{"id":40916,"date":"2025-04-25T22:35:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T05:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40916"},"modified":"2025-04-25T22:35:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T05:35:29","slug":"cato-the-younger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/04\/25\/cato-the-younger\/","title":{"rendered":"CATO THE YOUNGER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For other individuals, see Marcus Porcius Cato<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
CATO THE YOUNGER<\/th><\/tr>
<\/a>Inscribed bronze bust from Volubilis<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
BORN<\/th>95 BC
Roman Republic<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
DIED<\/th>April 46 BC (aged 49)
Utica<\/a>, Africa<\/a>, Roman Republic<\/td><\/tr>
CAUSE OF DEATH<\/th>Suicide<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
OCCUPATION<\/th>Politician<\/td><\/tr>
KNOWN FOR<\/th>Opposition to Julius Caesar<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
OFFICE<\/th>Military tribune<\/a> (67 BC)Quaestor<\/a> (64 BC)Plebeian tribune<\/a> (62 BC)Praetor<\/a> (54 BC)[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/td><\/tr>
SPOUSES<\/th>Atilia<\/a>Marcia<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
CHILDREN<\/th>Marcus Porcius Cato<\/a>Porcia<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
PARENTS<\/th>Marcus Porcius Cato<\/a> (father)Livia<\/a> (mother)<\/td><\/tr>
RELATIVES<\/th>Brutus<\/a> (nephew)Servilia<\/a> (half-sister)<\/td><\/tr>
FAMILY<\/th>gens Porcia<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Military career<\/td><\/tr>
ALLEGIANCE<\/th>Roman Republic<\/a> (72\u201349 BC)Pompey<\/a> (49\u201346 BC)<\/td><\/tr>
RANK<\/th>Praetor<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
WARS<\/th>Third Servile War<\/a>Second Catilinarian Conspiracy<\/a>Caesar\u2019s Civil War<\/a> \u2020<\/strong><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marcus Porcius Cato<\/strong> Uticensis<\/strong> (\u201cof Utica<\/a>\u201c; \/\u02c8ke\u026ato\u028a\/<\/a>, KAY-toe<\/em><\/a>; 95 BC \u2013 April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger<\/strong> (Latin<\/a>: Cato Minor<\/em>), was an influential conservative<\/a> Roman senator<\/a> during the late Republic<\/a>. A staunch advocate for liberty<\/a> and the preservation of the Republic\u2019s principles, he dedicated himself to protecting the traditional Roman values<\/a> he believed were in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism<\/a>, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a political following which he mobilised against powerful generals of his day, including Julius Caesar<\/a> and Pompey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Caesar\u2019s civil war<\/a>, Cato served in a number of political offices. During his urban quaestorship<\/a> in 63 BC, he was praised for his honesty and incorruptibility in running Rome\u2019s finances. He passed laws during his plebeian tribunate<\/a> in 62 BC to expand the grain dole<\/a> and force generals to give up their armies and commands before standing in elections. He also frustrated Pompey\u2019s ambitions by opposing a bill brought by Pompey\u2019s allies to transfer the military command to Pompey against the Catilinarian conspirators<\/a>. He opposed, with varying success, Caesar\u2019s legislative programme during Caesar\u2019s first consulship in 59 BC. Leaving for Cyprus the next year, he was praised for his honest administration and after his return was elected as praetor<\/a> for 54 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He supported Pompey\u2019s sole consulship<\/a> in 52 BC as a practical matter and to draw Pompey from his alliance with Caesar. In this, he was successful. He and his political allies advocated a policy of confrontation and brinksmanship with Caesar; though it seemed that Cato never advocated for actual civil war, this policy greatly contributed to the start of civil war<\/a> in January 49 BC. During the civil war, he joined Pompey and tried to minimise the deaths of his fellow citizens. But after Pompey\u2019s defeat<\/a> and his own cause\u2019s defeat by Caesar in Africa<\/a>, he chose to take his own life rather than accept what he saw as Caesar\u2019s tyrannical pardon, turning himself into a martyr<\/a> for and a symbol of the Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His political influence was rooted in his moralist principles and his embodiment of Roman traditions that appealed to both senators and the innately conservative Roman voter. He was criticised by contemporaries and by modern historians for being too uncompromising in obstructing Caesar and other powerful generals. Those tactics and their success led to the creation of the First Triumvirate<\/a> and the outbreak of civil war. The epithet \u201cthe Younger\u201d distinguishes him from his great-grandfather, Cato the Elder<\/a>, who was viewed by ancient Romans in similar terms as embodying tradition and propriety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cato was born in 95 BC, the son of his homonymous father<\/a> and Livia<\/a>.[2]<\/a><\/sup> He was descended from Cato the Elder<\/a> \u2013 this Cato\u2019s great-grandfather[3]<\/a><\/sup> \u2013 who was a novus homo<\/a><\/em> (\u201cnew man\u201d) and the first of the family to be elected to the consulship.[4]<\/a><\/sup> The elder Cato was famed for his austerity and traditional Roman values,[5]<\/a><\/sup> which was affected for political reasons[6]<\/a><\/sup> and meant to embellish his reputation as \u201cthe foremost representative of the mos maiorum<\/a><\/em>\u201c.