Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger
Marcus Porcius Cato ( called Cato the Younger to distinguish it from his great-grandfather of the same name , Latin Cato Minor, also Cato Uticensis after his place of death ; * 95 BC ; † April 12, 46 BC in Utica in what is now Tunisia) was a influential conservative politician in the end times of the Roman Republic . As a senator , speaker and troop commander, he took part 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 the ancient Roman ideals , which included in particular incorruptibility, strict observance of the applicable law and republican sentiments. He belonged to the Optimates , an aristocratic group whose main concern was to secure the rule of the Senate . The optimates turned against threatening attempts to overthrow ambitious politicians who were suspected of wanting to bring the state into their power. Cato became an outstanding spokesman for this direction, which dominated the leadership class. He made a significant contribution to the republican resistance against Caesar , who strove for sole rule. He made a name for himself as the leading defender of “freedom” - the traditional republican state system - against the emerging monarchy.
First, Cato fought the ambitions of Caesar and Pompey , who also tried to gain a dominant position in the state, with political means. However, when Caesar 49 BC When the military rebelled against the Senate and the civil war began, the Optimates inevitably allied themselves with Pompey, who as a proven general now became the mainstay of the republic. After the defeat of Pompey, who was defeated by Caesar in the decisive battle of Pharsalus , Cato withdrew to North Africa with part of the rest of the republican force. There he was instrumental in organizing the further resistance against Caesar, but refused to take over the supreme command. On April 6, 46 BC The republican army was defeated in the battle of Thapsus . Cato then committed suicide to avoid capture.
After his death, Cato became an idealized symbolic figure for opponents of the monarchical exercise of power against the background of the decadence and corruption of his epoch. As a model of ancient Roman incorruptibility and bravery, he was widely admired. During the Roman Empire , his admirers glorified him as a staunch defender of morality and justice; Oppositionists combined the worship of Cato with nostalgic memories of the republican freedom that had been lost. Philosophical circles valued Cato as a model for practiced stoicism . Even in the early modern period he was considered a hero of freedom and the embodiment of Roman virtue. The dramatic circumstances of the end of his life served as material for playwrights and as a subject for visual artists .
In classical studies , the judgments turned out very differently. The verdict of Theodor Mommsen , who saw in Cato a stubborn, unreal “ Don Quixote of the aristocracy”, had a strong impact, but it also met with decided opposition. There is broad consensus that Cato was a losing proposition from the start.
Life
Origin and youth
Cato belonged to the plebeian family of the Porcians (gens Porcia) , which had existed since the 3rd century BC. BC belonged to the ruling class of the Roman Empire. His very conservative great-grandfather Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) had distinguished himself as a statesman, general, orator and writer and achieved great and lasting fame through his powerful demeanor. Because of his role as a censor , the elder was called Cato Censorius. His descendants also benefited from the high reputation that his fight against abuse of office and moral decay had earned him, because the surname Cato, which they also carried, stood for strict legality, impeccable administration and ancient Roman virtue. A grandson of Censorius, whose name was like his grandfather, was the father of Catos the Younger. He married Livia , a member of the plebeian family of Livii Drusi, whose father was Marcus Livius Drusus in 112 BC. Chr. Consul had been. From this marriage two children were born, the 95 BC. Younger Cato, born in BC, and a daughter named Porcia. In addition, Livia had two other children from her previous marriage to the patrician Quintus Servilius Caepio : a son, whose name was Quintus Servilius Caepio like his father , and a daughter named Servilia , who later became a lover of Caesar and the mother of the Caesar murderer Marcus Junius Brutus . So the younger Cato had two half-siblings in addition to his sister.
Cato the younger lost both parents in the early years of his life. Then his uncle Marcus Livius Drusus , his mother's brother, took over his upbringing. His sister and his two half-siblings were also taken into the house of Drusus; his half-brother Caepio was his best friend from childhood. Drusus was an influential politician. He campaigned for the legal equality of the Italians , who were allies of Rome and who at that time were demanding Roman citizenship . In doing so, however, he made many enemies; in 91 BC When Cato was not yet five years old, he was murdered.
According to anecdotal tradition, even as a boy, Cato showed some traits typical of him later, especially courage and tenacity; He harshly rejected flattery, resolutely resisted any attempt at intimidation, and behaved fearlessly in danger. In the house of the dictator Sulla , as a fourteen-year- old , he is said to have openly expressed his intention to kill the dictator in order to end his reign of terror and free the fatherland from him.
Around the year 75 BC Cato was elected to the priestly college of the Quindecimviri sacris faciundis (fifteen men for the performance of sacred acts). Soon afterwards he was given disposal of his share of his father's fortune, which amounted to 120 talents , and moved into his own apartment. He dealt with questions of ethics and the application of ethical principles to politics, was enthusiastic about the ideal of justice and joined the stoic philosopher Antipater of Tire. At the same time he trained himself to be a speaker in the seclusion, because the ability to influence a crowd was a prerequisite for political success. In his later role as a politician, Cato demonstrated impressive rhetorical skills.
In the period between 75 and 73 BC Cato became engaged to his cousin Aemilia Lepida, the daughter of the consular Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus , a brother of his mother Livia. But she finally decided on Metellus Scipio , who belonged to a famous noble family and was attractive as a bridegroom because of his noble origins. Scipio had been engaged to Lepida before, but had renounced her and thus given Cato's advertising free rein. Later, when Cato was already planning the wedding, Scipio changed his mind and won the bride back for himself. Cato was so bitter about this breach of trust that he mocked his rival with abusive poems. He then married Atilia of the Atilii Serrani family . With her he had the son Marcus and the daughter Porcia , who after his death married the later Caesar murderer Marcus Iunius Brutus.
Military experience and political advancement
In 72 BC Cato took part in the Spartacus War as a volunteer because it was important to him to accompany his half-brother Caepio, who served as a military tribune in the army fighting against insurgent slaves . The campaign in which the two served ended in disaster because of failure of the leadership. Cato refused to accept the military decorations that the commander-in-chief, the consul Lucius Gellius Publicola , wanted to give him. With this he expressed his general disapproval of the, in his opinion, too generous awarding of such awards.
In the early sixties, Cato divorced his wife Atilia on suspicion of infidelity. He then married Marcia from the esteemed Marcier family . She was the daughter of the politician Lucius Marcius Philippus . This marriage resulted in two daughters and a son who, however, apparently died without having reached adulthood.
For the year 67 BC Cato applied for the office of a military tribune and was elected. He was sent to the province of Macedonia , where he was given command of a legion , which was unusual for a military tribune. According to a well-meaning tradition, he became very popular with the soldiers because he respected them, shared their efforts, justified his measures and renounced some officer privileges, while at the same time observing strict discipline. Presumably he took part in the pirate war of Pompeius and blocked a strait of the Propontis to deny the pirates this escape route. He used a two-month vacation to visit the old stoic Athenodoros Kordylion in Pergamon . He is said to have succeeded in refuting the philosopher in conversation; at any rate, he was able to persuade Athenodorus to follow him to the camp and later to Rome. Athenodorus then lived in Cato's house until his death.
After the end of his service as a military tribune in January 66 BC. Cato first went on a trip to Asia to get an impression of the political and social conditions in the provinces there. He stood out for his relatively modest demeanor, which was unusual for a Roman official. He got to know the corruption and arbitrariness prevailing in the east and set an example by rejecting attempts at bribery by the Galatian king Deiotarus , who was dependent on Rome . Then he returned to Rome and applied - probably for the year 64 BC. BC - successful for the Quaestur . The quaestors were elected officials with a one-year term, whose main area of responsibility included financial administration. The activity as quaestor formed the mandatory entry into the regular official career, the cursus honorum .
With the distribution of tasks among the quaestors by lot, Cato was not assigned to a province, but to oversee the state finances in Rome. In the performance of his official duties, he showed an unusual zeal, and against the sloppiness and corruption widespread in the financial sector, he took sharp measures. His most important measure was to reclaim the bounties that had been paid out by the state treasury at the time of the proscriptions , the ostracism initiated by the dictator Sulla . These were rewards for those who took part in the hunt down of outlawed opponents of Sulla and who killed them with government encouragement. By forcing the recipients of these funds to repay, Cato established the illegality of Sulla's legislation, which had formed the legal basis of the proscriptions. In fact, he intervened in the area of legislative power through mere administrative acts, although as quaestor he had no legislative competence.
A major problem at that time was the widespread use of unfair means when applying for offices that were awarded through popular elections, in particular the direct or covert purchase of votes. Against the bribery of voters, strict bans were repeatedly directed, observance of which was a particular concern of Catos. As 63 BC Chr. Lucius Licinius Murena was elected consul for the following year and a defeated competitor accused him of illegally influencing voters, Cato appeared as a co-prosecutor and gave a speech. Although Murena, represented by the three most renowned lawyers at the time - including the optimistic Senator Cicero - was acquitted by the jury, Cicero's defense speech clearly shows the great weight of Cato's statement. The well-known severity and conscientiousness of Cato left little doubt as to the justification of the charge. Cicero therefore emphasized his extraordinary respect for his opponent and asked the jury not to be misled into prejudice against Murena by Cato's high reputation and dignitas .
First power struggles with Caesar and Pompey
In the second half of the 1960s, Cato's reputation for being an honest and consistent defender of law-abidingness and the common good solidified. He was now a member of the Senate and showed his presence on the political stage by not missing a Senate session. So he became a respected spokesman for the conservative optimates , the aristocratic circles who clung to the decisive role of the Senate in the state. The politicians of the opposing direction, the populares , wanted to change the existing balance of power in favor of the easily manageable masses and thus gain a prominent position in the state. They appeared as representatives of the people's interests in relation to the senatorial ruling class. Among the most influential politicians who practiced popular agitation were Caesar and Pompey, who was then already famous as a general . They were suspected by the Optimates of seeking a threatening personal power and ultimately an overthrow of the state order. Therefore, from Cato's point of view, they were his main political opponents.
After the discovery of the Catiline conspiracy at the end of 63 BC. The consul- designate Decimus Iunius Silanus , the husband of Cato's half-sister Servilia, came up in the decisive Senate session on December 5th to condemn the arrested conspirators to death. However, Caesar, who advocated life imprisonment, managed to change the Senate's mind to mildness. Caesar recalled that only a people-appointed court had the power to sentence Roman citizens to death. Even Silanus followed this view. Cato intervened with an impressive speech. He called for the death penalty for the men who had put the fatherland in mortal danger. He rebuked the opportunism of his brother-in-law, Silanus, and attacked Caesar violently by accusing him of being an accomplice to the conspiracy and of having plans to overthrow himself. His main arguments were the state of emergency and the conviction of the accused. With this speech Cato brought about another change of mood and induced the majority of the senators to impose the death sentence.
With his intervention in the Catilinarier trial, Cato exposed himself to the agitation of popular people who reviled him as the butcher of citizens. His election as the tribune of the people gave him the opportunity to show that he could also act as a trustee of popular interests, as it corresponded to his new official duties. Probably soon after he took office in December 63 BC. He moved the Senate to expand the circle of recipients of state-subsidized grain. This measure was intended to defuse the threateningly increasing social tensions in Rome. Cato's initiative apparently aimed to alleviate the difficult material situation of highly indebted small traders and craftsmen, above all freed people who were previously not involved in the distribution of cheaper grain. They were threatened with impoverishment. Hence, they should be the beneficiaries of the new distributional practice, the annual cost of which to the state treasury was estimated at 1,250 talents.
During Cato's tribunate in 62 BC. The personal and political conflicts came to a head. For some time, popular politicians have been proposing resolutions in the people's assembly in favor of the victorious general Pompey, taking advantage of his popularity among the people. At that time Pompey was entrusted with tasks in the east of the empire. In January 62 BC A request was made to entrust him with the military overthrow of Catiline's uprising in Italy. The Optimates feared that the mandate to protect the capital from the insurgents would enable him to enter Rome with an armed force. This was inadmissible under current law, as such a special right provided an opportunity for a coup. Caesar supported the proposal to defeat the Optimates, but Cato, who as a tribune of the people had the right to object, resolutely resisted. He assured the Senate that Pompey would only enter the city armed with his corpse. There was a commotion at the popular assembly that was supposed to vote on the motion. A violent crowd put Cato's life in danger, but he remained adamant and was finally able to prevail and prevent the vote. The courage with which he forced this outcome against armed opponents made a deep impression. Cato's victory encouraged the optimistic Senate majority, which now took a decisive stand against Pompey and denied him the desire to postpone the consul elections.
Faced with this defeat, Pompey tried to win over his successful adversary. He offered him an alliance, which he wanted to seal with a double wedding: he himself and his son Gnaeus Pompeius the Younger were to marry two nieces of Catos according to his plan. This proposal was very honorable and delighted the women, for Pompey was the most famous man in the empire. However, Cato proudly and contemptuously refused the request. He let Pompey know that his political stance was determined solely by factual considerations and that he could not be bribed by marriage. This insulting rejection of the powerful general, which Pompey drove into Caesar's camp, was disapproved in optimistic circles. It later appeared as a serious mistake and an expression of Cato's lack of a sense of reality, because the Optimates were not up to the combined forces of Caesar and Pompey.
In 61 BC Cato suffered a defeat. Pompey was determined to get his follower Lucius Afranius through in the consul elections , and he used large bribes to do so. Cato tried to counteract this plan by tightening the legal provisions against voter bribery. Although he found approval in the Senate, he could not prevent the election of Afranius.
Another serious confrontation between Catos and Pompey came when he wanted to persuade the Senate to confirm his provisional rulings in Asia and thus to make them legally binding and to approve a farm law to care for his veterans . His opponents in the Senate, including personal enemies, turned against this. Again Cato made himself the spokesman for the Optimates and contributed to the humiliating rebuff to both of the general's wishes. With these failures, Pompey, regardless of his significant military achievements, hit rock bottom in power and prestige, while Cato proved to be the dominant figure in Roman domestic politics.
