Hello, Theory Cornerites! My name's Dandelion Fortesque, and I'm a Philosophy Girl. As you probably know, each Philosophy Girl specializes in a particular niche in the history of philosophy. Mine is the Roman Stoics...you know: Marcus Aurelius, Seneca...people like that.
Today I'll be talking about Cato the Younger, the great Roman Stoic and Senator who disemboweled himself when Julius Caesar took power. Cato wasn't the type to commit suicide. He did it because he knew that Caesar would have him killed anyway, and he wanted to die in a manner that would inspire people to unseat the tyrant and restore The Republic.
It's worth asking, "Why did Cato believe that his death would motivate anybody to do anything?" After all, his adversary Caesar was popular and had convinced a lot of people that what the nation needed was a benevolent dictatorship.
The answer to that question is an interesting one. Most of the higher-ups in Rome were
associated with the interests of the various ruling families or political factions. In the Senate only Cato and a small number of others had real moral authority. When he took a stand and backed it up with his life, people listened.
That's because Cato had a reputation for objectivity and for thinking things through for himself. It was well known that he wanted to do what was best for Rome, regardless of his own biases, and regardless of what special interests thought. Every Senator claimed to do the same thing, but it only a small number actually did. How did Cato manage to convince a bunch of cynical aristocrats that he was the real deal?
Well, he lived the way that he spoke. He wore a simple black toga when all his peers wore lavish purple. He lived in a modest house and walked to work. He ate what the common people ate. When he was a general, he disdained a horse and walked along with the soldiers. He ate what his soldiers ate, and slept in the same gear. When sick, he never complained.
People are impressed by self-discipline.
Cato's often cited by people who believe in the importance of character. He wasn't the richest or the highest born Roman, or the most successful general, and yet he was as influential as any of them. You could say that his character was worth an entire legion.
That's really all I have to say, but I can't resist adding a footnote. Here's how Plutarch described Cato's death. Don't read it if you're squeamish...it's pretty grizzly:
Cato did not immediately die of the wound; but struggling, fell off the bed, and throwing down a little mathematical table that stood by, made such a noise that the servants, hearing it, cried out. And immediately his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror. The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound; but Cato, recovering himself, and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired.
I warned 'ya! See you next time!
