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Caesar’s Foes: Pompey & CatoContents
SummaryGnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Cato were two leading figures of the later Republic in Rome. Pompey first rose to power as the brilliant young general of Sulla. After Sulla’s death, Pompey became a military legend with his successful campaigns in the east. Pompey allied with Crassus and Caesar to form the First Triumvirate, which dominated the Roman Senate with its power. Few dared to oppose the Triumvirate, but Marcus Cato was the epitome of stubbornness when it came to standing up against Pompey and Caesar. Cato was famous for his strict stoicism and high morals. He led the political battle against Caesar until the triumvirate fell apart and Pompey took command of the war to stop Caesar. Both Pompey and Cato died by sword during Caesar’s civil war: Pompey by the hands of mercenaries, Cato by his own. IntroductionThe end of the Roman Republic sets the stage for the tale of two men. Both were clever and influential in Rome, both played a role in the military and politics, and both were part of the last stand against Caesar. However, these two men couldn’t have been more different. (One hated extravagance of all kinds, while the other once tried to ride elephants through the gates of Rome.) Their names, of course, were Cato and Pompey. Enemies for nearly their whole careers; it was only the threat of Caesar that eventually brought them onto the same side. But regardless of whose side they were on, the activities of Pompey and Cato undeniably helped shape the later Roman Republic. PompeyGnaeus Pompeius was born on September 29, 106 BC, the son of consul Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo (Leach 13). Strabo was a novus homo, meaning he was the first in his family to serve in the Senate (Oman 237). Though something of a military hero (Leach 15), Strabo gained a nasty reputation from the alleged murder of a rival as well as his greed. Eventually, he was “struck dead by lightning” in the middle of war, meaning he was most likely murdered by his own men (Oman 238). It was from Strabo that Pompey received his earliest military training. He was most like with his father at the siege of Asculum, where Strabo played a key role (Leach 15). In 86 BC, Pompey was prosecuted for illegally possessing war booty from Asculum. During his trial, the judge P. Antistius was particularly impressed with Pompey’s “considerable acumen and rhetorical ability,” with which Pompey earned his acquittal (Leach 22). To show his support, Antistius proposed a marriage between Pompey his daughter Antistia, which took place a few days after the trial (Seager 7). This alliance guaranteed Pompey’s safety from his father’s many enemies for several years to come, at least until Sulla’s return in 83 BC (Oman 238). When Sulla landed in Italy to fight the Democrats, Pompey was in his father’s native province of Picenum. Taking the initiative, he quickly gathered an effective fighting force and hastened to aid Sulla (Plutarch 129). Pompey made his way south to join Sulla in Campania, defeating several prominent enemies on the way. Writes Plutarch: “when Sulla saw [Pompey] advancing with an admirable army of young and vigorous soldiers elated and in high spirits because of their successes, he alighted from off his horse, and after being saluted, as was his due, with the title of Imperator, he saluted Pompey in return as Imperator” (Plutarch 133). At this meeting Sulla also granted Pompey precedence over all other officers. Through the course of the civil war, Pompey went on to earn himself an admirable reputation (Oman 239). He gained further favor from Sulla when he was persuaded to divorce Antistia and marry Sulla’s stepdaughter Aemilia (Leach 28). When the war was over, Pompey was sent recover Sicily and Africa from Democratic rule (Leach 28). Not only did he succeed in rooting out the Democrats, but he managed to prevent the sacking of towns or harming of inhabitants. In fact, the only execution that took place was that of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo. To Pompey, this execution was justified, for “on Carbo’s head lay the responsibility for the whole of the late massacres in Rome, and Pompey owed him the personal grudge that in that slaughter had fallen his father-in-law, Antistius” (Oman 240). When Pompey returned to Rome successful, he was granted a triumph by Sulla. At that point, Pompey became the only person in Roman history to receive a triumph without holding any sort of magistry at all (Rawson 28). (He was an eques, but he had not served in the Senate.) At the triumph, it is told that Pompey tried to ride in on a chariot pulled by four elephants, but he switched to horses when the elephants could not fit through the city gates (Plutarch 151). After this, Pompey obediently disbanded his army and settled down in Rome (Oman 241). Now, with no military assignments, Pompey took a dive into politics, for