Conflicts with Clodius and the knights
One occasion on which Cato was able to show his strict moral standards was the Bona Dea scandal, which the popular politician Publius Clodius Pulcher in December 62 BC. Had triggered. Clodius had sneaked into a religious festival in women's clothes, which men were not allowed to attend, and had been caught. Cato appeared as a fighter against moral decline and religious outrage and demanded energetic action, whereupon the Senate spoke out in favor of the establishment of a special court. Clodius, however, enjoyed strong popular support, and even many optimistic senators were inclined to mildly judge his offense. At a people's assembly that was supposed to decide on the application for a special court, Cato was able to thwart a blatant manipulation of the vote through a determined appearance. The decision was postponed. Ultimately, however, Cato failed with his request, as the Optimates shied away from a trial of strength with the accused's supporters who were prepared to use violence. The trial took place before a regular jury, which Clodius held in May 61 BC. Chr. Acquitted despite proven guilt, because the jury was bribed.
Towards the end of the year 61 BC BC Cato's fight against corruption in the judiciary created tension between the knighthood and the Senate. At Cato's instigation, the Senate tried to extend the legal provisions on bribery of judges, which previously only applied to senatorial judges, to include chivalrous ones. The output of the scandalous Clodiusprozesses had shown the need for this legal loophole to close. Cato demanded equal treatment of all judges at the jury courts, whereupon the Senate took a corresponding initiative. This initiative was not only displeasing to the knights, but also met with resistance from Senator Cicero, who considered the harmony between knights and senators - one of his main concerns - to be endangered. Cicero saw the need to fight corruption in principle, but now complained that Cato lacked a sense of realpolitik. Cato also snubbed the knights in another matter: He got the Senate to reject the request of the knightly tax leasing companies to reduce the lease amount for tax collection in the province of Asia . On this issue, too, Cicero had sided with the other side for political reasons. He wanted to take chivalrous interests into account, although, like Cato, he considered the tax farmers' demands to be financially ruinous. For Cato, however, a compromise was out of the question, because for him the financial aspect was crucial. However, Cato's success lasted only a year, then Caesar fulfilled the wish of the tax farmers by bringing about a popular resolution.
Defense of the republican state order
In June 60 BC A new conflict arose between Cato and Caesar. Caesar returned to Italy from the province of Hispania ulterior , where he had defeated hill tribes hostile to Rome as a propraetor . He wanted to apply for the consulate and also move into Rome with his victorious troops to celebrate a triumph that the Senate had already granted him. A dilemma arose from this, however: the personal presence of the candidate was required for a consular application, but a law forbade the general from entering the city before the appointed day of the triumphal procession. If a commander returning home crossed the city limits prematurely, his authority was automatically extinguished and he was no longer allowed to triumph. Therefore, Caesar asked to be allowed to register his candidacy through a representative as an exception in order to meet the registration deadline without forfeiting the right to triumph. The Senate was inclined to allow an exception in this case, but Cato prevented the resolution with a long speech . Caesar renounced the triumph because the consulate, the highest political office in the state, was more important to him. Thanks to his popularity and the usual bribery of voters, he was made consul for 59 BC. Elected.
However, the relentless stance of the Senate majority towards both Pompey and Caesar resulted in the two politicians joining forces against the Optimates. Together with Crassus , they formed the first triumvirate , an informal, initially secret alliance to jointly pursue their interests. The three influential politicians agreed to join forces to thwart any venture that displeased either of them. This concentration of power posed a grave threat to the leadership of the Senate and the Republican state order.
Soon after taking office as consul, Caesar provoked his opponents by proposing a law on the distribution of arable land in the Senate. From the point of view of the Optimates, this initiative was an unacceptable breach of tradition. Therefore, the Senate did not want to enter into a substantive discussion of the motion. Cato raised fundamental objections and tried to block the proposal with a lengthy speech that diverged from the topic. Caesar then resorted to violence: by virtue of his office as consul, he ordered his adversary to be arrested and taken to prison. In the face of this challenge, however, numerous senators were willing to follow the arrested man there, forcing Caesar to release him. So Cato won this fight thanks to the solidarity of his colleagues.
Caesar's reaction to this defeat was that he no longer submitted his motions for discussion in the Senate, but only submitted them to the popular assembly. When his application for the Farm Law was up for discussion there, the triumvirate left no doubt about its determination to get its way; armed veterans of Pompey stood ready. In view of the balance of power, the other side saw itself unable to prevent a majority for the new law. However, the optimates asserted that a vote was formally illegal and therefore invalid for various reasons. Your objection caused a commotion. Cato tried repeatedly to speak to the assembled crowd, but was prevented by Caesar's assistants. His son-in-law, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus , the first husband of Cato's daughter Porcia, who was Caesar's colleague as consul that year, was covered in dirt and had to flee. So Caesar succeeded in getting the land law through. To prevent future annulment of the law, he added a clause that required the senators to swear to comply. If insubordinate, there was a threat of banishment. The optimates, who had no prospect of winning a civil war, had to give in, and Cato also took the required oath.
From then on, Cato and his like-minded comrades boycotted the Senate meetings chaired by Caesar. They wanted to indicate that the state order had overturned and that they were no longer able to exercise their rights and fulfill their tasks. Caesar now had free rein and took the opportunity to get a number of bills through. But his opponents by no means gave up. They resorted to agitation among the urban population and thus achieved a considerable effect. There was a change of mood against the triumvirate. Cato formed his supporters into a closed block of like-minded people and urged the people's assembly to point out the dangerousness of Caesar.
Mission to Cyprus
For the year 58 BC Publius Clodius Pulcher, an enemy of Cicero and Catus, was elected tribune of the people. He moved the popular assembly to the resolution to depose the king Ptolemy of Cyprus , to confiscate his crown treasure and to annex his kingdom . At the suggestion of Clodius, Cato was commissioned with the execution. In this way, Clodius succeeded in removing the energetic Optimat from Rome for a long time with an apparently honorable assignment and thus decisively weakening the senatorial resistance to the plans of the triumvirate. In addition, Cato received extraordinary powers for his mission; in this way they wanted to deprive him of the possibility of continuing his opposition in principle to such special powers which he considered dangerous to the state.
First Cato went to Rhodes . There he wanted to wait and see whether King Ptolemy would follow his request to surrender in the face of the futility of armed resistance. However, the king did not respond, but took his own life with poison. The Cypriot state ceased to exist and the Romans occupied the island without a fight. Cato auctioned the royal property. He achieved a revenue of around 168 million sesterces for the state treasury . Despite this success, his execution of the contract was taken by his opponents in Rome as an occasion for hostility. The loss of both copies of his statement of accounts due to accidents on the way home made him vulnerable as he could not produce a statement.
Further arguments with Pompey and Caesar
After his return in late summer 56 BC. BC Cato had to realize that in Rome, during his absence, the organized resistance to the triumvirate had largely collapsed. The political situation was now characterized by a confusing multitude of personal rivalries and conflicts, some of which were fought out with intrigue and bribery, and some violently, with the thugs of Clodius particularly prominent. The Optimates had been put on the defensive, but the Popularen camp was also weakened, for it suffered from internal disputes: tensions emerged both within the triumvirate and between Caesar and Clodius. Over the next few years, Cato managed to reorganize the senatorial resistance.
For the year 55 BC In BC Pompey and Crassus wanted to take over the consulate together and thus gain a wealth of power that would enable them to set the course for the future. To make their plan easier to implement, they delayed their candidacy and made sure that the elections were postponed until after the start of the new year in office. The postponement was supposed to secure them a majority in the electoral assembly; they counted on the votes of soldiers on leave from Caesar, whose arrival from Gaul they wished to await. In view of these procrastination tactics, the inferior optimates around Cato again decided to boycott: They stayed away from the Senate meetings and thus rendered the committee incapable of making decisions. The two camps agitated violently against one another, and riots broke out.
So began the new year without elected officials. When Crassus and Pompey finally applied for the consulate, all competitors except Cato's brother-in-law Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus withdrew because the power balance seemed hopeless to them. With the support of his brother-in-law and the Senate majority, Domitius had hope, but his opponents were unwilling to take the risk of free choice. When he and his friends wanted to go to the polling site, the Field of Mars , on election day , thugs lurked him. It came to a scuffle in which Cato was injured, whereupon Domitius gave up his plan. So the triumvirate prevailed, Crassus and Pompey were elected.
To create a small counterbalance to the popular consuls, Cato applied for the praetur , a high office in the judiciary. But this failed because of the determination of the opponents, who did not want to allow his election. The first election act was broken off on the orders of the consul in charge of the election, Pompey, when a victory for Cato became apparent. On the second election date, the popular opposing candidate, who had been supported by the consuls through bribery, won; Furthermore, representatives of the triumvirate denied supporters of the opposing side access to the polling station.
Cato was not deterred by these setbacks. In the people's assembly he fought against the motion of the tribune Gaius Trebonius to transfer important military commands with extensive powers to the consuls Crassus and Pompeius after the end of their year in office. Caesar had already been granted a special power of attorney for his warfare in Gaul . Such authorizations promoted a close and lasting personal bond between the soldiers and the generals and gave the commanders a wealth of power that enabled them to carry out dangerous arbitrary actions. This pushed the progressive weakening of the Senate forward. In a speech to the people's assembly, Cato warned of this development, which threatened to destroy the traditional equilibrium in the republican state. In doing so, he deliberately exceeded the allowed speaking time of two hours because he wanted to demonstrate that he considered this restriction to be unlawful and did not accept it. Since he could not be silenced, Trebonius gave instructions to take him to prison. With this, however, the tribune triggered solidarity: the arrested man was followed by such a large crowd that he had to be set free again. The resolution on Trebonius' motion was postponed. Eventually the popular camp succeeded in getting the motion through in a new meeting against the bitter resistance of Cato, but only with the help of armed men and by undisguised breach of the law. This led to riots and a street battle with fatalities. In the summer of 55 BC In the elections for the following year it became clear that the Optimates continued to enjoy considerable popular support: this time Domitius was elected consul and Cato praetor.
Towards the end of the year the conflict between Caesar and Cato came to a head again. Caesar, who was waging war against Germanic tribes in Gaul, had the enemy leaders arrested who had come to negotiate in his camp and then raided the unprotected Germanic camp where the warriors were staying with their families. According to him, 430,000 men, women and children were killed in the surprise attack, while the Romans suffered no losses. He then released the arrested negotiators. When the Senate received Caesar's report on these events, the majority of the senators wanted to grant him a twenty-day festival of thanks for his success. Cato protested against this. He requested that Caesar should rather be handed over to the tribes he had betrayed, so that the guilt for his crime would not fall back on Rome. Cato's position on this issue of international law was probably influenced by the Stoic philosophy with which he had been concerned since his youth. The Stoic doctrine of natural law did not accept any difference in principle between civilized and barbaric peoples and granted everyone equal rights. In addition, there was the traditional Roman understanding of morality, in which the principle of Fides (loyalty), the binding bond to the given word, played an essential role. Reliability was one of the ancient Roman virtues that Cato cherished. At that time there was no generally recognized binding international law in the modern sense, but there was a general agreement that the freedom and inviolability of envoys had to be respected and that deceit as in the case of Caesar's actions was an injustice. There have also been precedents for extraditing Roman officials to enemies for violating legation rights. Still, few senators approved Cato's motion. The majority, for whom in the end only Caesar's military success counted, approved the festival of thanks. However, Cato's unusual move sparked a public debate, and Caesar was forced to comment, which was read out in the Senate. Cato responded with a grand speech in which he stated that the real danger to the republic did not come from external enemies but from Caesar.
In 54 BC BC Cato moved all candidates who applied for the tribunate to an obligation to refrain from any unfair influence on the election - especially the usual buying of votes. Everyone paid a large bail for this, and Cato was appointed referee. In this way he was able to largely prevent manipulation, although he acted as praetor with his advance outside of his official competence. However, this success in the fight against corruption was isolated and only had a symbolic meaning. In the run-up to the consulate elections for the following year, there were scandalous machinations in which Cato's brother-in-law Domitius was also involved. Cato tried in vain to enforce a rigorous judicial investigation. He was able to bring about a corresponding senate resolution, but failed at the popular assembly. During a speech at the forum he felt the anger of the people because the voters did not want to forego the usual bribes.
From the summer of 54 BC The rumor grew that Pompey was striving for dictatorship , an office with extraordinary powers that was only occupied in particularly dangerous situations and was usually strictly limited. In view of the threatening violence and lawlessness in public life, such an emergency measure could appear necessary. With this option, however, the Senate and the people feared that the general would abuse his abundance of power as a dictator to replace the Roman Republic with a monarchy with him as sole ruler. The alleged danger of such a coup d'état created a strong republican sentiment. This benefited Cato, who had long called for the reign of the overpowering governors and generals and warned that the ongoing anarchy was the breeding ground for a future tyrant rule. In view of the vehemence of the republican resistance, Pompey had to resist in 53 BC. To distance himself from the activities of his followers, who were already openly agitating for his dictatorship. Cato praised him for this. The Senate had a designated tribune of the people who had stood up for the dictatorship thrown into prison and threatened the other parties involved in these efforts with the same fate. Pompey suffered a setback that was perceived by the public as a major success for Cato. The Optimates celebrated Cato as a hero. For large sections of the city population he embodied republicanism and ancient Roman virtue. However, Cato had little influence on the conditions outside the city limits of Rome; there power lay in fact with the troops of Caesar and Pompey, whose loyalty was primarily to their respective commanders in chief.
