Cato the Younger
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A statue of Cato the Younger. The Louvre Museum. He is about to kill himself while reading the Phaedo, a dialogue of Plato which details the death of Socrates. It was started by Jean-Baptiste Roman (Paris, 1792 - 1835) using white Carrara marble. It was finished by François Rude (Dijon, 1784 - Paris, 1855). |
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis (
95 BC–
46 BC), known as
Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather
Cato the Elder, was a politician and statesman in the late
Roman Republic, and a follower of the
Stoic philosophy. He is remembered for his legendary stubbornness and tenacity (especially in his lengthy conflict with
Gaius Julius Caesar), as well as his immunity to
bribes and famous distaste for
corruption.
Cato was born in 95 BC in
Rome, the son of Marcus Porcius Cato by his wife Livia Drusa. He lost both of his parents very early and moved to live in the house of his maternal uncle
Marcus Livius Drusus, who also looked after Quintus Servilius Caepio and
Servilia from Livia's first marriage, as well as Porcia (Cato's sister), and Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus (Livius'
adopted son). Drusus was assassinated when Cato was 4 years old.
The legend of Cato's stubbornness began in his early years. Sarpedon, his tutor, reports a very obedient and questioning child, although slow in being persuaded of things and sometimes difficult. A story told by
Plutarch tells of
Quintus Popaedius Silo, leader of the
Marsi and involved in a highly controversial business in the
Roman Forum, who made a visit to his friend Marcus Livius and met the children of the house. In a playful mood he asked the children's support for his cause. All of them nodded and smiled except Cato, who stared at the guest with most suspicious looks. Silo demanded an answer from him and seeing no response took Cato and hanged him by the feet out of the window. Even then, Cato would not say anything. Being a friend of the family,
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the
Roman dictator, liked to talk with Cato and his inseparable effeminate half-brother Caepio, and appreciated his company even when the teenager defied his opinions in public.
After receiving his inheritance, Cato moved from his uncle's house and began to study Stoic philosophy and politics. He began to live in a very modest way, as his great-grandfather
Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder had famously done. Cato subjected himself to violent exercise, and learned to endure cold and rain with a minimum of clothes. He ate only what was necessary and drank the cheapest
wine on the market. This was entirely for philosophical reasons, since his inheritance would have permitted him to live comfortably. He remained in private life for a long time, rarely seen in public. But when he did appear in the forum, his speeches and rhetorical skills were most admired.
Although Cato was promised
Aemilia Lepida, a patrician woman, she married
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio instead. He threatened to sue them both in the courts, but his friends convinced him to step aside and marry a woman called
Atilia. By her, he had a son, Marcus Porcius Cato, and a daughter,
Porcia, who would become the second wife of
Marcus Junius Brutus.
As a
military tribune, Cato was sent to Macedon in
67 BC at the age of 28 and given command of a
legion. He led his men from the front, sharing their work, food and sleeping quarters. He was strict in discipline and punishment but was nonetheless loved by his
legionaries. While Cato was in service in
Macedon, he received the news that his beloved half-brother was dying in
Thrace. He immediately set off to see him but was unable to see his brother before he died. Cato was overwhelmed by grief and, for once in his life, he spared no expense to organize a lavish funeral for his brother. Caepio left his fortune to be divided between his daughter Servilia and Cato.
At the end of his military commission in Macedon, Cato went on a private journey through the
Roman provinces of the
Middle East.
On his return to Rome in
65 BC, Cato was elected to the position of
quaestor. Like everything else in his life, he took great care to study the background necessary for the post, especially the laws relating to taxes. One of his first moves was to prosecute former quaestors for illegal appropriation of funds and dishonesty. Cato also prosecuted Sulla's informers, who had acted as head-hunters during Sulla's dictatorship, despite their political connections among Cato's own party and despite the power of
Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, who had been known as the "teenage butcher" for his service under Sulla. The informers of Sulla were accused first of illegal appropriation of treasury money, and then of homicide. At the end of the year, Cato stepped down from his quaestorship but never ceased to keep an eye on the Treasury, always looking for irregularities.
As senator, Cato was scrupulous and determined. He never missed a session of the Senate and publicly criticized the ones who did so. From day one he aligned himself with the
Optimates, the conservative faction of the Senate. Among the
optimates, Cato was a young turk. Many of the optimates at this time had been personal friends of Sulla, whom Cato had despised since his youth, and Cato attempted to make his name by returning his faction to its pure republican roots.
