Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus anglicised as Sallust, was a Roman historian and novus homo from an Italian plebeian family. Sallust was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines and was a popularis, an opponent of the old Roman aristocracy, throughout his career, a partisan of Julius Caesar. Sallust is the earliest known Roman historian with surviving works to his name, of which Catiline's War, The Jugurthine War, the Histories are still extant. Sallust was influenced by the Greek historian Thucydides and amassed great wealth from his governorship of Africa. Sallust was born in Amiternum in Central Italy, though Eduard Schwartz takes the view that Sallust's birthplace was Rome, his birth date is calculated from the report of Jerome's Chronicon. But Ronald Syme suggests that Jerome's date has to be adjusted because of his carelessness, suggests 87 BC as a more correct date. However, Sallust's birth is dated at 86 BC, the Kleine Pauly Encyclopedia takes 1 October 86 BC as the birthdate. Michael Grant cautiously offers 80s BC.
There is no information about Sallust's parents or family, except for Tacitus' mention of his sister. The Sallustii were a provincial noble family of Sabine origin, they had full Roman citizenship. During the Social War Sallust’s parents hid in Rome, because Amiternum was under threat of siege by rebelling Italic tribes; because of this Sallust could have been raised in Rome He received a good education. After an ill-spent youth, Sallust entered public life and may have won election as quaestor in 55 BC. However, there is no conclusive evidence about this, some scholars suppose that Sallust did not become a quaestor — the practice of violating the cursus honorum was common in the last years of the Republic, he became a Tribune of the Plebs in 52 BC, the year in which the followers of Milo killed Clodius in a street brawl. Sallust supported the prosecution of Milo. Sallust, Titus Munatius Plancus and Quintus Pompeius Rufus tried to blame Cicero, one of the leaders of the Senators' opposition to the triumvirate, for his support of Milo.
Syme suggests that Sallust, because of his position in Milo's trial, did not support Caesar. T. Mommsen states. According to one inscription, some Sallustius was a proquaestor in Syria in 50 BC under Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Mommsen identified this Sallustius with Sallust the historian, though T. R. S. Broughton argued that Sallust the historian could not have been an assistant to Julius Caesar's adversary. From the beginning of his public career, Sallust operated as a decided partisan of Julius Caesar, to whom he owed such political advancement as he attained. In 50 BC, the censor Appius Claudius Pulcher removed him from the Senate on the grounds of gross immorality. In the following year through Caesar's influence, he was reinstated. During the Civil War of 49–45 BC Sallust acted as Caesar's partisan, but his role was not significant, so his name is not mentioned in the dictator's Commentarii de Bello Civili, it was reported that Sallust dined with Caesar, Oppius and Sulpicius Rufus on the night after Caesar's famous crossing of the Rubicon river into Italy on 10 January.
In 49 BC Sallust was moved to Illyricum and commanded at least one legion there after the failure of Publius Cornelius Dolabella and Gaius Antonius. This campaign was unsuccessful. In 48 BC he was made quaestor by Caesar to re-enter the Senate. However, the last statement is based on the "Invective against Sallust" ascribed to Cicero, a forgery. In late summer 47 BC a group of soldiers rebelled near Rome, demanding their discharge and payment for service. Sallust, as praetor designatus, with several other senators, was sent to persuade the soldiers, but the rebels killed two senators, Sallust narrowly escaped death. In 46 BC, he served as a praetor and accompanied Caesar in his African campaign, which ended in the decisive defeat of the remains of the Pompeian war party at Thapsus. Sallust did not participate in military operations directly, but he commanded several ships and organized supply through the Kerkennah Islands; as a reward for his services, Sallust was appointed governor of the province of Africa Nova — it is not clear why: Sallust was not a skilled general, the province was militarily significant, with three legions deployed there.
Moreover, his successors as governor were experienced military men. However, Sallust managed the organization of supply and transportation, these qualities could have determined Caesar's choice; as governor he committed such oppression and extortion that only Caesar's influence enabled him to escape condemnation. On his return to Rome he purchased and began laying out in great splendour the famous gardens on the Quirinal known as the Horti Sallustiani or Gardens of Sallust; these gardens would belong to the emperors. Sallust retired from public life and devoted himself to historical literature, further developed his Gardens, upon which he spent much of his accumulated wealth. According to Hieronymus Stridonensis, Sallust became the second husband of Cicero's ex-wife Terentia; however prominent scholars of Roman prosopography such as Ronald Syme refute this as a legend. Sallust's account of the Catiline conspiracy and of the Jugurthine War (B
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire. It was during this period that Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. Roman society under the Republic was a cultural mix of Latin and Greek elements, visible in the Roman Pantheon, its political organisation was influenced by the Greek city states of Magna Graecia, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate. The top magistrates were the two consuls, who had an extensive range of executive, judicial and religious powers. Whilst there were elections each year, the Republic was not a democracy, but an oligarchy, as a small number of large families monopolised the main magistracies. Roman institutions underwent considerable changes throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such as the creation of promagistracies to rule its conquered provinces, or the composition of the senate.