In the 1950s, Cato separated from his wife Marcia by mutual agreement. In doing so, he fulfilled a request from his friend Quintus Hortensius Hortalus , who wanted to marry Marcia and have offspring with her. After the death of Hortensius, Marcia returned to Cato.
The road to civil war
After violent clashes between rival street gangs, anarchic conditions developed in Rome. Since the Senate could not cope with this on its own, it was forced to withdraw the appointment of Pompey as " consul without colleagues " for the year 52 BC. To cause. With this special measure - traditionally two consuls had to officiate in order to separate powers - he was granted almost dictatorial powers. Cato supported this decision, which he considered to be the least evil under the circumstances, because the main concerns of the Republicans were the restoration of order and the averting of the danger threatening Caesar. In return, only an alliance with the proven general Pompey offered any prospect of success, since powerful troops were under his command and the Optimates had no armed forces of their own.
For the year 51 BC Cato registered his candidacy for the consulate. He wanted to use this office to take effective action against Caesar. But since he, as a prominent anti-corruption fighter, rejected the usual election campaign practices, he refused to campaign in the usual style. As a result, he was defeated despite his high reputation in the city population. Such a defeat was considered a shame for a member of a glorious family, but Cato is said to have accepted the outcome indifferently.
The triumvirate dissolved: Crassus was already 53 BC. And between Caesar and Pompey there was a growing estrangement. It became clear that they would be the rivals in the final battle for the decisive role in the state. The Optimates succeeded in winning Pompey to their side. Their concern was the ultimate fixation of a date on which Caesar's extraordinary authority in Gaul would expire; then the victorious general would only be able to pursue his political goals as a private person without the support of his troops and would be exposed to criminal prosecution. For Caesar, who continued to stand as proconsul with his strong army in Gaul, the restriction to the status of a private individual was unacceptable. He once again asked for special permission to apply for the consulate in absentia. If he was allowed to do so, he was willing to surrender most of his command. If this compromise offer was rejected, Caesar was threatened with invasion of Italy and with it civil war. So a group of optimistic senators sought a balance. The negotiations about it failed, however, due to the resistance of the tough opponents of Caesar around Cato. For Cato it was a matter of principle on which a compromise was out of the question. Given the adamant attitude of the Senate, Caesar opted for the military solution. On the night of January 11, 49 BC He crossed the border river Rubicon with his legions and started the civil war.
Used in the battle between Caesar and Pompey
Traditionally, the incumbent consuls were in command of the armed forces of the republic, but in the emergency situation that had arisen as a result of Caesar's rapid advance, Cato, contrary to his usual conviction, applied for Pompey to be given sole decision-making power. However, this proposal did not find a majority in the Senate. As a result, the Republicans lacked unified leadership, which soon turned out to be very detrimental. A defense of Rome seemed hopeless, the capital was evacuated. After Caesar's significant initial success, which included a force under Cato's brother-in-law Domitius in Corfinium and forced them to surrender, Pompey realized his original strategic plan of leaving the entire Italian mainland to the enemy. He withdrew with his army to the east of the empire.
Cato had assumed responsibility for the defense of Sicily. There he began raising troops and building a fleet, but after the enemy vanguard had landed unhindered at Messina, he gave up hope of being able to hold the island. An important aspect in his considerations was the avoidance of militarily unnecessary devastation. On April 23, 49 BC BC he evacuated Sicily without fighting and sailed with his soldiers to Korkyra, today's Corfu . From there he went to see Pompey in Dyrrhachion in what is now Albania, where the Senate met in exile. Together with Pompey, Cato advocated the strategic concept of prolonging the war. As in Sicily, the protection of the civilian population was a major concern of his. At his suggestion, the Senate decided that no city under Roman rule should be plundered and that no Roman citizen should be killed except in battle. Since Pompey could not make up his mind to entrust an important command to his former opponent Cato, the latter went to Rhodes, where he succeeded in setting up a fleet.
In the first months of 48 BC Caesar's army arrived in Epirus by sea . At Dyrrhachion there was a first battle in which Cato took part; Caesar was defeated and had to flee, Pompey took up the pursuit. The decision was made on August 9, 48 BC. In the battle of Pharsalus in Thessaly : Caesar achieved a complete victory, Pompey fled to Egypt and was murdered there on his landing. Cato was not involved in the fight in Thessaly. He had stayed behind in Dyrrhachion because Pompey had entrusted him with guarding this important base for supplies.
Retreat to Africa, last endeavors and death
When the news of the Commander-in-Chief's defeat and flight reached Dyrrhachion, panic broke out there and soldiers mutinied. Cato sailed with the still operational part of his force to Korkyra, where the republican fleet was. Now part of the Republicans gave up the fight. Cato showed understanding for this, but it was out of the question for himself. He drove to Patrai and stayed there for a while, but had to evacuate the city when he was threatened with enclosure by an approaching unit of enemy troops. Since he knew nothing of the death of Pompey, he sailed to North Africa, because he suspected that the defeated general had saved himself there with his remaining troops. In Cyrene he learned of the murder of Pompey. Under these circumstances the question arose whether a continuation of the civil war still made sense. Some Republicans gave up the fight, but most of the army wanted to keep fighting and reaffirmed their confidence in Cato as commander in chief. The aim of those willing to fight was now the province of Africa in the west, the capital of which was Utica in what is now Tunisia. There stood a strong republican army, the commanders of which were allied with a local ruler, King Juba I of Numidia .
Since a sea crossing seemed too risky in view of the weather conditions, Cato decided to take the overland route through the Libyan desert, which, however, was also dangerous. He led his soldiers through the barren area in a long, arduous and hard-to-find march. He covered the entire distance on foot and renounced all officer privileges in order to strengthen the morale of the troops. At the beginning of the year 47 BC He joined the main republican army.
The province of Africa was firmly in republican hands, but a dispute between the commanders impaired the clout. Juba used the discord among the Roman officers to develop an independent position of power, which he was not entitled to as a non-Roman in a Roman province. Cato tried to restore orderly conditions and a clear command structure and tried to put Juba in his place. Some of the well-known Republicans wanted him to be their sole commander in chief. This proposal met with some approval, but the powerful consular Metellus Scipio , Pompey's father-in-law, rejected it. Scipio was only willing to split the command. He had long been enemies of Cato personally; he had already been his rival in the dispute over his engagement to Lepida, later he had distinguished himself as his political opponent and wrote a diatribe against him. This time Cato avoided a conflict; he decided to give Scipio exclusive supreme command. To justify this momentous decision, which was later often criticized, he stated that Scipio, as consular, was the highest-ranking among the Republicans present. Whether Cato was actually guided by this formal point of view is disputed in research. Possibly other considerations tipped the balance: The idea of a joint high command of two old enemies was problematic, and Cato - as at the beginning of the civil war - was convinced of the necessity of centralized warfare. So he should have prevailed in a power struggle against Scipio. Open dispute in the republican camp could escalate, however, and this was risky in view of the difficult military situation.
Juba called for the fortifications of Utica to be destroyed and the war-ready inhabitants of the provincial capital to be killed, as he suspected that they were friendly to the Caesars. Scipio tended to accept this suggestion, but Cato prevented the slaughter by his energetic intervention and assumed responsibility for guarding the city. He had the defenses strengthened and supplies built and tried to establish a relationship of trust with the civilian population.
When Caesar unexpectedly landed in Africa with an invasion fleet, Cato pleaded for delaying the military decision in view of the enemy’s supply difficulties. This earned him from Scipio the reproach of cowardice. Cato then agreed to lead the troops he had brought with him to Italy in order to open a new theater of war. He hoped that there would continue to be widespread sympathy for the republican state order. However, his proposal was rejected by Scipio. As the differences of opinion between the two troop leaders intensified, their relationship deteriorated dramatically. Cato denied Scipio qualification as commander in chief. In the battle of Thapsus Scipio was decisively defeated by Caesar. When his escape to Spain failed, he committed suicide.
It was not until the third day after the crushing defeat of the Republicans that news of the outcome of the battle reached Utica and caused panic there. The following day, Cato called a meeting made up of the senators and their sons present in the city and a council of three hundred Roman businessmen active in Africa. He expressed his readiness to take the lead if the congregation - as he wished - should decide to continue the struggle. In the event that the panel preferred to surrender, he expressed understanding. In response to his speech, the council decided to continue to offer military resistance to Caesar. The supplies were sufficient for a long siege. However, in view of the very unfavorable balance of power, it seemed necessary to release and arm the slaves. This suggestion by one of the participants in the meeting was initially widely approved, but Cato rejected such a coercive measure as an inadmissible interference with property rights. He left the decision of the slave owners to decide whether they would voluntarily set their slaves free. It then turned out that, given their desperate situation, the Republican senators were ready to take this drastic step, but not the businessmen, who had a good chance of coming to terms with Caesar and keeping their slaves, who made up a large part of their wealth. In view of the obvious superiority of the enemy and the prospect of a victim siege, the mood changed. The Roman businessmen did not want to perish in a hopeless battle and the Punic urban population was unreliable. The Utica ruling class now hoped for an agreement with Caesar, and consideration was given to appealing to him by arresting and extraditing the Republican senators. Cato was able to prevent this and enable the senators to flee the city, but was no longer able to organize further resistance. Since he fundamentally refused to depend on Caesar's mercy, he killed himself with his sword before the enemy troops marched in. After a failed sword strike, he fainted, seriously injured, whereupon he received medical attention, but when he regained consciousness, he tore the wound open and died. The city of Utica organized a solemn funeral for him.
After his death, Cato was named Uticensis (Cato of Utica) after the place of his last fight. He left behind his son of the same name and his daughter Porcia. Both were grown up. Porcia married Marcus Iunius Brutus , one of the leading figures in the group of conspirators that formed in 44 BC. BC Caesar murdered. Cato's son fell in 42 BC. In the battle of Philippi , in which he fought on the republican side.
Sources
The most important sources have already been lost in antiquity, including the rich contemporary polemics, especially Caesar's diatribe against his adversary and the praises of the republicans Cicero and Brutus. Particularly serious is the loss of the representation in the historical work of Livy , which became groundbreaking for the Cato picture of later historiography. Attempts to partially reconstruct Livy's account on the basis of more recent sources are fraught with great uncertainty.
Cicero's correspondence provides valuable information, including an original letter from Cato to Cicero. There are several reports and assessments of Cato's life and death in narrative sources. Their credibility is, however, impaired by historically problematic factors: the literary design, the decoration of some passages and the partiality of the authors or the literature they use limit the source value. The description of the events surrounding the Catilinarian Conspiracy, which the contemporary historian Sallust offers, contains a comparative characterization of the main actors Caesar and Cato as well as alleged texts of their speeches, the traditional wording of which, however, is fictional.
The richest source is the detailed Catobiography in Plutarch's biographies of famous Greeks and Romans from the early 2nd century . Plutarch held primarily to a now-lost biography of Catos, which the senator Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus had written in the 1st century. Thrasea belonged to a circle of opponents of imperial arbitrary rule who wanted to keep alive the memory of republican freedom under Emperor Nero . He drew his knowledge largely from a contemporary biography of Cato, which came from his very well-informed friend Munatius Rufus. The writer Valerius Maximus, who was active in the early 1st century, also used material from the now lost work of Munatius, which he knew in the original. Appian , who wrote a Roman history in the 2nd century , and Cassius Dio , whose detailed description of the late Republican epoch was made in the early 3rd century, are further illustrations . Appian's news about Cato is of relatively poor quality; Dio, on the other hand, had credible information from the work of Livy.
Portraits
Contemporary portraits of Cato are attested: a statue was erected near his grave on Utica Beach, showing him with a drawn sword, and Caesar carried a picture with him on his triumphal procession, which undoubtedly depicted Cato as a suicide in an unfavorable way. During the imperial era, opposition members with a republican mindset demonstrated their political stance in private by setting up busts of Catos in their houses and of the murderers of Caesar in the atrium .
In the 1st or early 2nd century - the dating is controversial - a bronze bust of Catos with an inscription was created, which was found in 1943 in a private villa in Volubilis in what is now Morocco. It is now in the Rabat Archaeological Museum (Musée des Antiquités Préislamiques). It is probably a copy that goes back directly or indirectly to 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 identified as a portrait of Cato due to its resemblance to the bust from Volubilis. It is located in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence . A bronze bust in the Louvre in Paris belongs to the same type ; it comes from the Cappella de 'Picenardi . Also with a marble head in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen from the 1st century BC. It is said to be a portrait of Catos, but this is very uncertain. Whether a portrait type, the numerous gems and glass plasters from around the middle of the 1st century BC. Chr. Show as representation of Catos can be identified is controversial.
Plutarch and the poet Lukan report that Cato no longer had his hair and beard cut as a sign of mourning after the beginning of the civil war. It is unclear whether this message provides a dating feature or is iconographically worthless; in any case, all portraits show the politician beardless.
reception
Cato Uticensis is one of the most famous politicians of the Roman Republic. Even in his lifetime he was repeatedly the focus of serious disputes that aroused his contemporaries and challenged them to comment. The preoccupation with his figure was intense in ancient posterity, continued in the Middle Ages and received new powerful impulses in the early modern period . In the era of the Enlightenment , the modern enthusiasm for Cato reached its peak. As a traditional symbolic figure, Cato stands for a republican spirit, a consistent struggle against monarchical rule and persevering in a losing position as a matter of principle. His death in particular has always received a lot of attention and has often been portrayed artistically.
Since Cato Uticensis and his great-grandfather of the same name, according to the descriptions of the sources, show considerable similarities in attitude and way of life, they were perceived as the two outstanding representatives of a unified tradition of conservative Romanism even in antiquity. In the popular ancient tradition, the elder and the younger Cato appear as the strict, exemplary, virtuous Catones. Her common image can be seen from the eloquent use of her name. A serious, honorable man was recognizedly called a "Cato". Authors such as Martial or Petronius referred to the famous Catonian moral rigor in a playful or mocking context. As a model of integrity and embodiment of the "Roman virtue", the Catos have also been admired frequently in modern times.
