which the republic derived a quarter of its income. Caesar responded by having Cato dragged out by lictors while Cato was making a speech against him at the rostra. Many senators protested this extraordinary and unprecedented use of force by leaving the forum, one senator proclaiming he would rather be in jail with Cato than in the senate with Caesar. Caesar was forced to relent but countered by taking the vote directly to the people, bypassing the senate. Bibulus and Cato attempted to oppose Caesar in the public votes but were harassed and publicly assaulted by Caesar's retainers. Eventually, Bibulus confined himself to his home and pronounced unfavorable omens in an attempt to lay the legal groundwork for the later repeal of Caesar's consular acts.

Cato did not relent in his opposition to the triumvirs, unsuccessfully attempting to prevent Caesar's 5-year appointment as governor of Illyria and Cisalpine Gaul and the appointment of Crassus to an Eastern command.

Cyprus

Publius Clodius Pulcher, who worked closely with the triumvirate, desired to exile Cicero, and felt that Cato's presence would complicate his efforts. He, with the support of the triumvirs, proposed to send Cato to annex Cyprus. Plutarch recounts that Cato saw the commission as an attempt to be rid of him, and initially refused the assignment. When Clodius passed legislation conferring the commission on Cato "though ever so unwillingly", Cato accepted the position in compliance with the law. His official office while in Cyprus was Quaestor pro Praetore, an extraordinary quaestorship with praetorian powers.

Cato appeared to have two major goals in Cyprus. The first was to enact his foreign policy ideals, which, as expressed in a letter to Cicero, called for a policy of "mildness" and "uprightness" for governors of Roman-controlled territories. The second was to implement his reforms of the quaestorship on a larger scale. This second goal also provided Cato with an opportunity to burnish his Stoic credentials: the province was rich both in gold and opportunities for extortion. Thus, against common practice, Cato took none, and he prepared immaculate accounts for the senate, much as he had done earlier in his career as quaestor. According to Plutarch, Cato ultimately raised the enormous sum of 7,000 talents of silver for the Roman treasury. He thought about every unexpected event, even to tying ropes to the coffers with a big piece of cork on the other end, so they could be located in the event of a shipwreck. Unfortunately, luck played him a trick. Of his perfect accounting books, none survived: the one he had was burnt, the other was lost at sea with the freedman carrying it. Only Cato's untainted reputation saved him from charges of embezzlement.

The senate of Rome recognized the effort made in Cyprus and offered him a reception in the city, an extraordinary praetorship, and other privileges, all of which he stubbornly refused as unlawful honours.

Caesar's civil war

The triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus was broken in 54 BC at the same time as Cato's election as praetor. Judging their enemy in trouble, Cato and the Optimates faction of the senate spent the coming years trying to force a break between Pompey and Caesar. It was a time of political turmoil, when popular figures such as Publius Clodius Pulcher tried to advance the cause of the common people of Rome, going so far as abandoning his patrician status to become a plebeian. As a leading spokesman for the Optimate cause, Cato stood against them all in defense of the traditional privileges of the aristocracy.

The following year, in 52 BC, Cato ran for the office of consul, which he lost. Cato accepted the loss, but refused to run a second time.

In 49 BC, Cato called for the senate to formally relieve Caesar of his proconsular command, which he viewed as having expired, and to order Caesar's return to Rome as a civilian and thus without proconsular legal immunity. Pompey had blocked all previous attempts at ordering Caesar back to Rome but had grown concerned with Caesar's growing political influence and popularity with the plebs. With the tacit support of Pompey, Cato successfully passed a resolution ending Caesar's proconsular command. Caesar made numerous attempts to negotiate, at one point even conceding to give up all but one of his provinces and legions, allowing him to retain his immunity while diminishing his authority. This concession satisfied Pompey, but Cato, along with the consul Lentulus, refused to back down. Faced with the alternatives of returning to Rome for the inevitable trial and retiring into voluntary exile, Caesar crossed into Italy with only one legion, implicitly declaring war on the senate.

