Cato & Caesar

Cato Minor embodied the best characteristics a citizen could aspire to have in the Roman Republic: eloquence, shrewdness, honesty, and action. Cato Uticensis steadfast refusal to be bribed or to politically compromise in any form, while still playing a fundamental role in the Roman body-politics became legendary in his time and for the two millennia afterwards; it might have also doomed the Republic he so loved. In this essay I argue, first, that Cato’s categorical refusal to permit Caesar keeping a province and legion for his own before the civil war prompted the beginning of the end of the Republic. Cato’s impartiality and inflexibility served the Republic well until its last minute, when they proved it counterproductive.

Another key reason, related to the former, has to do with Lucius Cornelius Sulla’s dictatorship, which occurred at the high-point of the struggle between optimitates and populares. This general, twice consul, temple-graced with the grass crown, set the precedent for hijacking the institutions of the Republic by force, paving the way for Caesar’s meteoric rise and popular acceptance of his coup. The advent of the Principate has to do with the importance that Sulla had, first with the hoi polloi and perhaps most importantly, in the imagination of Julius Caesar. Sulla was the first example since the Athenian democracy on how a strong, populist, leader can hijack a quasi-democratic Republic.

Contrary to the stoic principles the Greek espoused, for Marcus Porcius Cato, participating in government affairs was not against Epicurus’ teachings. For Cato it took a true stoic to weather the temptations and perils which public office brought with it. As a case study on moral integrity, the example of Cato the Elder’s great grandson shines bar-none as an example of not only speaking truth to power but being consistent with the values one spouses throughout one’s life and at the doorstep of one’s death.

First of all, it is important to clearly state just how impartial Cato’s judgment toward the future warring factions was, even before the Civil War. Who, if not Cato the Younger, championed—or at least gave the illusion of championing—an equidistant stance between Pompey and Caesar, between Crassus and the other two?

During the First Triumvirate Cato opposed the three factions just as forcefully. In 61 BC, when Pompey returned from his spectacular victories in Asia, it was Cato who, against public opinion, opposed postponing the consular elections, as Pompey had requested the Senate—wanting to celebrate both his third Triumph and an impending victory in the consulship election. Cato made Pompey choose between public popular acclaim and elected office, however momentarily, in a year where the stars seemed to align for Pompey, both landmark recognitions about to be awarded to him back to back.

A year later, when Crassus petitioned the senate to refund a fraction of the bid