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. 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. 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. 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 was descended from Cato the Elder – this Cato's great-grandfather – who was a novus homo ("new man") and the first of the family to be elected to the consulship. 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.Ĭato was born in 95 BC, the son of his homonymous father and Livia. Those tactics and their success led to the creation of the First Triumvirate and the outbreak of civil war. He was criticised by contemporaries and by modern historians for being too uncompromising in obstructing Caesar and other powerful generals. 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. His suicide turned him into a martyr for and a symbol of the Republic. But after Pompey's defeat and his own cause's defeat by Caesar in Africa, he preferred to take his own life rather than beg or receive Caesar's pardon. During the civil war, he joined Pompey and tried to minimise the deaths of his fellow citizens. 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. He supported Pompey's sole consulship in 52 BC as a practical matter and to draw Pompey from his alliance with Caesar. 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 opposed, with varying success, Caesar's legislative programme during Caesar's first consulship in 59 BC. 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 passed laws during his tribunate in 62 BC to expand the grain dole and force generals to give up their armies and commands before standing in elections. During his urban quaestorship in 63 BC, he was praised for his honesty and incorruptibility in running Rome's finances. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a powerful political following which he mobilised against powerful generals (including Julius Caesar and Pompey) of his day.īefore Caesar's civil war, Cato served in a number of political offices. His conservative principles were focused on the preservation of what he saw as old Roman values in decline. Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis ("of Utica" / ˈ k eɪ t oʊ/, 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.
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