Unlike the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, the Republic was in a state of quasi-perpetual war throughout its existence. Its first enemies were its Latin and Etruscan neighbours as well as the Gauls, who sacked the city in 387 BC; the Republic nonetheless demonstrated extreme resilience and always managed to overcome its losses, however catastrophic. After the Gallic Sack, Rome indeed conquered the whole Italian peninsula in a century, which turned the Republic into a major power in the Mediterranean; the Republic's greatest enemy was doubtless Carthage, against. The Punic general Hannibal famously invaded Italy by crossing the Alps and inflicted on Rome two devastating defeats at the Lake Trasimene and Cannae, but the Republic once again recovered and won the war thanks to Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. With Carthage defeated, Rome became the dominant power of the ancient Mediterranean world, it embarked in a long series of difficult conquests, after having notably defeated Philip V and Perseus of Macedon, Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire, the Lusitanian Viriathis, the Numidian Jugurtha, the great Pontic king Mithridates VI, the Gaul Vercingetorix, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.
At home, the Republic experienced a long streak of social and political crises, which ended in several violent civil wars. At first, the Conflict of the Orders opposed the patricians, the closed oligarchic elite, to the far more numerous plebs, who achieved political equality in several steps during the 4th century BC; the vast conquests of the Republic disrupted its society, as the immense influx of slaves they brought enriched the aristocracy, but ruined the peasantry and urban workers. In order to solve this issue, several social reformers, known as the Populares, tried to pass agrarian laws, but the Gracchi brothers, Saturninus, or Clodius Pulcher were all murdered by their opponents, the Optimates, keepers of the traditional aristocratic order. Mass slavery caused three Servile Wars. In this context, the last decades of the Republic were marked by the rise of great generals, who exploited their military conquests and the factional situation in Rome to gain control of the political system.
Marius Sulla dominated in turn the Republic. These multiple tensions lead to a series of civil wars. Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for life, Caesar was murdered in 44 BC. Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony defeated Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, but turned against each other; the final defeat of Mark Antony and his ally Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, the Senate's grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian as Augustus in 27 BC – which made him the first Roman emperor – thus ended the Republic. Since the foundation of Rome, its rulers had been monarchs, elected for life by the patrician noblemen who made up the Roman Senate; the last Roman king was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. In the traditional histories, Tarquin was expelled in 509 because his son Sextus Tarquinius had raped the noblewoman Lucretia, who afterwards took her own life. Lucretia's father, her husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Tarquin's nephew Lucius Junius Brutus mustered support from the Senate and army, forced Tarquin into exile in Etruria.
The Senate agreed to abolish kingship. Most of the king's former functions were transferred to two consuls, who were elected to office for a term of one year; each consul had the capacity to act as a check on his colleague, if necessary through the same power of veto that the kings had held. If a consul abused his powers in office, he could be prosecuted. Brutus and Collatinus became Republican Rome's first consuls. Despite Collatinus' role in the creation of the Republic, he belonged to the same family as the former king, was forced to abdicate his office and leave Rome, he was replaced as co-consul by Publius Valerius Publicola. Most modern scholarship describes these events as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family, not a popular revolution, they fit a narrative of a personal vengeance against a tyrant leading to his overthrow, common among Greek cities and theorised by Aristotle
Cesare Maccari
Cesare Maccari was an Italian painter and sculptor, most famous for his 1888 painting Cicerone denuncia Catalina. Maccari was born in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, he was a student of the Institute of the Fine Arts in Siena together with Tito Sarrocchi, working in sculpture and helping complete the Monumento Pianigiani in Siena. He worked in the atelier of Luigi Mussini in Florence. There in 1864 he was commissioned by an English society to copy works of Bernardino Pinturicchio found in the Cathedral of Siena; some of his first patronage came from works the Marquis Pieri-Nerli, who commissioned him to paint frescoes of the four evangelists for a private chapel in his home in Quinciano, a hamlet in the comune of Monteroni d'Arbia. Maccari soon won a stipend to study in Rome, that allowed him to travel through Italy. Among his first major oil canvases in Rome, Maccari painted Vittoria Colonna meditates on the Poetry of Michelangelo. Another canvas, Sira che sacrifica la propia vita for the padrona Fabiola won a medal at the Exhibition of Termini.
