Cato the Younger: Rome's last republican and his deadly fight against Julius Caesar's tyranny

Cato the Younger was born in 95 BCE into the well-known Porcian family, whose ancestry included Cato the Elder, a man known for his severity and frugality, together with a clear opposition to foreign influence.

Raised by his maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus the Elder, after the early death of his parents, Cato spent his youth surrounded by political instability, political murders, and the collapse of Republican institutions.

The murder of Drusus, who had attempted a programme of moderate reforms, introduced Cato to the dangers of political idealism during a time when street violence often replaced senatorial debate. 

Trained in Stoic philosophy from a young age by a follower of the Stoic school associated with Antipater of Tyre, Cato had developed a firm commitment to personal discipline and legal consistency, a disposition that expressed itself as civic duty.

His tutors encouraged him to prioritise virtue over advantage and to reject all forms of luxury, which he carried into every aspect of his adult life.

According to Plutarch, during Sulla's violent purges, Cato had openly questioned the legality of executions and had insisted that someone in power should stop the slaughter.

When he had learned of the proscriptions, he reportedly had demanded a sword to kill Sulla himself, according to Plutarch’s dramatized account.

Although only a child, he showed no fear of authority and no willingness to accept wrongdoing as inevitable. 

Over the years, his sense of duty hardened into a strict moral code. He deliberately dressed in plain clothing, ate simple meals, and treated personal gain with contempt, even when surrounded by elites who enriched themselves through office.

This self-imposed simplicity, which others considered excessive, won him a reputation for integrity among Rome’s conservative classes. 

Cato began his public career as a military tribune in Macedon, where he had earned the loyalty of his men through equal treatment and strict justice, foundations that he reinforced with personal courage.

He refused to accept gifts from local rulers and insisted that all supplies for the legions be accounted for properly.

His commitment to procedure and fairness extended to his role as quaestor in 65 BCE, where he conducted a careful review of treasury records, uncovered irregularities, and exposed mismanagement, though no formal prosecutions are recorded.

Unlike many of his peers, who used such positions to build alliances and enrich themselves, Cato saw public office as a test of character. 

During his tribunate in 62 BCE, Cato quickly became a leading figure among the optimates.

When Julius Caesar proposed legislation to grant land to Pompey’s veterans, Cato spoke at length in the Senate to delay the bill and exposed it as a political bribe cloaked in populist rhetoric.

He spoke without rest until the session ended, and he forced Pompey to bypass the Senate and rely on Caesar’s influence with the assemblies.

In Cato’s eyes, this confirmed what he had long suspected: that these men worked together to subvert the state through appeals to the mob and the abuse of legal forms. 

Later that year, during the crisis of the Catilinarian Conspiracy, Cato delivered a speech in favour of executing the captured conspirators without trial.

While Caesar had argued for exile, claiming that executions without appeal were unlawful, Cato insisted that in times of emergency, the safety of the state outweighed concerns about legal procedures.

His speech, delivered with force and clarity, changed the mood of the Senate and secured a majority in favour of immediate punishment.

This moment raised Cato's standing as the moral voice of the Republic and deepened the political split between himself and Caesar. 

His standing continued to rise among traditionalist senators, yet his unwillingness to compromise often isolated him from potential allies.

He refused to engage in political bargaining, rejected favours, and accused even his friends of corruption when they wavered from principle.

This purity appealed to those who longed for a return to the values of the old Republic, but it limited his ability to build coalitions and weakened the optimates’ position in Rome’s increasingly volatile political climate. 

From the outset, Cato and Caesar viewed the Roman constitution in fundamentally different terms.

Caesar embraced reform through popular assemblies and public spectacle, while Cato regarded any appeal to mass emotion as dangerous and destabilising.

Their conflict became personal in the 50s BCE, when Caesar joined forces with Pompey and Crassus in the First Triumvirate.

Cato saw the alliance not as a political necessity but as a betrayal of the Republic, and he spent the next decade resisting it at every opportunity. 

After he had delivered a long, bitter speech against Caesar’s land bill in 59 BCE, Cato was publicly humiliated when he was forcibly removed from the Senate by lictors on Caesar’s orders.