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Propaganda cup of Cato, for his election campaign for Tribune of the Plebs of 62 BC (left cup). 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. |
In
63 BC, he was elected
tribune of the plebs and assisted the
consul,
Marcus Tullius Cicero, in dealing with the
Catiline conspiracy.
Lucius Sergius Catilina, a noble
patrician, was leading a rebellion inside Rome, with the purpose of becoming king. Cicero and Cato annihilated the danger and prosecuted all the men involved and sentenced them to death (a very unusual thing for a Roman citizen). In the public discussion on the subject,
Julius Caesar agreed that the conspirators were guilty, argued against a public trial for them, yet advocated a sentence of life exile for the conspirators while their comrades were still in arms.
Cato's political, and personal, differences with Caesar date from this day. In a meeting of the Senate dedicated to the Catilina affair, Cato harshly reproached Caesar for reading personal messages while the senate was in session to discuss a matter of treason. Cato accused Caesar of involvement in the conspiracy and suggested that he was working on Catilina's behalf, which might explain Caesar's otherwise odd stance that the conspirators should receive no public hearing yet be shown clemency. Caesar replied that it was only a love letter. Not believing the poor excuse, Cato took the paper from his hands and read it. Unfortunately, Caesar was right: it was indeed a love letter from his mistress
Servilia, Cato's sister. This quickly turned into a minor personal scandal. Servilia was divorced from her husband and the Roman senators started to look out for their households, since Caesar was as notorious for liking to sleep with his political enemies' wives as he was notorious for purportedly sleeping with the king of
Bithynia. Some believe that Cato's wife Atilia was one of Caesar's conquests, but the matter is speculative at best.
After divorcing Atilia, Cato married Marcia, the daughter of Lucius Marcius Philippus. A few years later, however, his friend
Quintus Hortensius, an old man known for his rhetorical skills, asked for the hand of Cato's daughter from his previous marriage. But at the time, Porcia was married to
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, who was unwilling to let her go. Instead Cato took the surprising step of divorcing Marcia and giving her to Hortensius. After Hortensius' death, Cato married Marcia for the second time, taking possession of part of Hortensius' inheritance.
After the Catilina conspiracy, Cato turned all his political skills to oppose the designs of Caesar and his
triumvirate allies (
Pompey and
Marcus Licinius Crassus), who had among them a near-monopoly on the reins of the Roman state. From Caesar, Pompey and Crassus had access to the popular assembly. From Pompey, Crassus and Caesar had access to the legions of Rome. From Crassus, Caesar and Pompey had the support of the tax-farmers and a fortune gained at the expense of the provinces.
Cato's opposition took two forms. First, in
61 BC, Pompey returned from his Asian campaign with two ambitions: to celebrate a
Triumph, and become
consul for the second time. In order to achieve both goals, he asked the Senate to postpone consular elections until after his Triumph. At first, due to Pompey's enormous popularity, the Senate was willing to oblige him. Then Cato intervened and convinced the Senate to force Pompey to choose. The result was Pompey's third Triumph, one of the most magnificent ever seen in Rome. Next, Cato applied the same law in the following year to Caesar, who was returning from his governorship of Hispania Ulterior, but Caesar chose to lose the right to the Triumph and run for the consulship (which he won).
When Caesar became consul, Cato opposed every law he suggested, especially the agrarian laws that established farmlands for Pompey's veterans on public lands. Caesar responded by having Cato arrested when Cato was making a speech against him at the
rostra. So many senators protested this extraordinary and unprecedented use of force by threatening to go to prison with Cato that Caesar finally relented. Cato was also closely allied to Caesar's consular colleague, his son-in-law
Marcus Bibulus. After attempting to oppose Caesar, Bibulus and Cato 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.
Cato's opposition to Caesar and his triumvirate allies led them to get Cato out of town. The incentive was too good to refuse: the governorship of the new province of
Cyprus. Cato accused them of trying to get rid of him, but eventually accepted the honour of being governor above being
praetor.
Cato appeared to have two major goals in Cyprus. The first was to enact his foreign policy agenda, expressed in a letter to Cicero, which called for a policy of benevolence and justice to 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 were lost at sea with the freedman carrying it. Only Cato's untainted reputation saved him from charges of extortion.
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 an unlawful honour.
