Cato the Younger
Marcus Porcius Cato 'Uticensis, also known as Cato the Younger', 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 brinksmanship 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.
Biography
Early life
Cato was born in 95 BC, the son of his homonymous father and Livia. He was descended from Cato the Elder – this Cato's great-grandfather – who was a novus homo and the first of the family to be elected to the consulship. The elder Cato was famed for his austerity and traditional Roman values, which was affected for political reasons 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 the 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 in 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 to his half-brother, Gnaeus Servilius Caepio, and his elder half-sister, Servilia, who would later marry Marcus Junius Brutus 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 poor student, a dubious tale that Quintus Poppaedius Silo – one of the Italian leaders during the Social war – once threatened to hang Cato out of a window unless he voiced support for Italian citizenship, and a claim that Cato asked his tutor for a sword with which to assassinate Sulla during the proscriptions.
Around the age of 16, Cato was inducted into the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, the board of priests in charge of consulting and interpreting the Sibylline Oracles. 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.
Political development
Shortly after his induction into the quindecimviri, he received his inheritance, which immediately made him a wealthy 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.Embodying the ''mos maiorum''
He also started to adopt a pattern of ostentatious public antiquarianism. To that end, he adopted an austere lifestyle where he refused to travel long distances on horseback, 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. These choices were deliberate and political:File:Curia Hostilia, Comitium, Rostra and Lapis Niger layout.jpg|thumb|The basilica Porcia was a small building to the left of the curia Hostilia in the Roman Forum raised by Cato's great-grandfather. It was Rome's first basilica; it burnt down in 52 BC.
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 – such monuments extolled the families of those who built them – but the column may not have actually been part of the Basilica. Regardless, Cato used the opportunity to enter public life with an appearance defending his family's honour and reputation, showing his pietas, and connecting himself to his famous ancestor.
Marriages and alliances
Cato's first marriage was early in his twenties. He was first betrothed to his cousin Aemilia Lepida. The reasons were unclear: because of his close relations to Mamercus Lepidus, the match would not have been very useful politically in building new alliances; 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 Scipio broke off the match, after which Cato was betrothed. However, some time later, Scipio changed his mind and Lepidus evidently decided that a match with Scipio was more desirable. The two were married shortly after. Cato was angry and threatened a lawsuit against his uncle to enforce the engagement, but was dissuaded by his friends.He instead married Atilia, the daughter of an Atilius Serranus. 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 later 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. His half-sisters' very favourable matches helped develop a strong 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, Cato's valour was recognised. Although the consul Gellius recommended Cato for awards, he publicly declined them and indicated that he thought Gellius' standards for military achievement too low; news of this implicit rebuke made its way back to Rome and buttressed Cato's reputation.A few years later, in 67 BC, he stood for the military tribunate. 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 insisted on walking, refusing to ride a horse. Over a winter, he travelled to Pergamum and became the patron of a Greek Stoic philosopher named Athenodorus who, contradicting Cato the Elder's disdain for Greek philosophers, 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, he spared no expense to organise lavish funeral ceremonies. After the end of his military commission, he travelled through Asia Minor and through Galatia. 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 – largely on 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 to return and claim all the credit. Cato agreed and after the marriage, during his quaestorship, he helped Lucullus in browbeating his opponents into eventually granting a triumph in 63 BC.