The idealized attitude of the younger Cato has been used in the course of Western cultural history to set a contrast to frivolity, fickleness, moral decay and tyrannical arbitrariness. In the modern reception, shaped by scientific discourse, the image of catonic virtue and steadfastness is also connected with the connotation of the stiff, unworldly, untimely and therefore destined to end.
Outgoing republic
During Cato's lifetime, Cicero characterized him in 63 BC. In the court speech Pro Murena. There Cicero spoke of Cato with great respect, but criticized his rigorism as excessive and skillfully portrayed him as a haughty stoic without ethical differentiation, without attacking him directly.
After Cato's death, both Republicans and monarchists were faced with the task of assessing his life's achievements and managing his legacy. The suicide in Utica was a nuisance for both sides. From Caesar's point of view, this outcome was unsatisfactory because his main opponent had spurned the victor's grace and thus became an idol of opposition circles as a freedom hero and political martyr. Prominent Republicans like Cicero were embarrassed by the heroic downfall of their champion because they had come to terms with Caesar's sole rule and appeared fickle cowards compared to the indomitable hero of Utica. Controversial statements aroused the public. Every judgment on Cato was at the same time a current partisanship for or against Caesar's exercise of power.
The literary controversy began in 46 BC. Chr. Cicero with the publication of an eulogy in which he paid tribute to the deeds and virtues of the republican spokesman who died a few months ago. In view of the strong impact this account had on public opinion, the monarchist camp considered a journalistic counter-offensive to be necessary. This task was initially taken over by Caesar's confidante Aulus Hirtius . He wrote a compilation of character deficiencies, which he attributed to Cato. In Cicero's judgment, this font completely failed its purpose. Caesar now considered it necessary to intervene himself: he wrote the polemical Anticato, a diatribe stylized as a speech in which he described his opponent as greedy, arrogant and domineering and accused him of being drunk. According to Caesar's account, Cato separated from his wife Marcia and arranged her marriage to Hortensius because he could assume that she would later return to him as a rich widow after the death of her elderly second husband. On the other hand, Cato's nephew Brutus entered the controversy; he published an eulogy about his uncle, in which, however, he reprimanded the suicide. Cato's friend Munatius Rufus turned against the picture drawn by Caesar with a biographical description in which he described the life of his hero from the perspective of someone who was partly directly involved.
Cicero also paid tribute to Cato by telling him 45 BC. In his literary dialogue De finibus bonorum et malorum as a participant in a fictional philosophical conversation. There Cato is the representative of the stoic teaching.
After Caesar's murder, the historian Sallust created a depiction of the course of the Catilinarian conspiracy. He focused his story on the comparison of the main characters Caesar and Cato. He characterized their antagonism with invented speeches which he put into their mouths. He largely reduced the great struggle for the future of the Roman state to the argument between the two opposing personalities. He analyzed their potential and tried to achieve a balanced appreciation of their different qualities.
None of the anticatonic writings achieved a lasting effect, the view of the cato-friendly authors fully prevailed in posterity.
Roman Imperial Era
With the introduction of the principate , the monarchical principle prevailed in the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, even after the final failure of republicanism , Cato was fondly remembered by the Roman ruling class. Contributing to this was the conciliatory attitude of the first emperor Augustus , who as ruler wanted to integrate the republicans into his state and did not want the bitter dispute to be revived.
Even at the beginning of the imperial era, an all-round positive image of Cato had solidified, which remained decisive and shaped both historiography and fiction. One direction of reception depoliticized the figure of the distinguished republican and only praised him as an exemplary with integrity and indomitable Roman. Anecdotes from his life served to illustrate his exemplary nature. Authors such as Valerius Maximus created collections of deeds and sayings of famous personalities, which were intended as exemplary examples to encourage imitation. Cato was one of the most distinctive of these idealized figures. Conservative critics of imperial arbitrariness took a political perspective; they glorified a transfigured republican past, in which ancient Roman virtues such as simplicity, justice, love of freedom, willingness to make sacrifices and contempt for death would have led the empire to fame and greatness. To them, Cato appeared to be the outstanding embodiment of these qualities in an era that was already decadent and tyrannical.
The picture was somewhat clouded, however, by a tradition according to which Cato tended to excessively enjoy wine. This accusation against him was familiar to the educated.
Rhetoric, Philosophy and Poetry
After the establishment of the empire, Augustus advocated a return to ancient Roman customs; Patriotic heroism and contempt for death were very popular. A depoliticized Cato could be instrumentalized for this. In this sense, the poet Horace praised the "noble death" of the commander of Utica. In his odes Horace drew the ideal image of a fearless fighter, for which Cato stood before his eyes as a model even where he did not name him. In Virgil's epic Aeneid , Cato, the archetype of the righteous, is the lawgiver who lays down the legal norms in the realm of the pious blessed.
For the exercises in the rhetorical schools , Cato served as a type of honest character, beyond any doubt. You practiced your eloquence and reasoning skills by discussing real or fictional scenarios from your life that required a decision. It was taken for granted that his behavior was always impeccable and exemplary.
The philosopher and writer Seneca glorified Cato as an exemplary stoic sage. Seneca, who was himself a stoic, praised the reason, moderation, steadfastness and self-control of his hero, who was a "living image of virtues". He enthusiastically portrayed the "holy" Cato as a superior ideal person who had perfectly demonstrated the practice of the stoic doctrine of virtues with his life and death. He viewed the suicide in Utica as an expression of personal freedom and a praiseworthy act that brought great joy to the gods. With his picture of Cato, Seneca created a culturally critical counter-figure against the decadence, effeminacy and luxury of his own time. However, Seneca occasionally also makes skeptical remarks that somewhat restrict Cato's idealization.
Seneca's nephew Lukan created an extraordinarily powerful literary adaptation of the subject in his epic De bello civili (On the Civil War), in which Caesar, Pompey and Cato are the main characters and Cato plays the role of the hero. A core element of the Catonic virtue in this work is the consistent focus on the common good rather than on one's own interests. Cato's unselfishness makes him a true father of the fatherland. Another distinctive character trait of the hero is his toughness, which is evident when enduring hardship and in dangerous situations. The description of the grueling march through the hostile North African desert illustrates Cato's strength of character with the help of memorable scenes. In Lukan's poetry, the republican leader is completely dependent on his own strength, because the goddess of fortune Fortuna constantly favors Caesar while she denies Cato her goodwill. In this unequal struggle the hapless hero of freedom opposes the ungracious deity with his virtus (efficiency, virtue), which proves itself particularly brilliantly under the most unfavorable conditions. The tragedy of the fateful conflict lies in the conflict between the rule of Divine Providence and the fulfillment of duty of the righteous man. Lukans Cato is aware from the outset of the hopelessness of his situation, and this is precisely where his superhuman size shows. According to Lukans, it cannot be decided whether Caesar or Pompey took up arms more rightly in the civil war. Nobody is entitled to judge this - according to the poet - because both sides can appeal to a great authority: the gods have sided with the victor, but with the vanquished Cato (victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni). With this famous, often quoted verse, Lukan contrasts the people Cato with the heavenly gods as an equal authority. His own position is clear: he leaves no doubt that for him the moral superiority of his hero carries more weight than the preference of an unjust deity for the tyrant Caesar.
However, the question of how the heroization of Catos in Lukan's epic is to be interpreted is highly controversial in recent research. Some ancient scholars believe that the poet wanted to criticize or even ridicule the stoic doctrines. His actual message is that Cato was not an exemplary stoic, because as such he should have acted with indifferent peace of mind and harmoniously fit into the wisdom of the divine world order. Instead, Lukans Cato surrenders to unbridled emotions and rebels against a power of fate that is perceived as malicious. According to this interpretation of the poet's intention, Cato's downfall illustrates for Lukan the unreality and bankruptcy of the stoic world and human image, which is based on the concept of a reasonable world order. A further interpretation is that Lukan considered the universe to be chaotic, irrational and value-free and rejected the assumption of a providence directing the cosmos. In his opinion, the “gods” who apparently preferred Caesar over Pompey and Cato are not malicious, but non-existent. In their place comes blind chance. Lukans Cato had to recognize this and thereby got into an inextricable contradiction to his stoic worldview. Other researchers maintain the traditional view that Lukan professed the Roman Stoic ideals and glorified Cato as their embodiment.
Historiography
A quote from the only fragmentary presentation in the historical work of Livy says that no one could have benefited Cato's fame through praise or blame. Thus the freedom hero already appeared in Augustan times as a figure removed from the party quarrel and above praise and blame. The historian Velleius Paterculus , who worked under Augustus' successor Tiberius , described Cato as a god-like personality, free from all human vices and superior to fate.
Plutarch was filled with deep admiration for Cato . In his biography he occasionally mentioned criticism of the protagonist, which came from pamphlet literature - namely from Caesar's Anticato - but usually rejected it immediately. Although he saw the introduction of the monarchy as a historical necessity, he viewed Cato's downfall not as a failure, but as a moral victory. He vividly described the fearlessness with which Cato resisted hostile thugs and violent measures by opposing officials, and the determination that enabled him to turn the mood in the popular assembly. With anecdotal stories Plutarch illustrated the exemplary nature of the republican leader.
Above all, Plutarch's detailed description of the preparation and execution of the suicide had a strong aftereffect. After this report, embellished with dramatic elements, the last reading by the philosophizing politician was Plato's Dialogue Phaedo , in which the behavior of the philosopher Socrates before his execution and the immortality of the soul is discussed. Due to a hand injury, Cato could not hit hard enough with the sword, so he fell seriously injured from the bed. It was then found lying in his blood and a doctor wanted to sew up the wound from which the bowels were hanging. But then Cato came to his senses, opened the wound with his hands and tore the bowels, whereupon he died. - What is striking is the affect-laden representation of the events at Plutarch. It does not correspond to the conventional idea, especially cultivated by the Stoics, of the quiet dying of the serene, world-superior philosopher based on the example of Socrates. Apparently, Plutarch, who as a Platonist rejected the stoic doctrine, wanted to show his readers that the ideal of lack of affect ( apátheia ) cultivated by the Stoa was remote from life and impractical, since not even the exemplary Cato had realized it. In various situations, Plutarch's Cato appears as a passionate person whose emotional behavior is incompatible with the stoic demand for equanimity.
At Cassius Dio , Cato is praised as the most solid of character and “people-friendly” man of his time. In contrast to Caesar, whose apparent friendliness towards the people was only the mask of a power-hungry demagogue, he really unselfishly took on the interests of the people. This was the opinion of Dio, although he viewed the fall of the republic as an inevitable development and the monarchy was the superior form of government.
Church writer
The judgment of the ancient Christians about Cato was negative. His divorce caused great offense: he had separated from his wife Marcia in order to leave her to his childless friend Hortensius, who wanted to marry her so that he could have children with her. The ecclesiastical authors condemned this process, which appeared strange and strange even from a Pagan point of view, as adultery and pimping. They saw in this a scandalous immorality, which they opposed the Christian ideal of indissoluble marriage. Tertullian , Jerome , Augustine and Salvian of Marseilles expressed themselves in this way . In addition, Laktanz , Hieronymus and Augustinus criticized Cato's death by their own hands, since, according to the Church Fathers, suicide is rejected by God and is to be regarded as murder. Laktanz claimed that Cato killed himself out of glory. He had nothing to fear from the mild Caesar and there was no apparent evil that could have resulted from his survival. Augustine found that the deed was evidence not of honesty but of weakness, because Cato had not endured his misfortune; he had acted out of false pride or out of displeasure towards the magnanimous victor. The large number of references to Cato in the writings of the late antique church fathers testifies to his continuing strong presence in the consciousness of the educated. Christians saw in him an example of both severity and arrogance.
middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, Plutarch's biographical work was not accessible in Western and Central Europe; a Latin translation was only available in the early 15th century. Cato was known primarily from Lukan's epic, which was part of the school reading, from Sallust's monograph and from the statements of the church fathers; Valerius Maximus was also very much appreciated in the late Middle Ages. Augustine's negative judgment had great weight; it stood in the way of Cato's recognition as a moral authority. Nevertheless, a positive assessment of the famous Roman dominated in broadly educated circles; when discussing moral issues, it was used as a classic pattern. His proverbial exemplary character was familiar to the educated, and occasionally even his suicide was seen as understandable.
A legend was widespread in the Middle Ages according to which Cato, like Socrates, died by ingesting poison. A fully developed Cato legend was presented by the unknown author of the historical work Li fet des Romains (The Deeds of the Romans), written in 1213/1214 , a biography of Caesar in Old French , which served an edifying purpose and was widely distributed. There Cato appears as a bearer of ancient Roman and Christian virtues and as a despiser of the pagan gods and worldly lust. The author sympathized with divorce and remarriage, but disapproved of suicide.
Dante expressed himself with enthusiasm and awe . Although he was a staunch supporter of the monarchy and considered Caesar to be a pioneer of the divine plan of salvation, he was deeply impressed by Cato's justice and love of freedom. In his popular philosophical treatise Convivio , he glorified him as the most godlike mortal. Even the temporary cession of the wife Marcia to Hortensius, condemned by the church fathers, was unreservedly positive. For him, Marcia was a noble soul and a dedicated, conscientious wife. He interpreted her return to her first husband as an allegory for the return of the soul of the aged and matured person to God. In the vision of the afterlife of the Commedia Dante said the suicides go to hell, but for Cato, he made an exception: He showed him the task of the Purgatory guard, a place of purification, its inhabitants is the ultimate salvation sure. Dante believed that Cato died for the principle of freedom and that his rank was close to that of a Christian martyr. Therefore, he will have eternal bliss. This, by medieval standards, very bold glorification of a person who, according to the prevailing view of the time as a pagan and suicide, would have to be excluded from redemption, embarrassed the late medieval Dante commentators. In part, they tried to escape the dilemma through allegorical interpretation.