Caesar crossed the Rubicon accompanied by the XIII Legion to take power from the senate in the same way that Sulla had done in the past. Formally declared an enemy of the state, Caesar pursued the Senatorial party, now led by Pompey, who abandoned the city to raise arms in Greece. Cato was sent to Sicily to secure control of the grain supply. After securing control of Italy, Caesar sent the praetor Gaius Scribonius Curio with four legions to Sicily. Cato's garrison was insufficient to withstand a force of this magnitude; he abandoned the island and went to Greece to join Pompey. After first reducing Caesar's army at the siege battle of Dyrrhachium, where Cato commanded the port, the army led by Pompey was ultimately defeated by Caesar in the Battle of Pharsalus. (Cato was not present during the battle, Pompey had left him in command of Dyrrhachium). Cato and Metellus Scipio, however, did not concede defeat and escaped to the province of Africa with fifteen cohorts to continue resistance from Utica. Caesar, after a delay in Egypt, pursued Cato and Metellus Scipio. In February 46 BC the outnumbered Caesarian legions defeated the army led by Metellus Scipio at the Battle of Thapsus.

Death

In Utica, Cato did not participate in the battle and, unwilling to live in a world led by Caesar and refusing even implicitly to grant Caesar the power to pardon him, he committed suicide in April 46 BC. That night, Cato sat and read Plato's Phaedo. He then called for his sword to be brought to him. According to Plutarch, Cato attempted to kill himself by stabbing himself with his sword, but failed to do so due to an injured hand. Plutarch wrote:

Cato did not immediately die of the wound; but struggling, fell off the bed, and throwing down a little mathematical table that stood by, made such a noise that the servants, hearing it, cried out. And immediately his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror. The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound; but Cato, recovering himself, and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired.

Plutarch wrote that, on hearing of his death in Utica, Caesar commented, "Cato, I grudge you your death, as you would have grudged me the preservation of your life."

Starting with Pliny the Elder, later writers sometimes refer to Cato the Younger as "Cato Uticensis" ("the Utican"). In doing so they apply to him a type of cognomen that was normally awarded to generals who earned a triumph in a foreign war and brought a large territory under Roman influence (e.g., Scipio Africanus). Such names were honorific titles that the senate only granted for the most spectacular victories. Reference to Cato as "Uticensis" is presumably meant to glorify him by portraying his suicide at Utica as a great victory over Caesar's tyranny.

Legacy and reception

Antiquity

Cato, who upheld the strong traditional Roman principles, was remembered particularly well. His suicide was seen as a symbol for those who followed the conservative, Optimate principles of the traditional Roman. Cato is remembered as a follower of Stoicism and was one of the most active defenders of the Republic. The Stoics, from at least the time of Chrysippus onward, taught that the wise man should engage in politics if nothing prevents him. Cato's high moral standards and incorruptible virtue gained him several followers—of whom Marcus Favonius was the most well known—as well as praise even from his political enemies, such as Sallust—one of the sources for the anecdote about Caesar and Cato's sister. Sallust also wrote a comparison between Cato and Caesar. Caesar, Cato's long-time rival, was praised for his mercy, compassion, and generosity, and Cato, for his discipline, rigidity, and moral integrity. One should, however, consider which of these men Sallust found the more appealing. After Cato's death, both pro- and anti-Cato treatises appeared; among them Cicero wrote a panegyric, entitled Cato, to which Caesar, who never forgave him for all the obstructions, answered with his Anti-Cato. Caesar's pamphlet has not survived, but some of its contents may be inferred from Plutarch's Life of Cato, which repeats many of the stories that Caesar put forward in his Anti-Cato. Plutarch specifically mentions the accounts of Cato's close friend Munatius Rufus and the later Neronian senator Thrasea Paetus as references used for parts of his biography of Cato. While Caesar proclaimed clemency towards all, he never forgave Cato. This stance was something that others in the anti-Caesarian camp would remember, including Cato's nephew and posthumous son-in-law Brutus.

