Concept

Cato the Younger

Overview

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis ("of Utica"; KAY-toe; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (Latin: Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. A staunch advocate for liberty and the preservation of the Republic's principles, he dedicated himself to protecting the traditional Roman values he believed were in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, 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 and Pompey.

Before Caesar's civil war, Cato served in a number of political offices. During his urban quaestorship in 63 BC, he was praised for his honesty and incorruptibility in running Rome's finances. He passed laws during his plebeian tribunate in 62 BC to expand the grain dole and force generals to give up their armies and commands before standing in elections. He also frustrated Pompey's ambitions by opposing a bill brought by Pompey's allies to transfer the military command to Pompey against the Catilinarian conspirators. He opposed, with varying success, Caesar's legislative programme during Caesar's 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 for 54 BC.

He supported Pompey's sole consulship 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 brinkmanship with Caesar; though it seemed that Cato never advocated for actual civil war, this policy greatly contributed to the start of civil war in January 49 BC. During the civil war, he joined Pompey and tried to minimise the deaths of his fellow citizens. But after Pompey's defeat and his own cause's defeat by Caesar in Africa, he chose to take his own life rather than accept what he saw as Caesar's tyrannical pardon, turning himself into a martyr for and a symbol of the Republic.

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 and the outbreak of civil war. The epithet "the Younger" distinguishes him from his great-grandfather, Cato the Elder, who was viewed by ancient Romans in similar terms as embodying tradition and propriety.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

Cato the younger is a similar instance. His manners were little agreeable or acceptable to the people, and he received very slender marks of their favor; witness his repulse when he sued for the consulship, which he lost, as Cicero says, for acting rather…
Plutarch, Plutarch
States what Cato the Younger is; the author is tied to Cato the Younger in the knowledge graph.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
After the battle of Pharsalia was over, at which he was not present for want of health, and Pompey had fled, Cato, having considerable forces and a great fleet at Dyrrachium, would have had Cicero commander-in-chief, according to law, and the precedence of his consular dignity. But on his refusing the command, and wholly declining to take part in their plans for continuing the war, he was in the greatest danger of…
Plutarch, The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch
The author is tied to Cato the Younger in the knowledge graph.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
But the ideas of Cato prevailed, and a cruel policy, carried out with needless brutality, led to the extinction of Rome's greatest rival. Cato did not live to see the conclusion of the war; he died in 149, at the age of 84 or 85 years, having retained his mental and physical vigor to the last. He had two sons, one by his first wife, and one by his second wife, born when Cato was 80 years of age. The elder son, to…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes
Close in meaning to Cato the Younger; the term itself is not named.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Philosophers who discussed Cato the Younger

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Stoic Opposition

Place in the tradition

Part of Ancient Roman philosophy.

Explore Cato the Younger in the interactive graph →