Cato the Younger

Marcus Porcius Cato (called Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather of the same name, Latin Cato Minor, also Cato Uticensis after the place of his death; * 95 BC; † 12 April 46 BC in Utica in modern Tunisia) was an influential conservative politician in the final period of the Roman Republic. As a senator, orator, and commander of troops, he participated in the political and military conflicts that ended with the fall of the Republic.

Following the example of his great-grandfather, Cato vehemently demanded the upholding of ancient Roman ideals, which included in particular incorruptibility, strict adherence to the applicable law, and republicanism. He belonged to the Optimates, an aristocratic group whose main concern was to secure the rule of the Senate. The Optimates opposed threatening attempts at overthrow by ambitious politicians who were suspected of trying to take control of the state. Cato became a prominent spokesman for this dominant tendency among the ruling class. He made a significant contribution to the republican resistance against Caesar, who strove for autocracy. In this way, he distinguished himself as a leading defender of "freedom" - the traditional republican state order - against the emerging monarchy.

At first, Cato fought the ambitions of Caesar and Pompey, who also tried to gain a dominant position in the state, by political means. However, when Caesar rebelled militarily against the Senate in 49 B.C. and started the civil war, the Optimates of necessity allied themselves with Pompey, who as a proven general now became the mainstay of the Republic. After the defeat of Pompey, who defeated Caesar in the decisive battle of Pharsalos, Cato withdrew to North Africa with part of the remaining Republican force. There he was instrumental in organizing further resistance to Caesar, but refused to assume supreme command. On April 6, 46 B.C., the Republican army was crushingly defeated at the Battle of Thapsus. Cato then took his own life to avoid capture.

After his death, Cato became an idealized symbolic figure for opponents of monarchical power against the backdrop of the decadence and corruption of his era. As a model of ancient Roman incorruptibility and bravery, he enjoyed widespread veneration. In Roman imperial times, his admirers glorified him as a staunch defender of morality and law; oppositionists combined Cato's veneration with nostalgic memories of lost republican freedom. Philosophical circles held Cato in high esteem as a model of practiced stoicism. In the early modern period, too, he was regarded as a hero of liberty and the embodiment of Roman virtue. The dramatic circumstances of his end of life served as material for playwrights and as a subject for visual artists.

In classical studies, the judgments have turned out very differently. The verdict of Theodor Mommsen, who saw Cato as a stubborn, unrealistic "Don Quixote of the aristocracy", has had a strong impact, but has also met with decisive opposition. There is a broad consensus that Cato stood in a lost position from the outset.

Likenesses

Contemporary portraits of Cato are attested: on the beach of Utica, a statue was erected near his grave showing him with drawn sword, and Caesar carried an image in his triumphal procession that depicted Cato as a suicide in an undoubtedly unflattering manner. In the imperial period, republican-minded oppositionists demonstrated their political views in private by placing busts of Cato in their homes, as well as busts of Caesar's murderers in the atrium.

In the 1st or early 2nd century - the dating is disputed - there was an inscribed bronze bust of Cato, which was found in 1943 in a private villa in Volubilis in present-day Morocco. It is now in the Archaeological Museum of Rabat (Musée des Antiquités Préislamiques). It is probably a copy, based directly or indirectly on a contemporary original. The National Archaeological Museum of Naples has another bronze bust found in Pompeii; it is dated to the reign of Augustus or Tiberius. A marble head from Castel Gandolfo can be determined to be a portrait of Cato because of its similarity to the bust from Volubilis. It is in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence. A bronze bust in the Louvre in Paris belongs to the same type; it comes from Cappella de' Picenardi. A marble head in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen from the 1st century BC is also said to be a portrait of Cato, but this is very uncertain. Whether a type of portrait shown by numerous gems and glass plasters from around the middle of the 1st century BC can be identified as a representation of Cato is disputed.

Plutarch and the poet Lucan inform us that Cato had not cut his hair and beard since the beginning of the civil war as a sign of mourning. Whether this news provides a dating feature or is iconographically worthless is unclear; in any case, all portraits show the politician beardless.