Republicans under the Empire remembered him fondly, and the poet Virgil, writing under Augustus, made Cato a hero in his Aeneid.^{[citation needed]} Whilst it was not particularly safe to praise Cato, Augustus did tolerate and appreciate Cato. Whilst one might argue that heaping posthumous praise on Cato highlights one's opposition to the new shape of Rome without directly challenging Augustus, it was actually later generations who were more able to embrace the role model of Cato without the fear of prosecution. Certainly under Nero, the resurgence of republican ambitions, with Cato as their ideal, ended in death for such figures as Seneca and Lucan, but Cato continued nevertheless as a righteous ideal for generations to come.

Lucan, writing under Nero, also made Cato the hero of the later books of his epic Pharsalia. From the latter work originates the epigram Victrix causa deis placuit sed victa Catoni ("The conquering cause pleased the gods, but the conquered cause pleased Cato", Lucan 1.128). Other Imperial authors, such as Horace, the Tiberian authors Velleius Paterculus and Valerius Maximus along with Lucan and Seneca in the 1st century AD, and later authors, such as Appian and Dio, celebrated the historical importance of Cato the Younger in their own writings.

Silver denarius of Cato (47–46 BC)

Middle Ages

In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Cato is portrayed as the guardian of the mountain of Purgatory (Cantos I–II). Cato is one of the two pagans presented by Dante in Purgatorio, the other being Statius. Whilst Cato's suicide warranted a placement of his soul in the seventh circle of Hell, Dante bases his decision to place Cato in Purgatory on Roman ethics instead of Christian ethics. Since Cato was a follower of stoicism, he represents leading a virtuous life free from sin. Hence, Cato embodies the cardinal virtues and is referred to as an analogue of God by Dante. To Dante, Cato's suicide was a sacrifice for a just cause because he sought to preserve the freedom of the Roman Republic. Given his imperfect actions, Cato is not allowed into Purgatory proper; he instead exists on the shores of the "High Mount" in part of ante-purgatory.

Cato appears in Purgatorio not as a soul who is purifying himself of their sins but holds a more administrative role in the realm. Here, Cato welcomes the new souls who arrive on the shores of Purgatory in an angel-led ship. Cato is depicted as a solitary old man and a figure of reverence. Contrary to his unkempt depiction in Lucan's Pharsalia, Cato's appearance in Divine Comedy is carefully designed to be enclosed in light. References to the four holy stars on Cato's beard strengthen his association with the cardinal virtues. At the shores of Mount Purgatory, Cato sternly questions the pilgrim's and Virgil's intentions as they are breaking the rules of the world by being here. After Virgil convinces Cato of their journey, Cato imparts geographical information on Mount Purgatory to the pilgrim and Virgil before promptly disappearing, preparing Dante the pilgrim for the climb of Mount Purgatory. In Canto II, Cato urges Virgil and the pilgrim to make haste and ascend to Mount Purgatory.

Early Modernity (1500-1800)

The 16th century French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne was fascinated by the example of Cato, the incident being mentioned in multiple of his Essais, above all in Du Jeune Caton in Book I. Whether the example of Cato was a potential ethical model or a simply unattainable standard troubled him in particular, Cato proving to be Montaigne's favoured role-model in the earlier Essais before he later chose to follow the example of Socrates instead.