The gesture was legal under Caesar’s consulship, but it further convinced Cato that Rome now lay in the hands of men who used power to destroy law rather than uphold it.

When the Senate assigned him the task of annexing Cyprus in 58 BCE, many interpreted the decision as an attempt to remove him from the political arena.

Cato accepted the duty but refused to treat it as exile. Following the suicide of Ptolemy of Cyprus, Cato governed the island with integrity, handed the province’s surplus revenue (reportedly 7,000 talents according to Plutarch) to the treasury, and returned to Rome with his reputation intact. 

By the time he re-entered public life, Caesar had begun his campaigns in Gaul and Pompey had strengthened his position in Rome.

Cato responded by opposing the activities of Clodius Pulcher, a popular leader who used gangs to threaten senators and silence opponents.

He condemned incidents such as the burning of the Curia Hostilia and accused Clodius of corrupting the Republic through mob violence.

Although he never wielded military power or popular support in the way Caesar did, Cato became the last consistent voice in the Senate who called for a return to balanced government and for the restraint of personal power.

He supported the emergency appointment of Pompey as sole consul in 52 BCE following the murder of Clodius.

Cato believed, incorrectly, that Pompey would restore legal order and halt Caesar’s advance. 

In reality, Pompey had become increasingly self-serving and more willing to concentrate power in his own hands.

Cato’s belief that constitutional restoration could occur through Pompey’s leadership turned out to be naïve, and his misjudgement cost the Republic its final chance at compromise. 

When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January 49 BCE and launched a march on Rome, Cato saw it as an open declaration of personal dictatorship.

He argued in the Senate that no negotiation should take place, and he urged his fellow senators to flee rather than submit.

He joined Pompey’s war council and supported efforts to rally forces in Greece and the eastern provinces.

Even though he had never trusted Pompey, Cato now believed that military resistance was the only remaining method of defending liberty. 

After the Republican defeat at Pharsalus in 48 BCE, where Caesar had crushed Pompey’s army and had altered the course of the war, Cato withdrew to North Africa.

He rallied the remaining senators and commanders at Utica and helped organise the last stronghold of Republican resistance.

When Republican forces had regrouped after Pompey’s death, Cato supported the existing command of Metellus Scipio rather than pursue leadership himself, believing that no man should grasp at personal leadership.

Unlike others, who considered accepting Caesar’s offer of mercy, Cato firmly refused to surrender or participate in any negotiated peace.

His view remained clear: Caesar’s power had no legal foundation, and no honourable man could recognise it. 

In Utica, Cato ruled with discipline and earned the respect of citizens and soldiers alike.

He prepared the city for siege and managed supplies, and he instituted rations and maintained civil order. H

e believed that victory could still come through perseverance, but his hopes finally ended with Caesar’s clear victory at Thapsus in April 46 BCE.

After the news arrived that Scipio’s army had been destroyed, Cato gathered the remaining civilians and helped them find safe passage or secure terms.

Once this duty had been fulfilled, he made preparations for his own end. 

On the night of his death, Cato dined calmly with friends and spent several hours, during which he read Plato’s Phaedo, a dialogue on the soul.

After dismissing his attendants, he attempted suicide by sword, but his wound did not immediately kill him.

When his servants found him, they saw that he was bleeding and tried to dress the injury, but Cato tore open the wound with his own hands and died soon after, as reported by Plutarch.

He left behind a letter praising his sons, criticising Caesar’s tyranny, and confirming his belief in the cause he had fought for. 

News of his suicide spread quickly. Caesar reportedly reacted with regret, claiming he would have preferred to pardon Cato and spare his life.

However, many Romans interpreted the act as a final rejection of Caesar’s illegal power and a symbol of ultimate resistance.

Philosophers such as Seneca, historians like Plutarch, and senators including Cicero and Lucan, who was Cato’s nephew, continued to invoke his name as the example of Roman virtue and the last man who refused to accept a world ruled by personal power. 

Though the Republic fell and Caesar became dictator, followed soon after by his own assassination and the rise of the Empire, Cato’s death brought the old political order to an end.

His refusal to compromise, which cost him influence during his life, became the reason for his lasting reputation in death.

Through his final act, he offered clarity rather than victory. Rome had been defeated, yet liberty had not been surrendered.