which he sadly had little talent. He supported M. Aemilius Lepidus in the consular elections of 78 BC, much to Sulla’s disappointment. After Lepidus had been elected, Sulla warned Pompey, “I see, young man, that you rejoice in your victory; … Now, however, it is time for you to be wide awake and watchful of your interests; you have made your adversary stronger than yourself” (Plutarch 153). As soon as Sulla died in 78, Lepidus tried assuming Sulla’s powers to go against the constitution. “He came forward with a programme of public bankruptcy … combined with the restoration of the Democratic constitution: to back his reckless schemes he secretly raised an army of outlaws and swash-bucklers in Etruria” (Oman 242). Pompey, seeing Sulla’s prophecy come true, decided to side with the nobility. Being the best suited for the job, he was put in control of the army against Lepidus. After a long siege, Pompey received a surrender from Lepidus’s lieutenant, Brutus (father of the Brutus who killed Caesar), and subsequently executed him (Plutarch 154). Lepidus himself was expelled from Rome and allegedly “died of despondency [upon discovering that] his wife was an adulteress” (Plutarch 156). After Lepidus had been taken care of, Pompey was sent almost immediately to Spain, where Quintus Sertorius had long been waging war (rather successfully) against the Romans (Oman 243). Pompey’s campaign in Spain was a difficult one. He was facing an enemy who “moved twice as fast as the heavily loaded legion, who knew every pass and ravine, who dispersed when beaten, yet assembled within a few days to fall upon the victor’s flanks and rear” (Oman 245). Furthermore, the Senate had become wary of Pompey’s growing power, and was not entirely adverse to his defeat. They were withholding a lot of much needed aid (Oman 245). In a letter to the Senate, Pompey wrote: “you could not have taken worse action against me than you have been doing during my absence from Rome. For in spite of my youth you have sent me out to a bitter war, with an army which has done its duty admirably, and you have done your best to starve us to death … you, in [this] two-year period, have granted expenses scarcely adequate for one year! Ye gods, do you consider that I should take over the treasury’s role, or do you think that I can maintain an army without food and pay?” (Rawson 34) Already there were negative feelings between Pompey and the Senate. Finally, after five years of war, Sertorius was betrayed by his own followers. Pompey quickly defeated the new leader, Perpenna, in 72 BC, thus ending the war (Seager 21). On the way back to Rome, Pompey ran into the remnants of Spartacus’s defeated army fleeing to the Alps (Oman 246). Pompey finished off the last of these rebels, taking most of the credit for ending the war away from Crassus, who had been commanding it (Plutarch 167). Crassus, like Pompey, had achieved a great military reputation during the civil war between Marius and Sulla. It was from that war that their rivalry started. “As the elder man, [Crassus] bitterly resented the fact that Sulla always gave the higher place to Pompey, and honoured him with a distinction and a confidence that he accorded to no other of his subordinates” (Oman 167). Despite the hate Pompey and Crassus had for each other, both harbored an equal dislike for the Senate. Now, with both having victorious armies at their backs, it was uncertain whether the two would fight each other or cooperate against the Senate. Choosing the latter, they decided to temporarily put aside their differences and run for the consulship in 70 BC. They may or may not have kept their armies outside the city gates as a threat to the Senate. But regardless, they succeeded in winning the election (Oman 173). As a consul, Pompey was hardly qualified. “Crassus had fulfilled all the technical requirements: he had been praetor in 73 … Pompeius, on the other hand, was too young for the consulship and had held none of the requisite preliminary offices” (Seager 22). He was allowed to stand for consulship through a special decree passed by the Senate (Leach 59). Because of his lack of knowledge in senatorial procedures, his friend Varro had to make him a handbook in order to advise him how to act (Seager 27). Together, while continuously quarrelling, Pompey and Crassus managed to abolish the laws of Sulla. Plutarch writes, “[Pompey] gave [the Romans] back their tribunate, and suffered the courts of justice to be transferred again to the knights by law” (Plutarch 169). When Pompey and Crassus’s consulship ended, both retired to private citizenship (Leach 63). Pompey especially withdrew from the public eye, spending time with this wife Mucia and his three children (Oman 248). In 67 BC, Rome was struck by famine. Much of the corn supply was being plundered by pirates roaming free in the Mediterranean. The Senate, who would normally leave them alone, was prompted into action when hungry crowds began rioting (Oman 249). The tribune