Cato was lionized during the republican revolutions of the Enlightenment. Joseph Addison's famous play Cato, a Tragedy, first staged on April 14, 1713, celebrated Cato as a martyr to the republican cause. Based on the last days of Cato the Younger, it deals with such themes as individual liberty vs. government tyranny, republicanism vs. monarchism, logic vs. emotion and Cato's personal struggle to cleave to his beliefs in the face of death. The play was a popular and critical success: it was staged more than 20 times in London alone, and it was published across 26 editions before the end of the century. This play had a great influence on George Washington, who often quoted it and arranged to have it performed at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777–1778 in spite of a Congressional ban on such performances. Portuguese Romantic poet Almeida Garrett also wrote a tragedy titled Catão (Cato), featuring the last days of Cato's life and his struggle against Julius Caesar, a fight between virtue (Cato) and vice (Caesar), democracy (Cato) and tyranny (Caesar). In the 18th century, several distinguished composers set to music the Metastasio libretto, Catone in Utica, among them, Leonardo Leo, Leonardo Vinci, J. C. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Handel, Paisiello, Jommelli, Johann Adolf Hasse and Piccinni, in two versions.

A collection of letters on the topic of republicanism were published in the early 18th century under the title Cato's Letters, using Cato as a pseudonym. The libertarian Cato Institute think tank was later named after this work.

The death of Cato (La mort de Caton d'Utique) was a popular theme in revolutionary France, being sculpted by Philippe-Laurent Roland (1782) and painted by Bouchet Louis André Gabriel, Bouillon Pierre, and Guérin Pierre Narcisse in 1797. The title-page of the third book ("Of Morals") of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature features an epigraph from Lucan's Pharsalia (Book IX) which serves as the prelude to Cato's celebrated speech at the oracle of Jupiter Ammon – a speech that was taken by Hume and other thinkers of the Enlightenment to be an exemplar of freethinking. The sculpture of Cato by Jean-Baptiste Roman and François Rude from 1832 stands in the Musée du Louvre.

Late Modernity (1800-1900)

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Clerval, in an attempt to comfort his friend dismayed over the recent news of his young brother William's murder, remarks to Frankenstein that "even Cato wept over the dead body of his brother"^{[citation needed]}. Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick refers to Cato in the first paragraph: "With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship"^{[citation needed]}.

Contemporary media

Cato is a major character in several novels of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. He is portrayed as a stubborn alcoholic with strong moral values, though he is prepared to transgress these beliefs if it means the destruction of his mortal enemy, Caesar. Cato also appears in Thornton Wilder's highly fictionalized Ides of March, where Cato is described by Caesar as one of "four men whom I most respect in Rome" but who "regard me with mortal enmity". Cato also appears as a major character in Robert Harris' Imperium and Lustrum novels, appearing as a heroic guardian of republican virtues, foreseeing Caesar's aggregation of power as perilous for the long-term stability of Rome. Cato is a major and continuing character in the SPQR historical mystery novels by John Maddox Roberts, where he is portrayed as an impressive but rather tedious figure.

In the television series Rome, Cato, played by actor Karl Johnson, is a significant character, although he is shown as somewhat older than his actual age (mid-40s) at the time. In the 2002 miniseries Julius Caesar, Cato as played by Christopher Walken is depicted as much older than he was, seen as a major figure in the senate when Caesar is just a young man, although Caesar was five years older than Cato. Cato was featured in the BBC docudrama Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

Chronology

• 95 BC: Birth in Rome
• 67 BC: Military tribune in Macedon
• 65 BC: Quaestor in Rome (some scholars date this to 64 BC)
• 63 BC: Catiline conspiracy; Cato speaks for the death penalty
• 62 BC: Tribune of the Plebs; Cato passes grain dole
• 60 BC: Forces Caesar to choose between consulship and triumph
• 59 BC: Opposes Caesar's laws
• 58 BC: Governorship of Cyprus (leaves at the end of 58/returns March 56)
• 55 BC: unsuccessful 1st run for praetorship
• 54 BC: Praetor
• 51 BC: Runs (unsuccessfully) for consul
• 49 BC: Caesar crosses the Rubicon and invades Italy; Cato goes with Pompey to Greece
• 48 BC: Battle of Pharsalus, Pompey defeated; Cato goes to Africa
• 46 BC: Scipio defeated in the Battle of Thapsus; Cato kills himself in Utica (April)

Cato's descendants and marriages

• Engaged to Aemilia Lepida, but engagement called off
• First wife, Atilia (divorced)
  • Porcia, married first to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, then to Marcus Junius Brutus
  • Marcus Porcius Cato, later killed in the Second Battle of Philippi
• Second (and third) wife Marcia.