Early modern age
In the early modern period , historians mostly viewed Cato from the perspective that emerged from the glorifying portrayals of Lukan and Plutarch. Educated circles held Lukan's stoic philosophy and poetry in high esteem and Cato was praised as a classic example of virtue. In addition to his strict moral standards, his steadfastness was particularly admired. In addition, in the 17th and early 18th centuries, the opposite assessment was asserted: some authors criticized suicide as an unworthy act of desperation by a vain, selfish politician who could not cope with his defeat. The background of the two opposing directions of interpretation was formed by sharply diverging evaluations of the stoic ideal of overcoming affects and complete self-control.
philosophy
Michel de Montaigne dedicated a separate chapter to Cato in his essays , published between 1580 and 1588 , in which he described the Roman as a model for humanity. Nature chose him to show the possible extent of human virtue and firmness of character. However, Montaigne also commented critically that you always see my Cato "on high horse". He also suspected that Cato had committed his suicide with relish, that was his way of enjoying himself. It is even doubtful whether the Roman would have wanted to have the opportunity for such a beautiful feat of heroism taken away again.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was enthusiastic about Cato, in whom he saw the ideal role model of a patriotic citizen. In his treatise Discours sur l'économie politique , published in 1755 , he placed him above Socrates. This is indeed the wisest of all people, but between Caesar and Pompey, Cato appears as a god among mortals. Rousseau said that Cato is better suited than Socrates as a leading figure for the present, because he is the model of a caring, unselfish statesman who tries to make his people happy. In contrast to this broad impact, the influence of Socrates on an elite of wisdom seekers is limited. In 1762 Rousseau also presented Cato as a pedagogical role model in the Émile , because the virtues of this hero represent a better way of identification for the youth than Caesar's victory and admiration for him corresponds to a natural need.
Historical research
An avid admirer of Cato was the historian Adam Ferguson , who extolled the ancient republican's commitment to the common good in his influential treatise An Essay on the History of Civil Society in 1767 and in his major work The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic in 1783 . Ferguson was known by his contemporaries as the "Scottish Cato". Ferguson's correspondent Edward Gibbon was more skeptical . He saw the danger of fanaticism in Cato's radical understanding of virtue.
drama
George Chapman published his tragedy Caesar and Pompey in 1631 , in which he portrayed the conflict between the wise and honorable Cato and his corrupt environment. He wanted to show the audience an example of dignified standing in a questionable world. The drama ends in Utica and Cato's last words proclaim the author's message: Only the righteous are free, all other people are slaves.
In the 18th century, the Cato fabric was picked up by authors of republican tragedies. In these pieces the protagonist appears as a brave opponent of tyranny. He was presented to the theater audience as a bourgeois hero, opponent of absolutism and a fighter against feudal debauchery. With his patriotism and his moral attitude he was suitable as an object of identification for an enlightened bourgeoisie.
The first was Joseph Addison with the tragedy Cato, which was first performed in London in 1713 and achieved a huge, sustainable success with the public. Addison's work triggered a wave of Cato enthusiasm across Europe. It is characterized by pathetic glorification of freedom against the background of the current political situation in England. Cato's advocacy of the leadership role of the Senate could be transferred to the present, it could be understood as a plea for a strong parliament.
Two years after Addison's triumphant success, Chrétien Deschamps published his drama Caton d'Utique. This work, the first French Cato tragedy, is kept in a pathetic style and enriched with an erotic motif: Cato's daughter Portia falls in love with Caesar, but her father demands that she confess his political ideals and renounce her love. At Deschamps, Cato proclaims his principle that the citizen owes the state unconditional loyalty, whereas the state owes nothing to the citizen.
Johann Christoph Gottsched wanted to create an exemplary German tragedy that corresponded to the needs of the Enlightenment period, a programmatic model drama as a practical implementation of his classical drama theory. For this he chose the Cato fabric. His tragedy The dying Cato , written in 1730 and premiered the following year, is composed largely of free, sometimes reinterpreted translations of parts of Addison's and Deschamps' plays. In the preface to the stage work, Gottsched explained his concept. Accordingly, the protagonist should not appear as a flawless figure. He is indeed very virtuous, but at the same time a erring person, his inflexibility turns into stubbornness. However, some modern interpreters see a discrepancy between this announcement in the preface and the portrayal of the hero in the play, which does not reveal any distance between the author. Whether Gottsched's treatment of the material actually illuminates the main character critically and thus corresponds to the reference in the preface is disputed in research. In any case, Gottsched was of the opinion that the historical Cato had not died an unshakable sage, but rather in despair, that he had wanted to escape the misfortune. Overwhelmed by his passions, he took his own life out of weariness. The “poetic”, fictional Cato as a literary figure is not bound to this historical fact.
Gottsched's tragedy was initially very successful, it dominated the German stages for over a decade, but then fierce criticism led to a rethink. The model tragedy sparked a dispute about Gottsched's theater concept, the “Cato Controversy”. Johann Jakob Bodmer wrote a very critical review of the drama in 1743 and published the parody Gottsched in 1765 , a tragedy in verse or the parody of Cato. In 1759 Lessing passed a damning judgment on the work, which had been made “with paste and scissors”. Although the criticism was aimed at the author and not the material, it also had an impact on the reception of the material in Germany, which declined from the late 1750s.
Epic and lyric
In his verse epic, printed in 1633, Martin Opitz praised Cato's inflexibility in the repugnance of the war , but condemned suicide as an act of pride and a reprehensible emotional act; Cato acted like a great dog.
In 1640 the republican-minded English poet Thomas May published his Supplementum Lucani, a seven-book supplement to Lukan's epic in Latin hexameters . May made Cato, in whom he saw a timeless symbol of freedom, his mouthpiece and emphasized his figure's philosophical examination of the afterlife.
Probably in the seventies of the 17th century the Silesian poet Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau wrote the lyrical monologue Cato, in which he let the Roman speak at the time of the decision to commit suicide. His concern was a current devastating criticism of the rulers. Hoffmannswaldaus Cato attacks Caesar powerfully and sharply accusingly in the name of "Freyheit". As a Lutheran , the poet thought of religious freedom, which he saw threatened by the Habsburg policy of recatholization in Silesia.
As early as 1752, Christoph Martin Wieland took a stand against the stoic ideal of dispassion in his early work Twelve Moral Letters in Verse . He criticized Cato, who was regarded as a model stoic but was by no means free of affect, who "snorts for revenge / full of anger curses the gods who exalt their enemy". The alleged hero killed himself out of pride so as not to "survive His Highness Fall". Wieland later planned to write an Anti-Cato in verse. In 1773 he published a preliminary report on Anti-Cato in which he presented a fragment of the poem. In the preliminary report he characterized Cato as a fanatic who was not master of his imagination. He compared the Roman idealist with the hero of the novel Don Quixote , who opposes his present with a fantasy world and thus makes himself look ridiculous.
politics
In the period 1720–1723 initially appeared in the newspaper The London Journal, later in The British Journal, a series of 144 essays in letter form on "freedom", whose authors John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon used the pseudonym Cato . This naming was inspired by Addison's popular drama. The authors advocated the Whigs' liberal beliefs . They considered the love of freedom to be the most important of all virtues, stood up for natural human rights and demanded that government power be limited. Her essays met with enthusiastic reception in Great Britain and especially in the North American colonies . They were compiled in one volume as Cato's Letters and, together with Addison's piece, had a great influence on the ideas of the American Revolution . The basic principles of the letters were equal rights and contractualism . In the colonies, distinctive sayings from Addison's tragedy were quoted in letters, speeches, pamphlets and conversations. Such quotes can be found, for example, in Benjamin Franklin , Patrick Henry and John Adams . Cato von Utica became a figure of identification for enlighteners who opposed "tyrannical" presumption. Addison's Cato figure made a particularly deep impression on George Washington , commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and first President of the USA. He used to quote from the drama, followed the example of the Roman hero and considered himself the new Cato. In his camp in Valley Forge , he had Addison's tragedy performed by his officers in 1778. The stage character Cato was supposed to give the army, which suffered from poor supplies in a hard winter, motivation to persevere.
In the 1780s there were heated disputes over the ratification of the United States Constitution . The “antifederalists” - opponents of a strong central government - attacked the relatively centralized federal constitution as a threat to republican freedom. They believed that constitutional centralism would mean the return of British monarchy and would eventually lead to tyranny. In doing so, they took up the traditional idea of the struggle of the Roman freedom hero Cato against the "tyrant" Caesar. Cato's name served as a pseudonym for a spokesman for opponents of the constitutional proposal.
In France in the 18th century, Cato was one of the most admired freedom heroes for supporters of the French Revolution . However, as a conservative defender of an existing state order, he was only partially suitable as a model for revolutionaries. Therefore, in the early days of the revolution, he resigned as a hero to his son-in-law, the Caesar murderer Brutus. In the later phases of the revolutionary epoch (1793–1799) one remembered his role as admonisher and warner before the fall of the republic and before monarchist activities, which was now topical. Robespierre expressed himself enthusiastically in a speech on May 7, 1794, in which he emphasized the stoicism of the Roman republican. Now a new Cato is needed for the war against all tyrants of the earth.
Visual arts
The pictorial representation of Cato's death began with a fresco by Domenico Beccafumi , which was created in Siena in the second or third decade of the 16th century . Giovanni Battista Grassi created another fresco in the castle of Udine in 1568 . The painters of the 17th and 18th centuries who chose this subject include Gioacchino Assereto (around 1639), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri "il Guercino" (1641), Charles Le Brun (1645/1646), Luca Giordano (around 1660) , Johann Carl Loth (several paintings, middle / 2nd half of the 17th century), Giovanni Battista Langetti (several paintings, third quarter of the 17th century), Johann Michael Rottmayr (1692), Giambettino Cignaroli (1762) and Guillaume Lethière ( 1795). When the Institut de France announced the Rome Prize in 1796, the theme was Cato's death. The following year, Pierre Narcisse Guérin , Pierre Bouillon and Louis André Gabriel Bouchet won the award .
The early modern images show partly the sword thrust, partly the scene in which Cato opens the wound and rips out his entrails. A change can be seen in dealing with the motif: while in Baroque painting the hero often appears calm, contemplative and philosophical despite the terrifying circumstances, his death appears in the three classicist designs that were awarded the Rome Prize in 1797 as a dramatic act of desperation.
music
A number of Cato operas were written in the 18th century. The libretto by Barthold Feind for the “musical drama” Cato was set to music by Reinhard Keizer ; the premiere took place in 1711. By far the most important impetus for presenting the material on the opera stage was provided by Pietro Metastasio . He wrote the libretto Catone in Utica , which was used by numerous composers from 1728 onwards. Metastasio's treatment of the subject ties in with the dramas by Addison and Deschamps. The political and military conflicts form the background to erotic entanglements. Cesare prepares the attack on Utica, but first goes unarmed with his partisan Fulvio in the enemy city to negotiate peace with Catone. Emilia, Pompeo's widow, wants to use this opportunity to murder Cesare. She tries to win Fulvio, who desires her, for her project. Fulvio only makes an appearance. Catone's daughter Marzia is supposed to marry a Numidian ally of her father, but there is a secret love affair between her and Cesare. The negotiations fail because of Catone's intransigence. Marzia then confesses her love for Cesare to her father. Catone is so angry about this that he casts out his daughter. After the victory of the enemy troops, he takes his own life. The willingness to compromise and generosity of Cesare, who regrets the death of his adversary, contrasts with Catone's irreconcilable attitude.
The settings of Metastasio's text include the Cato operas by Leonardo Vinci (1728), Leonardo Leo (1728), Johann Adolph Hasse (1731), Antonio Vivaldi (1737), Carl Heinrich Graun (1744), Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (1753) , Niccolò Jommelli (1754), Florian Leopold Gassmann (1761), Johann Christian Bach (1761), Niccolò Piccinni (1770), Giovanni Paisiello (1789) and Peter Winter (1791). The work by Johann Christian Bach was particularly popular; it was staged at least eight times between 1761 and 1772, making it his most successful opera.
Based on Leonardo Leo's opera, Georg Friedrich Handel created the pasticcio Catone , which was performed several times in London in 1732.
Modern
Classical Studies
In modern history, the judgments about Cato's personality and historical significance have turned out to be very ambivalent. Up to the present day, in the extensive specialist literature, there is a high level of recognition alongside devastating criticism and more differentiating approaches, without a clear trend or a predominant point of view emerging. In many representations, the moral qualities of the conservative senator are rated far more positively than his political balance sheet: on the one hand, his courage and integrity are recognized, but on the other hand he denies his sense of reality and statesmanlike foresight. But there is still no consensus on this either: some researchers not only regard him as an incompetent politician, but also consider his often vaunted moral authority to be questionable; others attribute not only respectable intentions to him, but also a good understanding of the situation and tactical skill. It is only undisputed that no other politician of the late republic has demanded the validity of moral norms in politics as impressively as Cato and that his personal implementation of his principles has given his contemporaries and posterity the reputation of being a moral example. Most historians consider it unquestionable that his struggle for the preservation of the republican state order was hopeless from the start and would ultimately have failed if the civil war had developed differently.
