Cato the Younger Dies at Utica — Stoic Martyr of the Republic
Marcus Porcius Cato, great-grandson of Cato the Censor, was the conscience of the late Roman Republic — its most principled senator and least accommodating politician. For twenty years he had been the immovable obstacle to the ambitions of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in turn. After Pompey's death at Pharsalus in 48 BCE, Cato had led the surviving Republican forces across the Libyan desert to Utica. When news arrived of Caesar's total victory at Thapsus on April 6, 46 BCE, and the subsequent collapse of the Republican armies, Cato's choices narrowed to flight, surrender, or death. He spent the afternoon and evening of April 12 arranging the evacuation of his friends and the garrison by sea, refusing to accept Caesar's offered pardon on their behalf without knowing each man's own wishes. After dinner, he withdrew to his room. His son and servants, alarmed, had removed his sword. He summoned them and demanded its return. When the household relaxed, Cato reopened the wound with his own hands and died. The Phaedo was found on his table — Plato's argument that the philosopher who has trained himself in the separation of soul from body has nothing to fear in death. Cato had been reading it twice. Caesar, arriving too late, reportedly said: 'Cato, I grudge you your death, for you have grudged me the chance of pardoning you.' The image of Cato at Utica — the last free Roman, choosing death over servitude — echoed through Western political thought from Dante to Addison to the American Founders.
- Year: 46 BCE
- Category: Political