[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and his sister Porcia<\/a> were orphaned, probably before Cato was four years old, and the children were taken in by their maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus<\/a>.[8]<\/a><\/sup> After Drusus\u2019 death and the resulting start of the Social war<\/a> in 91 BC, Cato and his sister probably came into the household of his mother\u2019s older brother, Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus<\/a>.[9]<\/a><\/sup> Moving in with Cato and his sister were a half-brother and two half-sisters from his mother Livia\u2019s first marriage to Quintus Servilius Caepio<\/a>.[10]<\/a><\/sup> Cato was especially close to his half-brother, Gnaeus Servilius Caepio<\/a>, and his elder half-sister, Servilia<\/a>, who would later marry Marcus Junius Brutus<\/a> (the father of the tyrannicide<\/a>) and become the mistress of Julius Caesar<\/a>.[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories of Cato\u2019s early childhood are broadly unreliable and told mainly to suggest that Cato\u2019s character as an adult had been established in childhood.[12]<\/a><\/sup> They include claims that Cato was a poor student, a dubious tale that Quintus Poppaedius Silo<\/a> \u2013 one of the Italian leaders during the Social war \u2013 once threatened to hang Cato out of a window unless he voiced support for Italian citizenship (Cato supposedly remained silent), and a claim that Cato asked his tutor for a sword with which to assassinate Sulla<\/a> during Sulla\u2019s proscription<\/a>.[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the age of 16, Cato was inducted into the quindecimviri sacris faciundis<\/a><\/em>, the board of priests in charge of consulting and interpreting the Sibylline Oracles<\/a>.[14]<\/a><\/sup> This was a prestigious honour, for which he was likely selected on the initiative of his uncle Mamercus Lepdius, and it put Cato into the centre of the senatorial elite.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Statue of Cato the Younger in the Louvre Museum<\/a>. He is about to kill himself while reading the Phaedo<\/a><\/em>, a dialogue of Plato<\/a> which describes the death of Socrates. The statue was begun by Jean-Baptiste Roman<\/a> (Paris<\/a>, 1792\u20131835) using white Carrara<\/a> marble. It was finished by Fran\u00e7ois Rude<\/a> (Dijon<\/a>, 1784 \u2013 Paris, 1855).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final campaign and death<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a>
A 1797 depiction of Cato\u2019s death by Pierre Narcisse Gu\u00e9rin.[209]<\/a><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cato was given command of the city of Utica<\/a> after convincing Metellus Scipio to spare the town\u2019s inhabitants when they attempted to defect to Caesar. He successfully expanded the city\u2019s defences, raised troops, and stockpiled supplies while waiting for Caesar\u2019s eventual arrival. During his time in Africa, however, Cato became convinced that victory for his own cause under Metellus Scipio would be accompanied by appalling reprisals.[210]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Cato pushed for a strategy of attrition against Caesar, Metellus Scipio accused Cato of cowardice for being unwilling to risk battle.[211]<\/a><\/sup> Around this time, Cato privately confided that the war was hopeless and that he would abandon Rome regardless of the victor.[212]<\/a><\/sup> Metellus Scipio ignored Cato\u2019s relatively pacific advice and engaged in a decisive battle at Thapsus<\/a>, where his forces were annihilated.[212]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cato, garrisoning Utica, received news of the defeat three days later, which drove the city into a panic.[213]<\/a><\/sup> Knowing that the city would likely defect, Cato evacuated any Roman citizens who wished to flee.[213]<\/a><\/sup> He also sent an embassy consisting of his family and allies, headed by one of Caesar\u2019s kinsmen, Lucius Julius Caesar<\/a>, to seek pardon for themselves.[214]<\/a><\/sup> Cato himself prepared for death.[214]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After righting the city\u2019s financial accounts and disbursing the remaining monies to the city\u2019s inhabitants, Cato discussed with his friends at dinner the Stoic<\/a> belief that a truly free man would never become a slave.[215]<\/a><\/sup> After he demanded his sword, which had been removed from his room, his family and friends begged him not to kill himself. Dismissing them, he asked for a report on the ships fleeing the city. Satisfied that all was well, he stabbed himself in the abdomen.[215]<\/a><\/sup> The specific details of Cato\u2019s suicide were greatly embellished after his death, especially in Plutarch\u2019s account,[215]<\/a><\/sup> which states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Cato drew his sword from its sheath and stabbed himself below the breast. His thrust, however, was somewhat feeble\u2026 [and] he did not at once dispatch himself\u2026 His servants heard the noise and cried out, and his son at once ran in, together with his friends\u2026 [A] physician went to him and tried to replace his bowels, which remained uninjured, and to sew up the wound. Accordingly, when Cato recovered and became aware of this, he pushed the physician away, tore his bowels with his hands, rent the wound still more, and so died.