In the 19th century, research tied in with the traditional praise of the personality of Cato, which dominated the sources, but his measures were criticized by renowned scholars as wrong. The pronounced admiration for Caesar contributed to a relatively unfavorable assessment of the role of his main adversary. Barthold Georg Niebuhr made a sharp distinction between the moral and the political balance sheet. In Niebuhr's view, it would be “the most hideous misunderstanding of human virtue” to doubt Cato's “purity”. His personality is "above reproach". Nevertheless, he had "infinitely harmed" the community by alienating the knights from the senate, offending the tax farmers and having the Catilinarians executed. Theodor Mommsen brought about a lasting change from traditional high esteem in 1856 with the third volume of his Roman history . Although he praised individual characteristics of Cato, he came to a devastating verdict overall. Mommsen's admiration for Caesar's statesmanlike genius was combined with disdain for his opponent, who appeared to the historian to be a stubborn advocate of outdated ideals. According to Mommsen's assessment, Cato was one of the most unpleasant phenomena of his epoch, a strange caricature of Cato the Elder, a "cloudwalker in the realm of abstract moral philosophy" and the " Don Quixote of the aristocracy". He had missed everything about a statesman, for he was unable to even understand a political purpose and to survey political conditions. Thanks to his honesty, however, he succeeded in tearing the “so-called constitutionality” with which Caesar had clothed his monarchy like cobwebs. Cato played a greater historical role than many far more important men because - as Mommsen wrote in later editions of his Roman history - "all the majesty and glory of human nature are ultimately not based on prudence, but on honesty".
In 1918 Eduard Meyer's monograph Caesar's Monarchy and the Principate of Pompey appeared, in which he vehemently contradicted Mommsen's assessments. Meyer thought that Mommsen had drawn a caricature of Cato by emphasizing individual features on one side; in his conviction of Catos he had let himself be guided by his hatred of the "Junkers", the Junkerism of the post-1848 reactionary era . In reality, Cato was a sociable, highly educated personality and did take the respective circumstances into account. His letter to Cicero shows his “delicacy of form and sensation”.
In 1932, Joseph Vogt put forward the assessment that Cato had defended the republic as a bulwark of civil liberty and as a guarantee for the continued existence of Roman rule and had offered extreme resistance to all innovations. Because of his stoic disposition, which is determined by seriousness and sincerity, his rigidification on forms that have largely become meaningless did not appear ridiculous. His characterful contradiction against the corruption of the environment has given the aristocratic republic "heroic splendor even in its fall".
Matthias Gelzer warned in 1934 against underestimating Cato's political importance. Caesar thought he was his strongest and most dangerous enemy. Cato is undoubtedly one of the most effective figures of Roman antiquity. In the judgment of historical research he could "certainly not claim the highest but high rank". According to Gelzer, his “mighty shadow” darkened the further centuries of Roman history, because under the impression of his death they appeared as a time that could no longer offer a real Roman like himself a living space. However, in Gelzer's opinion, Cato was neither a statesman nor a prophet. His life was exhausted in protest against conditions without improving them. His Romanism was primitive, but one-sided, and his death did not uplift his contemporaries, but rather made them feel inferior.
In 1936, Jérôme Carcopino found that Cato, in his doctrinal delusion, had neither understood how to reform the traditional state order in good time, nor how to defend it in the inevitable struggle for existence.
Ernst Kornemann judged similarly to Mommsen, albeit less harshly, in 1938. He believed that the constitution had become untenable and that no new, fruitful ideas could have been developed in the Senate. Cato's stubbornness actually accelerated the inevitable introduction of the monarchy. His "permanent obstruction" could not save the state. The suicide of the fighter, who was completely rooted in the past and its ideals, was "the confession that the centuries of his worldview were finally over". He always believed in the "Senate Regiment", which however was no longer sufficient for the "advanced state building".
In 1939 the standard work The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme was published . The renowned Oxford historian saw Cato as an astute politician. The profiled Optimat was by no means a fanatic, rather he appeared as a realist with an old Roman temperament and tenacity. He also owed his influence to the fact that he dominated one of the intersections in the political ties of the nobles.
Lily Ross Taylor found in 1949 that Cato was not a great statesman and that he lacked constructive ideas. However, she pointed out that he recognized the problems of his time and understood the requirements of government of a great empire better than other optimates. He urged to uphold the rule of law, to show consideration for allies and the vanquished and to spare the civilian population as much as possible during war. He waged his futile struggle with no illusions and therefore almost no hope.
Franz Miltner wrote the detailed biographical article about Cato in Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity in 1953. Miltner dealt with Mommsen's judgment, which in his view is “completely astray”, and came to an overall very positive overall assessment of the republican politician. This had also proven himself as a troop leader, especially in Africa, where he had accomplished a significant organizational achievement; there he managed to keep his teams together "for an almost obviously lost and hopeless cause". With all the "perhaps not unwanted theatrical effect", Cato was not concerned with the phrase, but "with the deed and its effectiveness".
In 1960, Alfred Heuss described Cato as the "pillar of the Senate aristocracy and at times nothing less than its moral support". He had "a clear line like no one else" and had a keen eye for the dangers that threatened the Senate nobility. What he missed, however, was the intellectual and spiritual fullness of Cicero. Therefore he sometimes appeared like a pedant. For Heuss, however, Cato's demeanor proves that the attitude to which the Roman aristocracy "once owed its greatness was not yet extinct".
Hermann Bengtson expressed himself in 1967. In his words, Cato showed the world that the ideals of the free republic were not extinct. However, his life also showed "some less sympathetic traits", such as his "doctrinarism displayed with complacency".
In 1974, Erich S. Gruen turned against the portrayal of Cato, which was widespread among his colleagues, as unrealistic, stubborn and incapable of compromise. The republican spokesman was not a utopian, but an insightful politician and the author of sensible measures. According to Gruens, the severity of Cato's resistance to Caesar and Pompey was calculated: he wanted to provoke them to take extreme steps in order to discredit them.
In 1974 Kurt Raaflaub differentiated between two directions among Caesar's opponents. According to Raaflaub, a group, of which Cato was one of the leaders, fought vigorously Caesar with political means, but expected to be able to avoid civil war. A “far more radical wing” acted differently, speculating on a war from the start and actually wishing it to happen.
Michael Grant characterized Cato 1978 as "a strong personality, cruel, vengeful, hard-drinking and intolerant of everything that did not meet the standards of tradition".
In 1979, Karl Christ emphasized the futility of Cato's efforts. According to his findings, the republic could no longer be saved simply by observing the “old constitutional norms that had long since been unhinged”, because all the prerequisites for Cato's “archaic republican attitude and convictions” no longer existed. So he had to fail. In Cato - according to Christ - unconditional and uncompromising aristocratic attitudes were paired with a high level of personal courage, but much about him seemed "wanted, artificial, alien, even theatrically affected or quirky".
In 1981, Hans Jürgen Tschiedel expressed the view that there was a fundamental polarity between Caesar and Cato, which "does not leave the viewer uninvolved, but challenges him to take sides". This constellation makes it difficult or impossible to objectively grasp the facts, "because everyone in the dispute between these two men feels something about the problem of their own existence". One motive for the glorification of Catos, which has been common since antiquity, is the "solidarity of the failed and inferior".
Christian Meier published a biography of Caesar in 1982, which received a lot of attention in the German-speaking world. He saw Caesar and Cato as "the two strongest characters of the late republic" and described Cato as a principled politician "down to the bizarre" who was a Don Quixote in many ways, but resourceful and unconventional in his tactics and a man first Authority such as only the Roman Republic could have produced. Although there was disintegration in the republic, there was no crisis of legitimacy, because dissatisfaction had not been generalized as a criticism of the system. Hence the frequent modern objection to Cato's policy, that he did not recognize the deep crisis of the republic and the survival of the aristocratic regime, is unjustified. In Meier's view, it is "absolutely not to be expected of the leading stratum of a community that they simply give up their power"; a voluntary surrender or retreat of the republican nobility would have been irresponsible according to the moral standards of the time. Moreover, antiquity thought structurally; it was inconceivable that “the present could be out of date”.
Rudolf Fehrle painted a decidedly positive picture in 1983 in his biography of Cato. He emphasized the ability of the prominent optimate to mobilize and organize the republican forces and his great authority not only in aristocratic circles, but also among the people of Rome. He also tackled structural problems in the system. According to Fehrle's account, Cato was by no means a secondary character; in terms of tactical skill he was equal to Caesar, in terms of commitment to the common good he was far superior to him.
The monograph Caesar in 44 BC Chr. By Andreas Alföldi was only published from his estate in 1985, four years after the author's death. Alföldi criticized the "complete passivity of the moral attitude of the rigorous stoic" Cato, who was primarily concerned with his immaculate lifestyle. His activity was completely turned to the past. This attitude has grown into a "harmful negativism" that has prevented the smooth course of healthy political development. Cato's moral world only comprised the "rotten nobility", not humanity. His severity is in contrast to Caesar's mildness, which was future-oriented and served "the whole empire, all individuals".
Werner Dahlheim took a position in 1987 in his Caesar biography in line with Mommsen's verdict. He said that Cato undoubtedly had format, but was an old Roman stubborn head. One could easily lead him on the black ice. His "inability to recognize even half-truths" does not give good testimony to his political talent. In his political actions there is "too much donkey quixote".
In his 1999 biography of Caesar, Luciano Canfora made derogatory comments about Cato, who was a stubborn formalist. Although he was the highest moral authority on the front of the “righteous”, he considered voter bribery to be legitimate if, in his view, it was in the interests of the state. Wolfgang Will judged similarly . In 2009 he wrote that Cato's selfishness was draped as a struggle for others and that his suicide was his greatest political achievement.
politics
The Cato Institute is named after Cato , a think tank founded in Washington, DC in 1977. According to his self-description, the institute advocates personal freedom rights, the limitation of government power and freedom of the markets. It invokes the principles of Cato's Letters.
Fiction
In the modern age, Cato was rarely made the title hero of fictional works. The Portuguese writer and poet Almeida Garrett created the tragedy Catão, which premiered in 1821.
Bertolt Brecht portrayed Cato as a drunkard in his historical novel The Businesses of Mr. Julius Caesar . In his play La guerre civile, premiered in 1965, Henry de Montherlant had a doubting, disaffected Cato appear alongside the protagonist Pompey. Montherlants Cato is not convinced of the justice of the cause for which he is fighting. After losing all collateral, he is exposed to absurdity.
literature
Overview representations
- Elke Stein-Hölkeskamp : Marcus Porcius Cato - the stoic fighter for the lost republic. In: Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp , Elke Stein-Hölkeskamp (ed.): From Romulus to Augustus. Great figures of the Roman Republic. 2nd Edition. Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-61203-9 , pp. 292-306
- Matthias Gelzer : Cato Uticensis. In: Matthias Gelzer: Small writings. Volume 2. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1963, pp. 257-285
- Franz Miltner , Walter Hatto Gross : M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XXII, 1, Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-213.
Overall representations
- Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis (= impulses for research. Volume 43). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1983, ISBN 3-534-09214-7
- Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni: Rome's Last Citizen. The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar. Thomas Dunne, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-312-68123-4 (popular science)
- Sabine Wussow: The personality of Cato Uticensis - Between stoic moral philosophy and republican understanding of politics. Unprinted dissertation, University of Düsseldorf, 2004 ( online )
reception
- Barbara Beßlich : Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Volume 1. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020405-6 , pp. 365-392
- Hildegard Biller: Cato the Younger in the Latin Reception of Christian Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In: Mediaevistik. Vol. 12, 1999, pp. 41-184
- Danièle Bouché: Le mythe de Caton: étude de l'élaboration et du développement d'un mythe politique à Rome de la fin de la République au deuxième siècle après Jésus Christ. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Villeneuve d'Ascq 2001, ISBN 2-284-01474-7
- Delphine Carron: Le héros de la liberté. Les aventures philosophiques de Caton au Moyen Âge latin, de Paul Diacre à Dante. Unprinted dissertation, University of Paris IV, 2010 ( online ; very detailed, also covers the ancient Cato reception)
- Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. In excerpts from antiquity to modern times. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-61547-8
- Robert J. Goar: The Legend of Cato Uticensis from the First Century BC to the Fifth Century AD (= Collection Latomus. Volume 197). Latomus, Bruxelles 1987, ISBN 2-87031-137-0
- Ulrich Schmitzer : Cato. In: Peter von Möllendorff , Annette Simonis, Linda Simonis (ed.): Historical figures of antiquity. Reception in literature, art and music (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 8). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2013, ISBN 978-3-476-02468-8 , Sp. 259-266.
Web links
- Literature about Cato the Younger in the catalog of the German National Library
- Plutarch's biography of Cato in English translation
- Denarius minted by Cato as propraetor in Africa in the Münzkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Remarks
- ↑ This date of the pre-Julian Roman calendar corresponds to February 13, 46 BC. According to the Julian calendar introduced in the following year .
- ↑ For the dating see Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 64 and note 9.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 50-54. Cf. on the genealogy of Ann-Cathrin Harder: The family relationships of Servilia, wife of L. Licinius Lucullus: sister or niece of Cato Uticensis? In: Historia . Volume 56, 2007, pp. 453–461.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 63-65; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1, Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 168 f.
- ^ Plutarch, Cato minor 1–3. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 65-67.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 4. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 67 f .; Sabine Wussow: The personality of Cato Uticensis. Düsseldorf 2004, p. 36 f. ( online ).
- ^ Rex Stem: The First Eloquent Stoic: Cicero on Cato the Younger. In: The Classical Journal. Vol. 101, 2005, pp. 37-49; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 117 f. See, however, the differing assessment of William C. McDermott: Cato the Younger: loquax or eloquens? In: The Classical Bulletin. Vol. 46, 1969/1970, pp. 65-75.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 7. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 59; Matthias Gelzer: Cato Uticensis. In: Matthias Gelzer: Small writings. Vol. 2. Wiesbaden 1963, pp. 257–285, here: 261.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 8. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 69 f .; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1, Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 169.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 24 f. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 59 f.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 8 f. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 70 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 71 and note 35.