Next, his canvas Un palpito del passato was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition of Parma. He painted two figures in the church of Santa Francesca Romana, he was commissioned a Deposition by the marchesa di Cassibile. From 1870 to 1873, he was active as a fresco artist decorating the interior of the church of the Sudario in Rome, he painted the lunette above the tomb of the Lombardi in Campo Verano. He painted in tempera: Love crowning the three Graces At the 1878 Turin Exposition, he sent an oil canvas depicting The Deposition of Pope Silverius by Antonina, wife of Belisarius; the prize winning painting was purchased for the Civic Museum of Turin. In 1863, Maccari painted Leonardo che ritrae la Gioconda which won an award in 1865. In his home town Siena he decorated the Sala del Risorgimento in the public palace with frescoes that were well received by critics. Between 1882 and 1888 Maccari painted a series of frescoes depicting famous events in the history of the Senate of Ancient Roman at the "Sala Maccari" in the Salone d'Onore of Rome's Palazzo Madama, seat of the Italian Senate, amongst them his most famous work, Cicero Denounces Catiline.
Other walls include these depictions: Appius Claudius Caecus led into the Senate where he will give a speech to convince the Romans to urge them to reject the humiliating peace conditions imposed by Pyrrhus of Epirus's ambassador, Cineas. The elder senator, Marcus Papirius, bravely seated motionless confronts the Gauls occupying Rome after the Battle of the Allia. Samnites trying to bribe Curius Dentatus to convince the Senate to make peace. Marcus Atilius Regulus, sent back to Rome after being captured by Carthage during the First Punic War, urges the Senate to reject the Carthaginian peace offer he was sent to deliver and vows to return to Carthage as a prisoner, where he knows that he will be executed. Maccari designed and completed the frescoes for the cupola of the Basilica di Loreto, completed in 1890 to 1907, which replaced the frescoes of Cristoforo Roncalli, from the second decade of the 17th century, which had badly deteriorated; the museum adjacent to the Basilica has the preparatory paintings by Maccari.
They depict events that led to the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. In life, Maccari became a lecturer at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, he became paralyzed while he was working on the Palace of Justice in Rome in 1909 and as a result stopped working as an artist. Among his pupils were Cesare Bertolotti and Giuseppe Aureli, he died in Rome in 1919. See also: Catiline Orations Maccari's most famous work of art depicts Cicero's Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita, his first speech denouncing Catiline in the Roman Senate which drove him from the city. Maccari has been praised for the way his paintings captured the description of events and how Catiline has been avoided by his fellow senators and sat alone while Cicero attacked him. On the other hand, his work has been criticized for some historical inaccuracy since he depicted the Senate meeting in the wrong place: the Senate met in the Temple of Jupiter Stator, not in the Senate House. Cicero was 43 years old at the time but looks much older, Catiline, two years older than Cicero, looks much younger than Cicero.
The painting has been reproduced in many textbooks and histories of Rome, its depiction of the Roman Senate has influenced the presentation of the Senate of the Roman Republic in nonfiction books. List of Orientalist artists Orientalism Guglielmo De Sanctis. Gli affreschi di C. Maccari nel Senato. Rome, 1889. G. Cantalamessa. Gli affreschi di C. Maccari nella cupola di Loreto. Rome, 1895
Proscription
Proscription is, in current usage, a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in Ancient Rome, where it included public identification and official condemnation of declared enemies of the state, it has been used broadly since to describe similar governmental and political actions, with varying degrees of nuance, including the en masse suppression of ideologies and elimination of political rivals or personal enemies. In addition to its recurrences during the various phases of the Roman Republic, it has become a standard term to label: The suppression of Royalists after Oliver Cromwell's decisive defeat of Charles II at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 The curbing of Western religion in early 18th-century China The banning of Highland dress following the Jacobite rising of 1745 in Scotland Atrocities that occurred during the Reign of Terror phase of the French Revolution The mass deportations of British and French workers from Russia in mid-19th century, with the onset of the Crimean War In the 20th century, such things as the efforts of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom to prevent "Communist entryism" through blacklisting propagandizing persons and organisations The broad prohibitions of Jewish cultural institutions and activities in the Soviet Union after the birth of the state of Israel in 1948 and the onset of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Proscriptions meant public advertisements or notices signifying property or goods for sale.