Quinctius Gabinius proposed a law that would place an ex-consul in charge of the pirate war. Though not specified, Pompey was clearly the intended commander (Leach 67). The Gabinian Law stated that he would “hold his command for three years, and his sphere of operations was to be the whole of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and all the coastline for a distance of …eighty kilometers… inland from the sea. He should have the power to appoint fifteen legates and to draw as much money as he wanted form the public treasury and from the funds of the tax-collecting firms in the provinces” (Leach 66). Furthermore, he would be allowed as many ships and men as he requested (Oman 251). With this power, Pompey could potentially make himself a military king. Fearing just this, the Senate met the Gabinian Law with violent protest, but the law was eventually pushed through at the urging of the people (Oman 250). Pompey accepted the job and immediately began mobilizing ships and troops (Leach 70). To deal with the pirates, Pompey divided the Mediterranean and Black Seas into thirteen districts, each to be patrolled by a different squadron (Oman 253). The pirates were essentially trapped in whatever district they happened to be sailing in. Even if they managed to escape the district, they would immediately find themselves in another patrolled section, with no safe harbors for food and water (Leach 70). “In forty days the whole of the seas west of Sicily had been completely cleared, and corn was so cheap in the Roman market that it was said that the very name of Pompey had finished the war” (Oman 253). As for the captive pirates, while other commanders might have massacred them, Pompey turned them into settlers in several under-populated provinces, including one city renamed Pompeiopolis (Leach 73). Almost as soon as Pompey finished with the pirates, he was sent on another campaign in the east. The Manilian Law was passed, putting Pompey in charge of the war with the Pontic king Mithradates, as well as all the provinces in the east (Oman 254). The war so far had been going poorly; the previous commander, Lucullus was hopeless. Pompey’s new assignment was to take back the provinces recently recovered by Mithradates and his ally, Tigranes (Leach 74). Pompey’s first objective was to defeat and capture Mithradates. When Mithradates discovered that Pompey was after him with outnumbering forces, he withdrew to the mountains. Pompey chased him, cut off his supplies, ambushed his troops, besieged him, and eventually caught him with the help of the traitor, Tigranes (Leach 82). Pompey then turned his attention to Armenia. The king there did not even try to fight Pompey; he immediately swore allegiance to Rome. The wild tribes led by Caucasus did the same after attempting a futile battle (Oman 257). Pompey continued south to (almost peacefully) annex Cilicia and Syria, which had been previously surrendered by Tigranes. Lastly, after quelling all opposition, Pompey proceeded to settle his new provinces: Syria, Cilicia, and Bithynia-Pontus (Oman 260). When Pompey finally returned to Rome, he was disappointed by a less than glorious reception from the Roman public, who had received limited news of his achievements (Oman 262). Furthermore, there was one man in particular who seemed determined to make his life miserable: Cato. CatoMarcus Porcius Cato the Younger was born in 95 BC (Goar 11). He was the great-grandson of Cato the Censor, whom he strived to imitate throughout his life. As a result, Cato was very old fashioned “not merely in politics, but in social manners, dress, bearing, and morals” (Oman 204). Among Cato’s inherited quirks was a great distaste for luxury (“Cato, Marcus Porcius”). He was sure to refrain from bright, expensive colors and was often found without shoes, even in the tribunal (Oman 205). Around the age of 19, Cato began attending courts, as was the norm. There, he learned both law and oratory skills, both of which would be put to good use in his later political life (Oman 207). In 67 BC, Cato served with the army in Macedon, where he was elected military tribune (Goar 11). With this office, Cato had the command of a full legion. However, he insisted on living with the rest of his troops and spurned the comforts of other officers. Plutarch writes that Cato “willingly shared the tasks which he imposed upon others, and in his dress, way of living, and conduct on the march, made himself more like a soldier than a commander, while in character, dignity of purpose, and eloquence, he surpassed all those who bore the titles of Imperator and General” (Plutarch 257). Cato was also said to be the only military tribune to do his work “punctually and intelligently” (Oman 207). As a result, he earned respect from his subordinates as well as his superiors. Cato ran for the quaestorship when he was 25, one year later than his eligibility at age 24. This delay was due to Cato’s desire to properly learn all the duties of a quaestor