Cato the Younger is a historical figure who features as a character in the
HBOHBO is a premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner, offers two 24/7 pay television services to over 38 million U.S...
/BBC2 original television series
RomeRome is an American-British-Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius, and William J. MacDonald. The show's first season originally aired on HBO in the United States between August 28 and November 20, 2005, subsequently being broadcast on the United Kingdom's...
, played by actor
Karl JohnsonKarl Johnson is a British actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein...
. He is depicted as an extreme traditionalist, against political and social decay, and a staunch defender of
the Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
. The real
Cato the YoungerMarcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy...
was a Roman orator, author, and politician.
Stubborn and proud, Cato first appears in the series at the senate meeting demanding to know from Pompey Magnus why Caesar was still in Gaul saying,
"his illegal war is over!"
At the beginning of the series, Cato believes that the republic lives as long as people like him are prepared to fight for it, however he appears to despise non-aristocratic Romans viewing them as cattle: indirectly undermining the democracy he values replying to Metellus Scipio's:
"What a dreadful noise Plebs make when they're happy..." by saying:
"This is music.
Cato the Younger is a historical figure who features as a character in the
HBOHBO is a premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner, offers two 24/7 pay television services to over 38 million U.S...
/BBC2 original television series
RomeRome is an American-British-Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius, and William J. MacDonald. The show's first season originally aired on HBO in the United States between August 28 and November 20, 2005, subsequently being broadcast on the United Kingdom's...
, played by actor
Karl JohnsonKarl Johnson is a British actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein...
. He is depicted as an extreme traditionalist, against political and social decay, and a staunch defender of
the Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
. The real
Cato the YoungerMarcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy...
was a Roman orator, author, and politician.
Personality
Stubborn and proud, Cato first appears in the series at the senate meeting demanding to know from Pompey Magnus why Caesar was still in Gaul saying,
"his illegal war is over!"
At the beginning of the series, Cato believes that the republic lives as long as people like him are prepared to fight for it, however he appears to despise non-aristocratic Romans viewing them as cattle: indirectly undermining the democracy he values replying to Metellus Scipio's:
"What a dreadful noise Plebs make when they're happy..." by saying:
"This is music. Wait until Caesar starts them howling for our blood - then you'll hear something dreadful."
When the civil wars begin,
Marcus Junius BrutusMarcus Junius Brutus is a historical figure who features as a character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by Tobias Menzies. He is depicted as a young man torn between what he believes is right, and his loyalty and love of a man who has been like a father to him...
,
Marcus Tullius CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero is a historical figure who features as a character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by David Bamber. He is depicted as a moderate politician and scholar, who is challenged with trying to save the traditional Republic from the ambitions of the various...
and Metellus Scipio try to persuade Pompey accept a truce with Caesar. Cato is the only one who refuses to end the war, seeing right through Caesar's "truce" saying:
"Don't you see? He's trying to put a wedge between us!"
After the battle of Pharsalus, Cato is one of the few remaining patricians who is willing to fight on against Caesar. Eventually towards the end of the series, following his and Scipio's defeat at Utica, he begins to lose faith in his belief and even asks Scipio to try and make peace with Caesar. He appears very different from the stubborn and proud Cato from earlier in the series, and even speaks fairly humorously to Scipio. For example, when Scipio states that where there is life, there is hope, Cato replies:
"I think, if anything, we have disproved that proverb, old friend". Determined not to surrender, Cato proves to be honourable and brave, as he kills himself in order to that Caesar won't have the chance of humiliating him.
Character history
In the series Cato is the most prominent of the
conservative divisionOptimates were the pro-aristocratic faction of the later Roman Republic. They wished to limit the power of the popular assemblies and the Tribunes of the Plebs, and to extend the power of the Senate, which was viewed as more dedicated to the interests of the aristocrats...
of the
Roman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government...
. He is portrayed as a defender of the republic and implacably opposed to
CaesarGaius Julius Caesar is a historical figure who features as a character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by Irish actor Ciarán Hinds...
