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Biography of Cato, the YoungerName: Cato, the YoungerBirth Date: 95 B.C. Death Date: 46 B.C. Place of Birth: N/A Nationality: Roman Gender: Male Occupations: politician, philosopher Cato, the Younger Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95-46 BC), known as Cato the Younger, was a Roman political figure whose opposition to Pompey and Caesar helped hasten the collapse of the Roman Republic.Orphaned when a child and raised in the house of his uncle M. Livius Drusus, the reformer, Cato early cultivated habits of austerity and made a great show of political and moral probity. After serving as military tribune in Macedonia (67-66 B.C.), he toured Asia to prepare himself for public life. As quaestor, or minister of finance, Cato was notable for his punishment of corrupt treasury clerks and the strict rectitude of his accounts. But he was not free of favoritism. As tribune elect in 63, he prosecuted for electoral bribery one of the men who defeated Catiline for the consulship, exempting the other because he was a relative.Cato's fiery speech on December 5 led the Senate to vote for the execution …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…There he refused military command because he had not held the consulship but took charge of the city of Utica (whence he derived his surname) and organized its defenses. When Caesar crushed the Pompeians in the Battle of Thapsus in 46 and approached the city, Cato committed suicide.After his death Cato became a symbol of republicanism in the continuing struggle against Caesar, Antony, and Octavian. But during his lifetime his conservatism and obstructionism served only to strengthen the forces he opposed. Further Reading The chief ancient sources for Cato are the speeches and letters of Cicero and the biography in Plutarch's Lives. There is no full-length study of Cato in English. For details see S. A. Cook, F. E. Adcock, and M. P. Charlesworth, eds., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 9 (1932), and H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (1959; 2d ed. 1963). |