before he took to office (Plutarch 271). Throughout his life, Cato always took his official duties very seriously. During his quaestorship, Cato made a remarkable reformation of the office. At the time, the treasury was mostly in the hands of seasoned clerks and assistants, who often took advantage of the quaestors’ youth and inexperience to commit embezzlement, forgery, etc. Cato cleaned up the system, and “in a short time… he made the treasury much more respectable than the Senate, and his quaestorship more memorable than most consulates” (Oman 209). In his quaestor year, Cato demonstrated his unique consistency when it came to morals, a consistency which made him particularly stubborn in his battles against Pompey and Caesar. Cato v. PompeyIn 62 BC, Cato came head to head with Pompey’s political agent Metellus Nepos. Cato was on his way to vacation when he ran into Nepos, who was heading for Rome and the tribuneship (Plutarch 283). Pompey himself was busy fighting in the East. Cato knew Pompey’s great reputation and suspected some tyrannical motives aimed at bringing down the Republic. (Note that while Pompey had plenty of opportunities throughout his life to seize absolute power, he never really wanted it) (Oman 288). Nonetheless, being distrustful of Nepos, Cato promptly turned around and ran for tribune himself. Both Nepos and Cato were successful at the elections, and their tribuneship made for a hectic year. On one occasion, Nepos made a proposal that Pompey should be recalled from the East for some ludicrous reason that Pompey had not even approved. On the day the bill was to be introduced, Nepos “packed the Forum with gladiators and hired bravos, and enlisted the support of Caesar, whose talents for mob-management were considered to be unrivalled” (Oman 212). Cato arrived at the Forum intending to veto the bill. He fought his way through the crowd and sat down in between Nepos and Caesar, cutting off their communication. Plutarch writes of what happened next: “And now [Nepos] produced the law, but Cato would not suffer him to read it; and when Metellus took it and began to read it, Cato snatched the document away from him. Then Metellus, who knew the law by heart, began to recite it, but Thermus [another tribune] clapped a hand upon his mouth and shut off his speech” (Plutarch 302). At that point the mob was called upon to attack Cato. After being assailed, Cato was saved by the consul Muraena who dragged him to a nearby temple for shelter. Nepos then continued to recite the bill. Cato, abandoning the temple, stormed the Forum with a small following and triggered a huge riot. The bill was never passed, and Cato had furthered his enmity with both Pompey and Caesar (Omar 213). When Pompey did return to Rome, Cato was fully convinced that the general was after a coup d’état. Pompey made a valiant attempt at conciliation, going so far as to propose a marriage between his son Gnaeus and Cato’s niece, Servilia (Oman 214). Cato’s response was: “Go, … tell Pompey that Cato is not to be captured by way of the women's apartments” (Plutarch 309). When Pompey brought forth his proposal regarding land allotment for veteran soldiers, Cato led the Senate’s refusal of the bill (Leach 120). The same man had the Senate to go through each of Pompey’s documents separately, rather than ratifying them all at once, infuriating Pompey at his unfair treatment (Oman 214). Cato was very effective in creating irresolvable tension between Pompey and the Senate, a tension which eventually resulted in Pompey’s alliance with Caesar. The First TriumvirateIn 60 BC, Caesar returned from his successful Spanish campaign seeking the consulship, hopefully with the support of Pompey and Crassus, who were still enemies at that point. Caesar, “seeing that, while Crassus and Pompey were at variance, if he attached himself to the one he would make an enemy of the other, he sought to reconcile them with one another” (Plutarch 237). Caesar initiated an informal alliance which would later be called the “First Triumvirate.” Pompey would later marry Caesar’s daughter, Julia, in order to further secure this partnership (Leach 120). Charles Oman described the triumvirate thus: “…three men of very different character and aims, who had combined to secure their personal ends, and not to carry out any party programme” (Oman 265). Against the powerful triumvirate, Cato was a constant hindrance. First of all, Caesar was coming back to Rome not only for the consulship, but also for a triumph. In order to run for consul, he needed to be back in the city by a certain day. However, he also needed permission from the Senate before he could triumph. On the day Caesar’s triumph was to be passed by the Senate, Cato delivered a speech that lasted a full day, allowing no time for Caesar’s motion to be discussed. Caesar, very angry, had to give up his triumph in order to make it in time for the consular elections (Oman 216). Caesar began his consulship alongside Bibulus in 59 