During the dictatorial reign of Sulla, the word took on a more sinister meaning. In 82 or 81 BC, Sulla instituted the process of proscription in order to avenge the massacres of Gaius Marius and his son, he instituted a notice for the sale of confiscated property belonging to those declared public enemies of the state and therefore condemned to death those proscribed, called proscripti in Latin. There were multiple reasons why the ancient Roman government may have desired to proscribe or attribute multiple other forms of pain. One of the most prevalent reasons for punishment are treason crimes known as lex maiestatis. Treason crimes consisted of a broad and large number of regulations, such crimes had a negative effect on the government; this list includes, but is not limited to: assisting an enemy in any way, Crimen Laesae Majestasis, acts of subversion and usurpation, offense against the peace of the state, offenses against the administration of justice, violating absolute duties. Overall, crimes in which the state, the state’s tranquility, or offenses against the good of the people would be considered treason, therefore, would constitute proscription.
Some of these regulations are understandable and comparable to safety laws within the United States today. Punishments for treason were quite harsh by today’s standards and were meant to highlight the seriousness and shamefulness of the treason crimes committed. There were a variety of punishments for capital crimes, including death, loss of a freedman’s status, loss of citizenship with a loss of family rights, a loss of family rights only. Death was a common punishment and was referred to as summum supplicium, or the "extreme penalty"; the death sentence was the punishment for all but the mildest forms of treason. Julius Caesar was an influential framer of the law on treason; the Interdiction from Water and Fire was a civil excommunication resulting in ultimate exile, which included forfeiture of citizenship and forfeiture of property. Those who were condemned would be deported to an island. Emperor Augustus utilized this method of exile, as he desired to keep banished men from banding together in large groups.
Such punishment was given for only the mildest forms of treason, in comparison to the death penalty, which served for most other treason crimes. Augustus created the prefect, whose powers included the ability to banish, deport, or send to the mines; the prefect heard appeals. An early instance of mass proscription took place in 82 BC, when Lucius Cornelius Sulla was appointed dictator rei publicae constituendae. Sulla proceeded to have the Senate draw up a list of those he considered enemies of the state and published the list in the Roman Forum. Any man whose name appeared on the list was ipso facto stripped of his citizenship and excluded from all protection under law. No person could inherit money or property from proscribed men, nor could any woman married to a proscribed man remarry after his death. Many victims of proscription were decapitated and their heads were displayed on spears in the Forum. Sulla used proscription to restore the depleted Roman Treasury, drained by costly civil and foreign wars in the preceding decade, to eliminate enemies of his reformed state and constitutions.
Giving the procedure a sinister character in the public eye was the fact that many of the proscribed men, escorted from their homes at night by groups of men all named "Lucius Cornelius", never appeared again
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator and philosopher, who served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, his influence on the Latin language was so immense that the subsequent history of prose, not only in Latin but in European languages up to the 19th century, was said to be either a reaction against or a return to his style. Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary distinguishing himself as a translator and philosopher. Though he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement, it was during his consulship that the second Catilinarian conspiracy attempted to overthrow the government through an attack on the city by outside forces, Cicero suppressed the revolt by summarily and controversially executing five conspirators.
During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government. Following Julius Caesar's death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches, he was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and executed by soldiers operating on their behalf in 43 BC after having been intercepted during an attempted flight from the Italian peninsula. His severed hands and head were as a final revenge of Mark Antony, displayed on The Rostra. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs and classical Roman culture. According to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, "the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity." The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the 18th-century Enlightenment, his impact on leading Enlightenment thinkers and political theorists such as John Locke, David Hume and Edmund Burke was substantial.
His works rank among the most influential in European culture, today still constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for the writing and revision of Roman history the last days of the Roman Republic. Cicero was born in 106 BC in a hill town 100 kilometers southeast of Rome, he belonged to the tribus Cornelia. His father possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he studied extensively to compensate. Although little is known about Cicero's mother, Helvia, it was common for the wives of important Roman citizens to be responsible for the management of the household. Cicero's brother Quintus wrote in a letter. Cicero's cognomen, or personal surname, comes from the Latin for cicer. Plutarch explains that the name was given to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. However, it is more that Cicero's ancestors prospered through the cultivation and sale of chickpeas. Romans chose down-to-earth personal surnames.
