Why is cato famous

Yellin Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, The congressional ban on theatrical performances was enacted in October to "discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation;" see Heather S. The ancient source is Plutarch's Life of Cato the Younge r.

On Washington's Catonic stoicism, see H. See Carl J. Ford New York, G. George William Fairfax, 25 September Duyckinck, Cyclopedia of American Literature. Bryan, "'Slideing into Monarchical extravagance,'" Fuller writes: "For the ragged soldiers in Washington's camp, Addison's tragedy offered a salient version of national destiny characterized by self-sacrifice, republican virtue, and an almost boundless devotion to the principle of liberty" Livius Drusus, the reformer, Cato early cultivated habits of austerity and made a great show of political and moral probity.

After serving as military tribune in Macedonia B. As quaestor, or minister of finance, Cato was notable for his punishment of corrupt treasury clerks and the strict rectitude of his accounts.

But he was not free of favoritism. As tribune elect in 63, he prosecuted for electoral bribery one of the men who defeated Catiline for the consulship, exempting the other because he was a relative. Cato's fiery speech on December 5 led the Senate to vote for the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators who had been caught in Rome after an unsuccessful attempt at seizing control of the state.

When Pompey returned from the East, Cato led the senatorial opposition against him. He also outraged Crassus and the equestrians by refusing to allow reconsideration of the tax contract for Asia. The result was the formation of the First Triumvirate by Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar to attain their political ends.

During Caesar's consulship in 59 Cato bitterly opposed the triumvirate's bills for the redistribution of land and the grant of an extraordinary command to Caesar. Yet few did more, in the last accounting, to bring that fall to pass. Perhaps that is the cost of his political defeat; perhaps his virtues are out of style.

More likely, he is forgotten because he left behind very little that was concrete. He studied and practiced philosophy with focused intensity, turning himself into the model of the unflinching Stoic ideal, but he preferred that his philosophy be lived, not written. Powerful men gifted themselves villas and vineyards; Cato preferred a life of monkish frugality. These gestures were all, in their own way, a deliberate message to his fellow citizens, a warning that they had gone fatally soft.

It is the kind of message that is remembered, but rarely heeded. Cato did not pen an autobiography, nor leave behind an extensive set of essays or journals.

While Cato the Younger was an evergreen subject for a wide range of historians, biographers, and moralists in the Roman world, the most detailed classical treatment of his life comes from Plutarch. Plutarch was a Greek biographer, magistrate, and priest of Apollo, who took the Roman name Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. He flourished during the reign of the Emperor Trajan and is best known today for his Parallel Lives of eminent Greeks and Romans, a collection that includes his life of Cato.

In , Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman endeavored to write one. They were inspired by numerous book in which Cato is a central figure, including Rubicon by Tom Holland. If you have even a passing interest in the history of Rome—or you think you might—pick up Rubicon.

Cato walked around ancient Rome in unusual clothing—with a goal of getting people to laugh at him. He would walk bareheaded in the rain, shoe-less in the cold. Cato was training himself. Small difficulties, endured with forbearance and patience, could shape his character. Seneca , the great imperial Stoic, relates a telling story.

Visiting the public baths one day, Cato was shoved and struck. The Stoics taught Cato that there were no shades of gray. There was no more-or-less good, no more-or-less bad. Whether you were a foot underwater or a fathom, you were still drowning. All virtues were one and the same virtue, all vices the same vice. It is the kind of austere scheme that seems unreasonable to live by and almost entirely impossible for the flux of war and politics. But Cato made it work.

He demanded the same of his friends, his family, and his soldiers.