BC, and soon began putting forward the Julian Laws, which intended to strengthen the triumvirate. Cato protested every single one of them, eventually causing a huge riot. Cato continued to cause trouble for Caesar with protests, until he was expelled from Rome in 58 BC (Oman 218). Officially, he was sent by the tribune Clodius to manage the annexation of Cyprus and reconcile the civil war in Byzantium. However, as Plutarch writes, “Clodius gave him neither ship, soldier, nor assistant, except two clerks, of whom one was a thief and a rascal, and the other a client of Clodius” (Plutarch 320). Cato, despite his disgrace, completed his mission successfully, showing once again his firm sense of duty (Oman 219). During Cato’s absence, the troublesome Clodius was causing plenty of trouble for the triumvirate, especially Pompey. “Clodius was an accurate copy of Caesar, so far as debts, debauchery, and a talent for mob-oratory … His only redeeming qualitites were a sense of humour and a love of practical jokes” (Oman 267). Clodius had been the source of riots which plagued the streets of Rome for years. He was also the one who sent Cicero into exile. However, the Senate could not get rid of him, and the triumvirate never bothered themselves to do so. When Clodius began to personally attack Pompey with vulgar insults, Pompey decided to fight back with force. However, his own talent for mob-management was so inferior to that of Clodius that he only succeeded in making a fool of himself (Oman 268). Finally Pompey, now aiding the Senate, brought back Cicero from exile. Cicero reconciled Pompey with the Senate, took care of Clodius, and appointed Pompey his next commission (Plutarch 245). In 57 BC, Rome was yet again suffering from a corn shortage. Pompey was placed in charge of the corn supply for five years, in order to reorganize the system for good (Oman 270). Plutarch writes, “Having thus been set over the administration and management of the grain trade, Pompey sent out his agents and friends in various directions, while he himself sailed to Sicily, Sardinia and Africa, and collected grain. When he was about to set sail with it, there was a violent storm at sea, and the ship-captains hesitated to put out; but he led the way on board and ordered them to weigh anchor, crying with a loud voice: ‘To sail is necessary; to live is not.’ ” (Plutarch 247). The whole season was plagued by bad sailing weather, yet Pompey insisted on sending out his ships full of grain back to Rome. “In short, his success was answerable to his energy. He covered the sea with vessels and filled the markets with wheat, insomuch that there was soon an overplus in Rome to feed the provinces, and plenty, as if from a fountain, flowed over the world from that city” (Oman 271). However, when Pompey returned to Rome successful in his endeavors, he found himself coldly received by the Senate as well as Crassus, who allegedly plotted for his assassination. Pompey and Caesar had also become somewhat estranged during Caesar’s military campaign in Gaul. (Oman 272). Therefore, when Pompey and Crassus visited Caesar in Lucca, Caesar decided to reestablish the triumvirate. The proposal was made that “[Pompey and Crassus] were to stand for the consulship, and Caesar was to assist their candidacy by sending large numbers of his soldiers home to vote for them” (Plutarch 249). Both Pompey and Crassus would be given an army and a province after their consulship (Oman 274). This was in 56 BC, which also marked the year of Cato’s return from Cyprus. Cato was furious that none in the Senate would dare to oppose Pompey and Crassus in the consular elections. He only managed to convince his brother-in-law Lucius Domitius to run against them in the election of 55 BC. However, on the day of the election, gangs supporting the triumvirate ambushed the party, killing Domitius’s torchbearer and stabbing Cato in the arm. Domitius gave up and fled, and Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls (Plutarch 335). Cato then decided to run for praetorship in order to oppose the triumvirate. However, unlike the other candidates running against him, Cato refused to use bribery or intimidation to secure votes and subsequently lost the elections (Oman 222). This setback did not stop him at all from protesting the triumvirate. When the Trebonian Law was being passed, giving Spain to Pompey, Syria to Crassus, and armies to both, Cato relentlessly spoke out against it, eventually getting himself thrown in jail for not shutting up (Plutarch 339). The next year, Cato announced his intent to prosecute Caesar when his commission in Gaul ran out, on the claim that Caesar had committed treachery in his massacre of 430,000 Usipetes and Tencteri. However, with the Senate too scared to support him, Cato had little chance of condemning Caesar (Oman 224). In 54 BC, Cato ran for praetorship again, this time successfully. Once again, Cato’s oddities made him stand out. Plutarch writes that “it was thought