[216]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Caesar is said to have responded to his death by lamenting that Cato\u2019s death meant Caesar could not pardon him.[217]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacy and reception<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Main article: Legacy of Cato the Younger<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cato\u2019s death triggered a series of eulogies, of which both Cicero and Brutus were authors, starting to identify Cato as a great Stoic philosopher.[218]<\/a><\/sup> Caesar responded with an Anticato<\/a><\/em>, which has not survived.[219]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political legacy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The traditional political culture of the middle republic was one built around aristocratic compromise, political debate, and reform.[220]<\/a><\/sup> The extent of Cato\u2019s obstruction broke down the traditional republican norms of compromise and discussion; escalation in response to that obstruction proved dangerous to the republic and ran contrary to its ethos.[221]<\/a><\/sup>[105]<\/a><\/sup> His policies with regard to stopping powerful politicians such as Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus alienated \u2013 through its very success \u2013 them from the rest of the senatorial class, leading to the formation of their alliance<\/a> in 59 BC.[222]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many scholars believe that Cato\u2019s political strategy before 49 BC contributed significantly in starting the civil war that was the proximate cause of the collapse of the Roman republic, even if he did not intend for conflict.[223]<\/a><\/sup>[224]<\/a><\/sup>[225]<\/a><\/sup>[226]<\/a><\/sup>[227]<\/a><\/sup> While his strategy \u2013 convincing senators that Caesar was a threat to the republic and wanted to make himself king \u2013 was successful, that success backfired when those senators then gambled everything on defeating Caesar, whom they saw as an existential threat to liberty, in civil war.[179]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During most of his political career, he consistently obstructed powerful military figures to the fullest extent possible.[223]<\/a><\/sup> This uncompromising position had him push strongly, before the civil war, for further confrontation with Caesar, seemingly to pressure Caesar to back down.[228]<\/a><\/sup> Cato and his allies also pushed Pompey away from the various olive branches and compromises before the civil war. Up to the last, when Pompey was close to accepting an offer where Caesar would give up all his legions except one and provinces except Illyricum, Cato played on Pompey\u2019s paranoia by painting Pompey as a Caesarian mark.[229]<\/a><\/sup> To the extent that Caesar may have feared prosecution, conviction, and exile \u2013 a claim no longer accepted without controversy[230]<\/a><\/sup>[231]<\/a><\/sup>[232]<\/a><\/sup> \u2013 Cato was one of the few pushing strongly for Caesar\u2019s political destruction via prosecution.[191]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posthumously, Cato\u2019s opposition to Caesar was cast in predominantly ideological terms, with Cato serving as a heroic symbol of republican values amid its collapse.[233]<\/a><\/sup> His life was also appropriated by Augustus as a symbol of republican values.[234]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cato\u2019s commitment to liberty and resistance to tyranny inspired Cato\u2019s Letters<\/a><\/em>, a series of 18th-century political essays by John Trenchard<\/a> and Thomas Gordon<\/a>, which played a significant role in shaping Enlightenment political thought<\/a> and the principles underlying the American Revolution<\/a>.[235]<\/a><\/sup>[236]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a stoic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some scholars point to how Cato acted in ways profoundly inconsistent with Stoic tenets: his anger at the breaking of his betrothal to Aemilia Lepida, breakdown over the death of his half-brother Caepio, his visible despair at the sight of casualties from the civil wars, etc.[237]<\/a><\/sup> For such scholars, Cato\u2019s actions fit into the mould of a traditional Roman acting in line with traditional Roman values rather than Stoic ones.[238]<\/a><\/sup> On the other hand, others point out that Cato\u2019s contemporaries noted his Stoic behaviours and positions explicitly. Cicero lampooned it in Pro Murena<\/em>, and also mentioned it in letters and contemporaneous philosophical texts.[239]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern scholars such as Kit Morell note that \u201cthe \u2018Stoic martyr\u2019 tradition[definition needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup> has distorted or distracted from the historical Cato\u201d.[239]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More at: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cato_the_Younger<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other individuals, see Marcus Porcius Cato. CATO THE YOUNGER Inscribed bronze bust from Volubilis BORN 95 BCRoman Republic DIED April 46 BC (aged 49)Utica, Africa, Roman Republic CAUSE OF DEATH Suicide OCCUPATION Politician KNOWN FOR Opposition to Julius Caesar OFFICE Military tribune (67 BC)Quaestor (64 BC)Plebeian tribune (62 BC)Praetor (54 BC)[1] SPOUSES AtiliaMarcia CHILDREN Marcus Porcius CatoPorcia PARENTS… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40917,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40916\/revisions\/40917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}