- ↑ On Athenodoros see Simone Follet: Athénodore de Tarse dit Cordylion. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 1. Paris 1989, p. 658 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 73-76; Jane Bellemore: Cato the Younger in the East in 66 BC In: Historia. Volume 44, 1995, pp. 376-379; Paul Ernst: L'arrivée de Caton le Jeune à Antioche dans les récits de Plutarque et de Julien. In: Revue des Études grecques . Vol. 125, 2012, pp. 443-472.
- ^ Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, p. 211 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 76-82; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 130 f.
- ↑ Donald M. Ayers attempted a reconstruction of Cato's speech: Cato's Speech against Murena. In: The Classical Journal. Vol. 49, 1954, pp. 245-253.
- ↑ Marcus Beck: Cato - beautiful, rich, royal? In: Thomas Brüggemann et al. (Ed.): Studia hellenistica et historiographica. Gutenberg 2010, pp. 331-339; Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, pp. 213-216; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 86-91.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 81-85; Matthias Gelzer: Cato Uticensis. In: Matthias Gelzer: Small writings. Vol. 2. Wiesbaden 1963, pp. 257-285, here: 266-268. On the antagonism between optimates and populars, see Henrik Mouritsen: Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2001, pp. 67-89.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 91-95; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 135-139; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 16-21.
- ↑ CIL 6, 40904 . See Silvio Panciera: Catilina e Catone su due coppette romane. In: Philias charin. Miscellanea di studi classici in onore di Eugenio Manni. Vol. 5. Rome 1980, pp. 1635-1661.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 97-101; Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, p. 217 f .; Sabine Wussow: The personality of Cato Uticensis. Düsseldorf 2004, p. 47 ( online ).
- ^ Plutarch, Cato minor 26–30. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 101-105; Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, p. 218 f .; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 143-146.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 30. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 54, 105; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 28 f.
- ↑ Robin Seager: Pompey. Oxford 1979, p. 76 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 108.
- ^ Christian Meier: Res publica amissa. 2nd Edition. Frankfurt 1988, pp. 270-276; Robin Seager: Pompey. Oxford 1979, pp. 79 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 112-114.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 106-108; Wolfgang Will: Caesar. Darmstadt 2009, pp. 70-74; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 150 f.
- ↑ Robin Seager: Pompey. Oxford 1979, pp. 78-80; Matthias Gelzer: Pompey. 2nd, supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 120-122; Christian Meier: Res publica amissa. 2nd edition, Frankfurt 1988, p. 276 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 108-111; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 33-36.
- ^ Christian Meier: Caesar. Berlin 1982, pp. 232-238; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 115-117; Adrian Goldsworthy : Caesar. New Haven 2006, pp. 158-164.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 118-120; Adrian Goldsworthy: Caesar. New Haven 2006, pp. 164-166.
- ^ Christian Meier: Caesar. Berlin 1982, pp. 259-262; Wolfgang Will: Caesar. Darmstadt 2009, p. 83 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 121 f .; Jochen Martin : The Populars in the History of the Late Republic. Freiburg 1965, pp. 74 f .; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 37-39.
- ↑ Wolfgang Will: Caesar. Darmstadt 2009, p. 84 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 122-126; Adrian Goldsworthy: Caesar. New Haven 2006, pp. 169-172. However, Jane Bellemore denies the historicity of the oath: Cato's opposition to Caesar in 59 BC. In: Kathryn Welch, Tom W. Hillard (eds.): Roman Crossings. Swansea 2005, pp. 225-257, here: 227-235.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 126-136; Wolfgang Will: Caesar. Darmstadt 2009, pp. 85-90.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 141-145; Ernst Badian : M. Porcius Cato and the Annexation and Early Administration of Cyprus. In: The Journal of Roman Studies . Vol. 55, 1965, pp. 110-121, here: 110-113, 116 f .; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 42f., 45-48.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 146-155.
- ↑ On the controversies surrounding the Cyprus mission, see Giuseppe Zecchini: Catone a Cipro (58–56 aC): dal dibattito politico alle polemiche storiografiche. In: Aevum. Volume 53, 1979, pp. 78-87; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 59-62.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 153, 156-166; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 162-167.
- ↑ Matthias Gelzer: Pompey. 2nd, supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2005, p. 143 f .; Robin Seager: Pompey. Oxford 1979, pp. 123-128; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 165 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 166 f.
- ↑ Peter Nadig : Ardet ambitus. Frankfurt 1997, p. 89 f .; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 167 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 170-175; Matthias Gelzer: Caesar. 2nd, expanded edition. Stuttgart 2008, p. 106 f .; Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, pp. 225 f., 228; Adam Afzelius: The Political Significance of the Younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 170 f.
- ↑ On Cato's stoicism see Adam Afzelius: The political meaning of the younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 111-114, 116 f. See Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, pp. 245-247.
- ↑ Matthias Gelzer: The application of Cato Uticensis to deliver Caesar to the Germanic peoples. In: Ekkehard Kaufmann (ed.): Festgabe für Paul Kirn. Berlin 1961, pp. 46-53; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 175-180; Ulrich Maier: Caesar's campaigns in Gaul (58–51 BC) in their connection with urban Roman politics. Bonn 1978, p. 85 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 188-191; Peter Nadig: Ardet ambitus. Frankfurt 1997, pp. 90-92.
- ↑ Matthias Gelzer: Pompey. 2nd, supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 153-156; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 180, 192-201.
- ^ Eva Cantarella : Matrimonio e sessualità nella Roma repubblicana: una storia romana di amore coniugale. In: Bullettino dell'Istituto di diritto romano “Vittorio Scialoja”. Vol. 100, 1997, pp. 205-218; Robert Flacelière: Caton d'Utique et les femmes. In: L'Italie préromane et la Rome républicaine. Mélanges offerts à Jacques Heurgon. Vol. 1. Rome 1976, pp. 293-302.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 205-211; Matthias Gelzer: Pompey. 2nd, supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 156-160.
- ^ Henriette van der Blom: Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge 2016, pp. 234-236; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 214-218.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 219-240; Adrian Goldsworthy: Caesar. New Haven 2006, pp. 361-379; Matthias Gelzer: Pompey. 2nd, supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 167-182; Matthias Gelzer: Caesar. 2nd, expanded edition. Stuttgart 2008, pp. 144-164.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 241-248; Matthias Gelzer: Pompey. 2nd, supplemented edition. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 183-195.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 248-255; Peter Mansson Russo: Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis: A Political Reappraisal. Ann Arbor 1976, pp. 88-90.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 255-258; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 197-199.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 258-261; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 199 f.
- ↑ See on this coinage and its dating Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 320 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 261-263.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 263-267; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 200 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 267 f .; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, col. 168-211, here: 201.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 268-270; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 201 f.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 271-278; Christian Meier: Caesar. Berlin 1982, pp. 505-508; Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, col. 168-211, here: 202-205.
- ↑ On the reconstruction of Livius see Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 39-48; Kai Ruffing : Cato Uticensis and its perception in antiquity. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 175–202, here: 193.
- ^ Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares 15.5.
- ↑ Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae 50-54.
- ^ Richard Goulet: Thrasea Paetus (P. Clodius). In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 6. Paris 2016, pp. 1142–1146.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 1-48.
- ^ Plutarch, Cato minor 71.
- ↑ Appian, Bella civilia 2,101.
- ↑ Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 1,17,3. Cf. Alfred Hermann: Cato. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Vol. 2. Stuttgart 1954, Col. 927-942, here: 934; Götz Lahusen : Roman portraits. Mainz 2010, p. 221.
- ↑ A detailed study is offered by Andreas Grüner : Cato and the Nymphs. In: Gymnasium . Volume 111, 2004, pp. 529–555 (for dating p. 529 note 2). Cf. Erika Zwierlein-Diehl : Gem-portraits of M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1973, pp. 272–287, here: pp. 285 f. and notes 59 and 62.
- ↑ Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: Gem-portraits of M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1973, pp. 272–287, here: p. 285 and note 60.
- ↑ Jocelyn MC Toynbee : Roman Historical Portraits. London 1978, p. 40; Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: Gem-portraits of M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1973, pp. 272–287, here: p. 285 and note 61.
- ↑ Anne-Kathrein Massner: Portrait adjustment . Berlin 1982, p. 19 f.
- ^ Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Inv. No. 1944 ( picture and description online ); Götz Lahusen: Roman portraits. Mainz 2010, p. 66.
- ↑ This hypothesis comes from Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: Gemmenbildnisse des M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1973, pp. 272–287, here: 279–287; Jocelyn MC Toynbee is skeptical: Roman Historical Portraits. London 1978, p. 41 Note 3. See Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 200 f.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 53; Lukan, De bello civili 2,372-378.
- ↑ See Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: Gemmenbildnisse des M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 1973, pp. 272–287, here: 285.
- ^ Molly Pasco pillory: Naming Cato (s). In: The Classical Journal. Vol. 108, 2012–2013, pp. 1–35, here: 1 f .; Alfred Hermann: Cato. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity. Vol. 2. Stuttgart 1954, Col. 927-942, here: 930, 933 f., 940; Vincent Buchheit : Catullus to Cato of Utica (c. 56). In: Hermes . Vol. 89, 1961, pp. 345-356, here: 353-356.
- ↑ Marcus Beck: Cato - beautiful, rich, royal? In: Thomas Brüggemann et al. (Ed.): Studia hellenistica et historiographica. Gutenberg 2010, pp. 331-339.
- ^ Hans Jürgen Tschiedel: Caesar's 'Anticato'. Darmstadt 1981, p. 6 f., 15.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 279-286.
- ↑ See Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 10-16; Kazimierz Kumaniecki: Cicero's "Cato". In: Walter Wimmel (Ed.): Research on Roman literature. Part 2. Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 168-188; Wilhelm Kierdorf : Cicero's "Cato". In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . Vol. 121, 1978, pp. 167-184.
- ^ Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 19-21.
- ↑ Kazimierz Kumaniecki: Cicero's "Cato". In: Walter Wimmel (Ed.): Research on Roman literature. Part 2. Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 168-188, here: 173-182; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 21-30. Hans Jürgen Tschiedel offers a detailed study: Caesar's 'Anticato'. Darmstadt 1981.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 22, 280-302; Giuseppe Zecchini: La morte di Catone e l'opposizione intellettuale a Cesare e ad Augusto. In: Athenaeum. Vol. 58, 1980, pp. 39-56; Hans Jürgen Tschiedel: Caesar's 'Anticato'. Darmstadt 1981, pp. 7-21.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 303-316; Hildegard Biller: Cato the Younger in the Latin Reception of Christian Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In: Mediaevistik. Vol. 12, 1999, pp. 41-184, here: 50-65; Karl Büchner: On the Synkrisis Cato - Caesar in Sallust's Catilina. In: Graz contributions. Vol. 5, 1976, pp. 37-57.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 293 f., 302.
- ^ Robert J. Goar: The Legend of Cato Uticensis from the First Century BC to the Fifth Century AD Bruxelles 1987, p. 29; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 301 f .; Ronald Syme: The Roman Revolution. Stuttgart 2003, p. 533 f.
- ^ Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 46-48; Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 24-27; Kai Ruffing: Cato Uticensis and its perception in antiquity. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 175–202, here: 200–202.
- ^ Danièle Bouché: Le mythe de Caton. Villeneuve d'Ascq 2001, pp. 350-372; David B. George: Lucan's Cato and Stoic Attitudes to the Republic. In: Classical Antiquity. Vol. 10, 1991, pp. 237-258; Robert J. Goar: The Legend of Cato Uticensis from the First Century BC to the Fifth Century AD Bruxelles 1987, pp. 51-61, 65; on the late antique reception Simona Rota: Catone l'Uticense e Teoderico. In: Marcello Rotili (ed.): Società multiculturali nei secoli V – IX. Napoli 2001, pp. 81-89.
- ↑ Hans Jürgen Tschiedel: Caesar and the intoxicated Cato. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. Vol. 3, 1977, pp. 105-113, here: 106. Cf. Adam Afzelius: The political significance of the younger Cato. In: Classica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 4, 1941, pp. 100-203, here: 109 f.
- ↑ Virgil, Aeneid 8,670. See on the reception of Cato in the Augustan poetry Massimo Pierpaoli: Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae (Hor. Carm. III 3, 7-8). In: Maia. Vol. 54, 2002, pp. 1-18, here: 3-6; Robert D. Brown: Catonis nobile letum and the List of Romans in Horace Odes 1.12. In: Phoenix. Vol. 45, 1991, pp. 326-340; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 45–51.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 23-27; Robert J. Goar: The Legend of Cato Uticensis from the First Century BC to the Fifth Century AD Bruxelles 1987, p. 30 f.
- ↑ Seneca, De tranquillitate animi 16.1.
- ^ Alfred Hermann: Cato. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity. Vol. 2. Stuttgart 1954, Col. 927-942, here: 930-933; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 52-58; Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365–392, here: 370–373.
- ^ Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, p. 53 f.
- ↑ Lukan, De bello civili 9,601.
- ↑ Lukan, De bello civili 1,128.
- ^ Johanes H. Brouwers: Lucan on Cato Uticensis as exemplar virtutis. In: Antonius AR Bastiaensen et al. (Ed.): Fructus centesimus. Steenbrugge 1989, pp. 49-60; Tim Stover: Cato and the intended scope of Lucan's Bellum Civile. In: Classical Quarterly . Vol. 58, 2008, pp. 571-580; Vanessa B. Gorman: Lucan's Epic Aristeia and the Hero of the Bellum Civile. In: The Classical Journal. Vol. 96, 2000-2001, pp. 263-290, here: 284-288; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 59-75.