that he did not add so much majesty and dignity to the office by a good administration as he took away from it by disgracing it. For he would often go forth to his tribunal without shoes or tunic, and in such attire would preside over capital cases involving prominent men” (Plutarch 342). However, Cato did manage to leave his mark by weeding out bribery from the next praetorial elections (Oman 224). Caesar’s Civil WarMeanwhile, the triumvirate was dissolving. In 54 BC, Julia died. Pompey had become becoming more and more suspicious of Caesar’s goals, and Julia’s death cut the remaining link between the two men (Oman 278). In 53 BC, Crassus died in the battle of Carrhae, leaving no hope for the triumvirate to revive (Oman 274). By 52 BC, Pompey had switched sides, and was bent on helping Cato and the Senate prevent Caesar from attaining the consulship of 48 BC, from which he would be unlikely to retire. Pompey had received his army after his consulship, but he refused to depart to Spain as he should have (Oman 279). Instead he stayed in Rome, which was slowing falling into anarchy. The elections of 52 BC were a violent fiasco and ended with the people demanding Pompey to take charge as either consul or dictator. In the end, Pompey was appointed the sole consul and in charge of the inevitable war against Caesar, a move which was openly supported by Cato (Seager 144). Pompey managed to restore some order to Rome, but it was clear that the Republic was failing (Oman 277). In 50 BC, Cato had decided that offensive action must be taken against Caesar. He proposed that Caesar should be given a successor in each of his provinces as soon as possible, and that all of his requests for compromise should be rejected (Oman 226). While Pompey was still mobilizing his army to prepare for Caesar’s return from Gaul, Caesar made his move by crossing the Rubicon. “This sudden irruption disarranged all Pompey’s plans; instead of being able to mobilise at leisure and to face the invader on the frontier, he was forced to abandon Rome in the first days of the war, and to order his recruits to collect far to the south in Apulia” (Oman 281). Caesar took Rome a few days later (Plutarch 279). Things went wrong yet again when Pompey’s general L. Domitius Ahenobarbus decided to go against orders and attack Caesar. Domitius was quickly surrounded, and after trying to abandon his troops and escape, his men surrendered to Caesar (Oman 282). Pompey then decided to evacuate Italy. He left for Epirus in order to train his recruits under cover (Oman 284). Cato was sent to Sicily in order to raise more troops. During the war, Cato stopped cutting his hair, shaving his beard, or wearing a garland; he fell into a sort of depression (Plutarch 365). When Caesar’s general Pollio invaded Sicily, Cato had not yet been able to gather enough force to fight back. He therefore fled to Pompey in Epirus (Oman 227). Caesar had been laying siege to Pompey at Dyrrhachium. However, Pompey managed to break the siege, and Caesar retreated to Thessaly with Pompey in pursuit (Leach 198). Cato was left in charge of the base at Epirus. At the final battle of Pharsalus, Caesar defeated Pompey, who fled to King Ptolemy (who was only ten years old) in Egypt for refuge (Seager 184). An advisor of Ptolemy, Theodotus, explained Egypt’s situation and his solution: “If we receive Pompey, we make Caesar our enemy. If we reject Pompey, we earn his undying hatred: and it is quite possible that he and his cause may yet triumph in the end. But if we lure him ashore and kill him, we do Caesar a favour, and have nothing to fear from Pompey. For dead men do not bite” (Oman 287). The plan having been accepted, Pompey was received with a polite invitation to see the king. He was escorted on a barge by Achillas, a mercenary, and two former centurions, Septimius and Salvius. Plutarch tells of what happened when the party landed on the beach: “Septimius, from behind, ran [Pompey] through the body with his sword, then Salvius next, and then Achillas, drew their daggers and stabbed him. And Pompey, drawing his toga down over his face with both hands, without an act or a word that was unworthy of himself, but with a groan merely, submitted to their blows, being sixty years of age less one, and ending his life only one day after his birth-day” (Plutarch 323). And so Pompey the Great died. His head was later presented to Caesar upon his arrival in Egypt (Seager 184). Upon Pompey’s death, Cato took over as leader of the cause (Goar 9). He left for Africa, where Metellus Scipio and King Juba still had control of a considerable Republican force. Leading 10,000 men in his long march from the sea, Cato refused to wear a hat the entire time. When he arrived, Cato was requested to take control over the province. However, he responded “We are fighting Caesar because he has broken the laws; it would not be right that I should break them too, by assuming superior authority over the head of a proconsul [Scipio], when I