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 the recall of Caesar from Gaul, whence Caesar had illegally crossed into Germania. It was a time of political turmoil, when patrician
demagogues like
Publius Clodius tried to make their political careers by wooing the crowds and resorting to violence. Cato fought them all, and he ended as Pompey's ally and political advisor.
In
51 BC, Cato ran for the office of consul, unsuccessfully. In a time of rampant bribery and electoral fraud, he ran a scrupulously honest campaign, and, unsurprisingly, lost to his less conscientious opponents. He accepted the loss with unusual equanimity, but refused to run a second time.
In
49 BC, Caesar crossed the
Rubicon accompanied by his
thirteenth legion to run for a second consulship while maintaining a military force that would protect him from prosecution. 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, with Cato among them. After first reducing Caesar's army at the battle of Dyrrahecium (where Cato commanded the port), the army led by Pompey was ultimately defeated by Caesar in the
battle of Pharsalus (
48 BC). Cato and
Metellus Scipio, however, did not yet concede defeat and escaped to the province of Africa to continue resistance from
Utica. Due to his presence in this city and command of the port there, Cato is sometimes referred to as
Cato Uticensis (from Utica). Caesar pursued Cato and Metellus Scipio after installing the queen Cleopatra VII in the throne of Egypt, and in February
46 BC he defeated the army led by Metellus Scipio at the
Battle of Thapsus.
Being 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. According to Plutarch, Cato attempted to commit suicide by stabbing himself with his own sword, but failed to do so due to an injured hand. One of Cato's slaves found him on the ground and called for a physician to stitch up and bandage Cato's wounds. Cato waited until they left him and then tore off the bandages and the stitches with his fingers and pulled out his own intestines, thereby completing his suicide attempt.
Cato is remembered as a Stoic philosopher and one of the most active paladins of the
Republic. His high moral standards and incorruptible virtue gained him praise even from his political enemies, such as Sallust (one of our sources for the anecdote about Caesar and Cato's sister). After Cato's death,
Cicero wrote a panegyric, entitled
Cato, to which Caesar (who never forgave him for all the obstructions) answered with his
Anticato. Cicero's pamphlet has not survived, but some of its contents may be inferred from Plutarch's Life of Cato, which also repeats many of the stories that Caesar put forward in his
Anticato.Republicans under the Empire remembered him fondly, and the poet Virgil, writing under Augustus, made Cato a hero in his Aeneid.
Lucan, writing under
Nero, also made Cato the hero of the fragmentary later books of his epic, the
Pharsalia. From the latter work originates the epigram,
"Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni" ("The conquering cause pleased the gods, but the conquered cause pleased Cato"). This phrase is also inscribed at the base of the memorial to the Confederate soldiers outside Arlington cemetery.
In
Dante's
The Divine Comedy, Cato is portrayed as the guardian of the seaward approach to the island of
purgatory. In Canto I, Dante writes of Cato:
: I saw close by me a solitary old man, worthy, by:his appearance, of so much reverence that never:son owed father more.:: Long was his beard and mixed with white hair,:similar to the hairs of his head, which fell to his:breast in two strands.:: The rays of the four holy lights so adorned his:face with brightness that I saw him as if the sun:had been before him.
Cato's life is immortalized in
Joseph Addison's play,
Cato, A Tragedy, which
George Washington often quoted and had performed during the winter at Valley Forge, in spite of a Congressional ban on such performances.
*First wife, Atilia (divorced for adultery)
**
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.
*
95 BC – Birth in Rome
*
67 BC – Military tribune in Macedon
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65 BC – Quaestor in Rome
*
63 BC – Tribune of the Plebs, Catilina's conspiracy
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60 BC – Forces Caesar to choose between consulship and triumph
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59 BC – Opposes Caesar's laws
*
58 BC – Governorship of Cyprus
*
54 BC – Praetor
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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 – Defeated in the Battle of Thapsus; Cato commits suicide in Utica
In the television series
Rome,
Cato, played by actor
Karl Johnson, is a significant character, although he is shown as quite older than his actual age (mid-forties) at the time.
In the 2002 miniseries
Julius Caesar, Cato is played by
Christopher Walken.
* Hughes-Hallett, Lucy.
Heroes: A History of Hero Worship. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4399-9.
* Taylor, Lily Ross. "Party Politics in the Age of Caesar." University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1971, ISBN 0-520-01257-7.
*
Plutarch.
Cato the Younger.