- ↑ See Mira Seo: Lucan's Cato and the Poetics of Exemplarity. In: Paolo Asso (ed.): Brill's Companion to Lucan. Leiden 2011, pp. 199-221; Ben Tipping: Terrible Manliness? Lucan's Cato. In: Paolo Asso (ed.): Brill's Companion to Lucan. Leiden 2011, pp. 223-236.
- ^ Robert Sklenář: Nihilistic Cosmology and Catonian Ethics in Lucan's Bellum Civile. In: American Journal of Philology . Vol. 120, 1999, pp. 281-296.
- ^ Emanuele Narducci : Catone in Lucano (e alcune interpretazioni recenti). In: Athenaeum. Vol. 89, 2001, pp. 171-186; Christian Rudolf Raschle: Pestes Harenae. Frankfurt 2001, pp. 39 f., 56 f., 105-115; Emily E. Batinski: Cato and the Battle with the Serpents. In: Syllecta Classica. Vol. 3, 1991, pp. 71-80.
- ^ Livius, Ab urbe condita 114, fragment 55, ed. by Paul Jal: Tite-Live: Histoire romaine. Vol. 33. Paris 1979, p. 227.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, p. 48.
- ^ Arturo De Vito: La morte negata. Catone Uticense nella “Storia” di Velleio. In: Index. Quaderni camerti di studi romanistici. Vol. 18, 1990, pp. 101-112; Kai Ruffing: Cato Uticensis and its perception in antiquity. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 175–202, here: 194 f.
- ↑ See also Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 15 f., 18-21.
- ↑ Plutarch, Cato minor 67-70.
- ↑ Alexei V. Zadorojnyi: Cato's Suicide in Plutarch. In: Classical Quarterly. Vol. 57, 2007, pp. 216-230.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. 33-39. On Dio's assessment of Cato's friendliness towards the people, see Henriette van der Blom: Cato and the people. In: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Vol. 55, No. 2, 2012, pp. 39-56.
- ↑ Laktanz, Divinae institutiones 3, 18, 11 f.
- ↑ Augustine, De civitate dei 1,23; see. 19.4.
- ↑ See on the judgment of the ancient Christians Hildegard Biller: Cato the Younger in the Latin Reception of Christian Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In: Mediaevistik. Vol. 12, 1999, pp. 41-184, here: 44 f., 150-164 (abstract); Alfred Hermann: Cato. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity. Vol. 2. Stuttgart 1954, Col. 927-942, here: 938-940; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 95-105; Robert J. Goar: The Legend of Cato Uticensis from the First Century BC to the Fifth Century AD Bruxelles 1987, pp. 77-100.
- ↑ See Rodolfo Funari: Un ciclo di tradizione repubblicana nel Palazzo Pubblico di Siena. Siena 2002, pp. V, 31-35.
- ↑ Delphine Carron: Presence de la figure de Caton le philosophe dans les proverbes et examples médiévaux. In: Hugo O. Bizzarri, Martin Rohde (ed.): Tradition des proverbes et des exempla dans l'Occident médiéval. Berlin 2009, pp. 165–190, here: 171–174; Delphine Carron: Représentations médiévales du sage stoïcien à travers la figure de Caton (XII e –XIV e siècles). In: Alessandro Musco et al. (Ed.): Universalità della Ragione. Pluralità delle Filosofie nel Medioevo. Vol. 2.1. Palermo 2012, pp. 433-441. The presentation in Carron's unprinted dissertation Le héros de la liberté (2010), p. 325 ff. ( Online ) is very detailed .
- ^ Delphine Carron Faivre: Les suicides de Caton. Legends mediévales near the mort d'un stoicien romain. In: Micrologus. Vol. 21, 2013, pp. 81-101, here: 85-95.
- ^ Jeanette MA Beer: A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue? In: Speculum. Vol. 47, 1972, pp. 52-59.
- ^ Ronald L. Martinez: Cato of Utica. In: Richard Lansing (Ed.): The Dante Encyclopedia. London 2010, pp. 146-149; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 106–118.
- ↑ Delphine Carron: Le Comentum super Dantis Aldigherij Comœdiam de Benvenuto da Imola et le débat sur l'Italie Caton dans du XIV e siècle. In: Rassegna europea di letteratura italiana. Vol. 35, 2010, pp. 135-152.
- ↑ See Ian Donaldson: Cato in Tears: Stoical Guises of the Man of Feeling. In: Robert Francis Brissenden (Ed.): Studies in the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 2. Canberra 1973, pp. 377-395, here: 380-383.
- ↑ Michel de Montaigne: Essais 1.37. Cf. Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 377 f.
- ^ Hugo Friedrich : Montaigne's skeptical reception of the Stoa. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 525-548, here: 544-546.
- ^ Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Discours sur l'économie politique. In: Bernard Gagnebin, Marcel Raymond (eds.): Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Œuvres complètes. Vol. 3. Paris 1966, pp. 239–278, here: 255. Cf. Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 385 f.
- ^ Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Émile. In: Bernard Gagnebin, Marcel Raymond (eds.): Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Œuvres complètes. Vol. 4. Paris 1969, pp. 239–877, here: 596. Cf. Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 386 f.
- ↑ Nathaniel Wolloch: Cato the Younger in the Enlightenment. In: Modern Philology. Vol. 106, 2008/2009, pp. 60-82, here: 72 f.
- ^ Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 130 f .; Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365–392, here: 378.
- ↑ Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 380, 387 f.
- ↑ Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 381; Francesca D'Alessandro Behr: Lucan's Cato, Joseph Addison's Cato, and the Poetics of Passion. In: Paolo Asso (ed.): Brill's Companion to Lucan. Leiden 2011, pp. 525-545; Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 131–135.
- ^ Stephan Gäth: The literary reception of Cato Uticensis. Frankfurt 2011, pp. 136-139; Wolfgang Ranke: Theater morale. Würzburg 2009, pp. 116-122.
- ↑ Wolfgang Ranke: Theater morality. Würzburg 2009, pp. 98-110, 122-126, 179-192.
- ↑ Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 384 f., 390.
- ↑ See also Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 378 f.
- ↑ See Sonja M. Schreiner: Cato Uticensis as a literary figure in the Supplementum Lucani (1640) by Thomas May: Reception of ancient historiography and epics under Charles I. In: Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. Vol. 43, 2003, pp. 49-478.
- ↑ See also Marie-Thérèse Mourey: "... And Caesar, you wipe out your fame from the earth ...": Hoffmannswaldaus Cato as a symbol of the Silesian rejection of imperial and royal power. In: Pierre Béhar, Herbert Schneider (ed.): The Prince and his people. St. Ingbert 2004, pp. 243-267. Cf. Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 379 f.
- ^ Christoph Martin Wieland: Wielands works. Vol. 1. Berlin 1909, p. 242.
- ^ See on Wieland's statements Dieter Martin: Wieland's discussion of stoicism from the spirit of skeptical enlightenment. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 2. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 855–873, here: 860–865.
- ^ Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni: Rome's Last Citizen. New York 2012, p. 299; Thomas Clark: "Let Cato's virtues fire". Cato Uticensis and the American Revolution. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 203–217, here: 203–207.
- ^ Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni: Rome's Last Citizen. New York 2012, pp. 300-304; Thomas Clark: "Let Cato's virtues fire". Cato Uticensis and the American Revolution. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 203-217, here: 205-207, 215 f.
- ↑ Mathias Hanses: Antique picture in "Federalist" / "Anti-Federalist". In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 85–110, here: 89, 94 f .; Thomas Clark: "Let Cato's virtues fire". Cato Uticensis and the American Revolution. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 203-217, here: 210 f.
- ↑ Barbara Beßlich: Cato as a representative of stoically formed republicanism from antiquity to the French Revolution. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 365-392, here: 387 f.
- ↑ Jochen Schmidt : Basics, continuity and historical change of stoicism. In: Barbara Neymeyr et al. (Ed.): Stoicism in European philosophy, literature, art and politics. Vol. 1. Berlin / New York 2008, pp. 3–133, here: 109 f.
- ^ Musei di Strada Nova, Palazzo Bianco , Genoa.
- ^ Guercino's paintings in the Musei di Strada Nova, Palazzo Rosso , Genoa.
- ↑ Le Bruns painting in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Arras .
- ^ The Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario . The painting was previously attributed to Jusepe de Ribera .
- ^ A painting by Loth of Cato in the National Museum in Warsaw.
- ^ A painting by Langetti by Cato in the Hermitage , Saint Petersburg.
- ^ Rottmayr's painting in private ownership in Payerbach , missing since 2010 (theft).
- ^ Szépművészeti Múzeum , Budapest. For this painting, see Joseph Geiger: Giambettino Cignaroli's Deaths of Cato and of Socrates. In: Journal for Art History . Vol. 59, 1996, pp. 270-278 (with illustration of the painting p. 271).
- ↑ Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.
- ↑ Guérin's painting in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts , Paris.
- ^ Bouillons painting in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
- ^ Bouchet's painting in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
- ↑ Andor Pigler offers a directory of early modern Cato pictures: Barockthemen . 2nd, expanded edition. Vol. 2. Budapest 1974, p. 376 f.
- ↑ Gabriele Oberreuter-Kronabel: The death of the philosopher. Munich 1986, pp. 112-118.
- ^ Don Neville: Catone in Utica. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. 2nd, corrected edition. Vol. 1. London 1994, pp. 776 f.
- ^ Don Neville: Catone in Utica. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. 2nd, corrected edition. Vol. 1. London 1994, pp. 776 f .; Don Neville: Metastasio, Pietro. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. 2nd, corrected edition. Vol. 3. London 1994, pp. 351-361, here: 355.
- ↑ Ulrich Schmitzer offers a brief overview: Cato. In: Peter von Möllendorff et al. (Ed.): Historische Gestalten der Antike (= Der Neue Pauly. Supplements. Vol. 8). Stuttgart 2013, Col. 259–266, here: 264 f.
- ^ Barthold Georg Niebuhr: Lectures on Roman history. Vol. 3. Berlin 1848, p. 67 f.
- ^ Theodor Mommsen: Roman history. Vol. 3, Berlin 1856, pp. 150 f., 426; see. the 6th edition, Berlin 1875, p. 459.
- ↑ Eduard Meyer: Caesar's Monarchy and the Principate of Pompey. 3. Edition. Stuttgart / Berlin 1922, pp. 218-221 (1st edition 1918). Compare Karl Christ: Caesar. Munich 1994, p. 158 f.
- ↑ Joseph Vogt: Roman History. 1st half. Freiburg 1932, p. 241.
- ^ Matthias Gelzer: Cato Uticensis. In: The ancient world . Vol. 10, 1934, pp. 59–91, here: 59, 91 (= Matthias Gelzer: Kleine Schriften. Vol. 2. Wiesbaden 1963, pp. 257–285, here: 257, 285).
- ↑ Jérôme Carcopino: César (= Histoire Ancienne. Vol. 3.2.2). Paris 1936, p. 903.
- ^ Ernst Kornemann: Roman history. Volume 1: The time of the republic (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 132), Stuttgart 1938, p. 576.
- ↑ Ronald Syme: The Roman Revolution. Stuttgart 2003, p. 33 (English original edition The Roman Revolution. Oxford 1939, p. 26).
- ^ Lily Ross Taylor: Party Politics in the Age of Caesar. Berkeley / Los Angeles 1949, pp. 165–170.
- ^ Franz Miltner: M. Porcius Cato Uticensis. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Vol. 22/1. Stuttgart 1953, Col. 168-211, here: 205-211.
- ^ Alfred Heuss: Roman history. Braunschweig 1960, p. 183 f.
- ^ Hermann Bengtson: Outline of Roman History. Vol. 1 (= Handbook of Classical Studies . Department 3, Part 5, Vol. 1). Munich 1967, p. 229.
- ↑ Erich S. Gruen: The Last Generation of the Roman Republic. Berkeley 1974, pp. 54 f., 57, 91 f., 95
- ^ Kurt Raaflaub: Dignitatis contentio. Munich 1974, p. 321.
- ↑ Michael Grant: The History of Rome. Bergisch Gladbach 1986, p. 168 (English original edition 1978).
- ^ Karl Christ: Crisis and Fall of the Roman Republic. 8th edition. Darmstadt 2013, p. 378 f. (1st edition 1979).
- ^ Hans Jürgen Tschiedel: Caesar's 'Anticato'. Darmstadt 1981, p. X f.
- ^ Christian Meier: Caesar. Berlin 1982, pp. 222, 224, 245-250, 507.
- ^ Rudolf Fehrle: Cato Uticensis. Darmstadt 1983, pp. X-XIII, 81, 95, 113 f., 127, 134, 136, 156, 166, 173 f., 180, 204 f., 210, 215, 271 f.
- ↑ Andreas Alföldi: Caesar in 44 BC. Chr. Vol. 1. Bonn 1985, p. 183.
- ^ Werner Dahlheim: Julius Caesar. Munich 1987, p. 71 f.
- ↑ Luciano Canfora: Giulio Cesare. Il dittatore democratico. Rome 1999, pp. 31, 260.
- ↑ Wolfgang Will: Caesar. Darmstadt 2009, p. 159.
- ^ Cato Institute: About Cato . See Thomas Clark: "Let Cato's virtues fire". Cato Uticensis and the American Revolution. In: Ulrich Niggemann, Kai Ruffing (Hrsg.): Antiquity as a model in North America? Munich 2011, pp. 203–217, here: 203.
- ↑ Hans Jürgen Tschiedel: Caesar and the intoxicated Cato. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. Vol. 3, 1977, pp. 105-113, here: 105-107.
- ^ Danièle Bouché: Le mythe de Caton. Villeneuve d'Ascq 2001, pp. 374-376.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cato, Marcus Porcius the Younger |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cato Uticensis, Marcus Porcius; Porcius Cato, Marcus; Cato the Younger; Cato Minor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Roman politician, orator and military commander |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 95 BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 12, 46 BC Chr. |
| Place of death | Utica |