am only a propraetor” (Oman 229). Unfortunately, Scipio was an idiot and was soon drawn into battle by Caesar. The battle of Thapsus was a complete disaster, ruining their entire cause (Plutarch 379). Cato, seeing defeat, thought it better to commit suicide than to fight on uselessly or surrender. He tried to kill himself by stabbing himself in the chest. However, he did not die. Rather, he awakened the household when he fell off the couch. A doctor was called, who sewed his wound back up. When Cato woke up to discover he was still alive, he tore his wound open again and died (Plutarch 407). ConclusionCato and Pompey, both dead in their futile struggle against Caesar’s might, nevertheless left great impacts on Roman history. Pompey the Great, as he is often called, basically conquered the east for the Roman Empire. Perhaps more significantly, he did so with “habitual kindliness and moderation to the vanquished,” choosing to colonize his defeated enemies instead of killing them (Oman 236). Cato left his mark in a rather different way. For Roman Stoics, he represented “a pattern of moral perfection” (Goar 9). He is remembered for his consistency of values as much as his fearless resistance to Caesar and Pompey. In a way, both Cato and Pompey presented possible alternatives to the end of the Republic: Pompey, who could easily have taken the place of Caesar, what could have been; and Cato, with all his virtue and honor, perhaps what should have been. Timeline
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Bibliography"Ancient Italy." Map. Ancient World Mapping Center. 2008. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.unc.edu/awmc/downloads/wlAncientItalyMed.jpg>. “Cato, Marcus Porcius.” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition. 2007. 26 Dec. 2007 <http://school.eb.com/eb/article-9021833>. Crassus. Photograph. History of Western Civilization. Boise State University. 1 Jan. 2008 <http://history.boisestate.edu/WESTCIV/romanrev/crassus.jpg>. “Figure 3: Map to illustrate Pompey’s campaign against the Pirates.” Map. Pompey the Great. By John Leach. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. 69. “Figure 4: Map of Pompey’s Eastern Campaigns.” Map. Pompey the Great. By John Leach. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. 81. “Figure 5: Map to illustrate Pompey’s Eastern Settlement.” Map. Pompey the Great. By John Leach. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. 97. “Figure 7: Map of Northern Greece to illustrate the campaigns of 48.” Map. Pompey the Great. By John Leach. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. 187. “Figure 8: Plan to illustrate the operations found around Dyrrachium.” Map. Pompey the Great. By John Leach. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. 195. Goar, Robert J. Foreword. The Legend of Cato Uticensis from the First Century B.C. to the Fifth Century A.D. By Goar. Bruxelles: Latomus, 1987. 9. Leach, John. Pompey the Great. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. Oman, Charles. Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic. London: Edward Arnold, 1902. Plutarch. The Parallel Lives. Trans. Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library ed. 1919. LacusCurtius. 5 Dec. 2007. 28 Dec. 2007 <http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/home.html>. Pompey. Photograph. Tales of Heroes: Classical Epic. 1998. 1 Jan. 2008 <http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/epic/aeneid_images/pompey.jpg>. Rawson, Beryl. The Politics of Friendship: Pompey and Cicero. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1978. Romand, Jean-Baptiste. Cato of Utica reading the Phedo before comitting suicide. Marble Sculpture. 1840. Louvre, Paris. Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Marcus_Porcius_Cato.jpg>. Seager, Robin. Pompey: A Political Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. “cato.younger” – Marble statue of Cato the Younger reading the Phedo before committing suicide (Romand) – to be put with section Cato
Images “cato.younger” – Bust of Cato the Younger (Cato the Younger) – to be put with section Cato “crassus” – Bust of Crassus (Crassus) – to be put with section Pompey “fig3.piratemap” – Map to illustrate Pompey’s campaign against the pirates (Figure 3…) – to be put with section Pompey “fig4.easterncampaigns” – Map of Pompey’s eastern campaigns (Figure 4…) – to be put with section Pompey “fig5.easternsettlement” – Map to illustrate Pompey’s eastern settlement, with “Pompeiopolis” highlighted (Figure 5…) – to be put with section Pompey “fig7.northerngreece” – Map of northern Greece to illustrate the campaigns of 48, with familiar names highlighted (Figure 7…) – to be put with section Caesar’s Civil War “fig8.dyrrachium” – Plan to illustrate the operations found around Dyrrachium (Figure 8…) – to be put with section Caesar’s Civil War “pompey” – Bust of Pompey (Pompey) – to be put with section Pompey
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