's populism and potentially illegal war in Gaul, which he perceives as part of Caesar's plan to "buy himself a crown." He is also the only one of the senators who will stand up and oppose Caesar openly, demanding that he be called back to stand trial for treason. He wins Pompey over to the Senate's cause by persuading him that Caesar has stolen the love of the people from him.
During the civil war, Cato and Scipio assume leadership of the Republican forces following the murder of Pompey in Egypt, but they are defeated at
ThapsusThapsus was an ancient city in what is modern day Tunisia. Its ruins exist at Ras Dimas near Bekalta, approximately 200 km southeast of Carthage. Originally founded by Phoenicians, it served as a marketplace on the coast of the province Byzacena in Africa Propria...
in the province of
AfricaThe Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day northern Tunisia, north-eastern Algeria and the Mediterranean coast of modern-day western Libya along the Syrtis Minor...
(roughly modern
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
), and Cato commits suicide in Utica.
Comparison to the historical Cato
Cato was, in reality as in the series, a staunch traditionalist and
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's most implacable political opponent. He was known, in a time when electoral corruption was rife, as a man of great integrity and probity. Philosophically he was a
StoicStoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not undergo such emotions...
. He lived an austere lifestyle, avoiding luxury and modern fashions- which is reflected in the series by his wearing the toga pulla, favored by workmen and mourners. He was a defender of the ideals of the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
and fierce opponent of those he saw as overly ambitious.
ServiliaServilia Caepionis was the mistress of Julius Caesar, mother of one of Caesar's assassins, Brutus, mother-in-law of another Caesar assassin Cassius, and half-sister of Cato the Younger.-Life:...
, Caesar's lover, was his half-sister. In
63 BCYear 63 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar.-Rome:*Pompey conquers Phonecia, Coele-Syria, and Judea for Rome.*Establishment of the Decapolis and Year 1 of the Pompeian era.*Roman annexation of Judea as a client kingdom...
, during the crisis caused by
CatilineLucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.One of the most enigmatic figures of Roman history,...
's conspiracy to overthrow the state, Caesar was passed a note in the Senate. Cato, believing Caesar was sympathetic to Catiline, accused him of corresponding with the conspirators and seized the letter, only to discover, to his great embarrassment, that it was a love letter from Servilia.
The real Cato was much younger than his fictional counterpart appears: in
52 BCYear 52 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar.-Rome:*Consuls: Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.*Pompey marries Cornelia Metella.*Milo is tried for the murder of Clodius...
, the year the series opens, he was 43, seven years younger than Caesar. He was also not as contemptuous of plebeians as the series makes him: he established a provision of state-subsidised grain to poor Romans, and Cato was himself a plebeian.
Cato was not actually present at the
Battle of ThapsusThe Battle of Thapsus took place on April 6, 46 BC near Thapsus . The Army of the Optimates political faction, led by Quintus Caecillius Metellus Scipio clashed with the forces of the Populares faction led by Julius Caesar, who won the battle...
- he was holding the town of Utica. He did commit suicide by stabbing himself following Scipio's defeat, supposedly to deny Caesar the power to pardon him. A surgeon attempted to save him by stitching up the wound, but Cato was determined to die, and pulled out the stitches and his own intestines.
He was the father of two children by his first wife
AtiliaAtilia , daughter of C. Atilius Serranus and first wife of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis whom he married after his intended wife, Aemilia Lepida, married Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica....
; a son,
Marcus Porcius CatoMarcus Porcius Cato, son of Cato the Younger by his first marriage to Atilia. He was the brother of Porcia Catonis, who was first married to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus , and later married their half-cousin Marcus Junius Brutus. He fought in the battle of Thapsus, and after the defeat by Caesar's...
, who died in the
battle of PhilippiThe Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian against the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia...
, and a daughter,
Porcia CatonisPortia Catonis, also known simply as Porcia was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis and his first wife Atilia...
, who was the second wife of
Marcus Junius BrutusMarcus Junius Brutus , often referred to simply as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic...
. His wife and his two children are omitted from the series.