References

Citations

Sources

• Badian, Ernst (1965). "M. Porcius Cato and the Annexation and Early Administration of Cyprus". pp. 110–121. Digital object identifier:10.2307/297434. ISSN 0075-4358. https://www.jstor.org/stable/297434. 
• Bellemore, Jane (1995). "Cato the Younger in the East in 66 B.C.". pp. 376–379. ISSN 0018-2311. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436387. 
• Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro (2004). The Romans, from village to empire. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511875-8. OCLC 52728992. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52728992. 
• Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1952). The magistrates of the Roman republic. 2. New York: American Philological Association. 
• Drogula, Fred K (2019). Cato the Younger: life and death at the end of the Roman republic. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-086902-1. OCLC 1090168108. 
• Fantham, E (2003). "Three Wise Men and the End of the Roman Republic". In Cairns, Francis. Caesar against liberty? Perspectives on his autocracy. Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar. Cambridge: Francis Cairns Publications. pp. 96–117. 
• Gruen, Erich (1995). The last generation of the Roman republic. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02238-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=8a4wDwAAQBAJ. 
• The Oxford classical dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2012. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8. OCLC 959667246. 
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• Marin, Pamela (2005). Cato the Younger: Myth and Reality (PhD). University College, Dublin. 
• Marin, Pamela (2009). Blood in the forum : the struggle for the Roman republic. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-2915-4. OCLC 676697226. 
  • Phillips, Darryl A (2009-08-23). "Review of "Blood in the Forum: The Struggle for the Roman Republic"". https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.08.23/. 
  • Rodgers, Barbara Saylor (2009). "A Review of "Blood in the Forum: The Struggle for the Roman Republic"". pp. 28–29. Digital object identifier:10.1080/03612750903328502. ISSN 0361-2759. 
• Pina Polo, Francisco; Díaz Fernández, Alejandro (2019). The Quaestorship in the Roman Republic. De Gruyter. Digital object identifier:10.1515/9783110666410. ISBN 978-3-1106-6641-0. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110666410/html. 

Further reading

• Earl, DC (1961). The political thought of Sallust. Cambridge University Press. 
• Goar, Robert J (1987). The legend of Cato Uticensis from the first century BC to the fifth century AD. Bruxelles: Latomus. ISBN 2-87031-137-0. OCLC 16507746. 
• Goodman, Rob; Soni, Jimmy (2012). Rome's Last Citizen. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0312681234. 
• Gordon, Hattie L. (1933). "The Eternal Triangle, First Century B.C.". pp. 574–578. ISSN 0009-8353. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3290030. 
• Hughes-Hallett, Lucy (2004). Heroes: A History of Hero Worship (1st American ed.). New York: Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4399-9. OCLC 57002010. 
• Nadig, Peter (1997). "Der jüngere Cato und ambitus" (in de). Ardet ambitus: Untersuchungen zum Phänomen der Wahlbestechungen in der römischen Republik. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. ISBN 3-631-31295-4. OCLC 38452231. 
• Syme, Ronald (1939). The Roman Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-1928-0320-4. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.73667. 
• Syme, Ronald (1950) (in English). A Roman post-mortem: an inquest on the fall of the Roman Republic. Sydney: Australasian Medical. OCLC 8393156. https://www.worldcat.org/title/roman-post-mortem-an-inquest-on-the-fall-of-the-roman-republic/oclc/8393156. 
• Taylor, Lily Ross (1949). Party politics in the age of Caesar. Berkeley: University of Calif. Press. ISBN 0-520-01257-7. OCLC 407173. 

External links

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