The famous family names of Fabius and Piso come from the Latin names of beans and peas, respectively. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this deprecatory name when he entered politics, but refused, saying that he would make Cicero more glorious than Scaurus and Catulus. During this period in Roman history, "cultured" meant being able to speak both Greek. Cicero was therefore educated in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers and historians. Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience, it was his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite. Cicero's interest in philosophy figured in his career and led to him providing a comprehensive account of Greek philosophy for a Roman audience, including creating a philosophical vocabulary in Latin. In 87 BC, Philo of Larissa, the head of the Academy, founded by Plato in Athens about 300 years earlier, arrived in Rome.
Cicero, "inspired by an extraordinary zeal for philosophy", sat enthusiastically at his feet and absorbed Plato's philosophy. Cicero said of Plato's Dialogues. According to Plutarch, Cicero was an talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Cicero's fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, Titus Pomponius; the latter two became Cicero's friends for life, Pomponius would become, in Cicero's own words, "as a second brother", with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence. In 79 BC, Cicero left for Asia Minor and Rhodes; this was to avoid the potential wrath of Sulla, as Plutarch claims, though Cicero himself says it was to hone his skills and improve his p
Marcus Sergius
Marcus Sergius was a Roman general during the Second Punic War. He is famed in prosthetics circles as the first documented user of a prosthetic hand; the metal hand was constructed to allow him to hold his shield in battle. A description of Marcus Sergius is found in the seventh book of Pliny's Natural History, published in AD 77: Nobody - at least in my opinion - can rightly rank any man above Marcus Sergius, although his great-grandson Catiline shames his name. In his second campaign Sergius lost his right hand. In two campaigns he was wounded twenty-three times, with the result that he had no use in either hand or either foot: only his spirit remained intact. Although disabled, Sergius served in many subsequent campaigns, he was twice captured by Hannibal - no ordinary foe- from whom twice he escaped, although kept in chains and shackles every day for twenty months. He fought four times with only his left hand, while two horses he was riding were stabbed beneath him, he had a right hand made of iron for him and, going into battle with this bound to his arm, raised the siege of Cremona, saved Placentia and captured twelve enemy camps in Gaul - all of which exploits were confirmed by the speech he made as praetor when his colleagues tried to debar him as infirm from the sacrifices.
What piles of wreaths he would have amassed in the face of a different enemy
Cato the Younger
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather, was a statesman in the late Roman Republic, a follower of the Stoic philosophy. A noted orator, he is remembered for his stubbornness and tenacity, as well as his immunity to bribes, his moral integrity, his famous distaste for the ubiquitous corruption of the period. Cato was born in the son of Marcus Porcius Cato and his wife, Livia, his parents died when he was young, he was cared for by his maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus, who looked after Cato's sister Porcia, half-brother Quintus Servilius Caepio, two half-sisters Servilia Major, Servilia Minor. Cato was four when his uncle was assassinated in an event which helped to spark the Social War. Cato's stubbornness began in his early years. Sarpedon, his teacher, reports a obedient and questioning child, although slow in being persuaded of things and sometimes difficult to retrain. A story told by Plutarch tells of Quintus Poppaedius Silo, leader of the Marsi and involved in controversial business in the Roman Forum, who made a visit to his friend Marcus Livius and met the children of the house.
In a playful mood, he asked the children's support for his cause. All of them smiled except Cato, who stared at the guest suspiciously. Silo demanded an answer from him and, seeing no response, took Cato and hung him by the feet out of the window. Cato would not say anything. Plutarch recounts a few other stories as well. One night, as some children were playing a game in a side room of a house during a social event, they were having a mock trial with judges and accusers as well as a defendant. One of the children a good-natured and pleasant child, was convicted by the mock accusers and was being carried out of the room when he cried out for Cato. Cato became angry at the other children and, saying nothing, grabbed the child away from the "guards" and carried him away from the others. Plutarch tells a story about Cato's peers' immense respect for him at a young age, during the Roman ritual military game, called "Troy," in which all aristocratic teenagers participated as a sort of "coming of age" ceremony, involving a mock battle with wooden weapons performed on horseback.
When one of the adult organisers "appointed two leaders for them, the boys accepted one of them for his mother's sake, but would not tolerate the other, a nephew of Pompey, named Sextus, refused to rehearse under him or obey him. When Sulla asked them whom they would have, they all cried "Cato," and Sextus himself gave way and yielded the honour to a confessed superior." Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Roman dictator, liked to talk with Cato and his brother Caepio, requested the child's presence when the boy defied his opinions and policies in public. Sulla's daughter Cornelia Sulla was married to the boys' uncle Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus. According to Plutarch, at one point during the height of the civil strife, as respected Roman nobles were being led to execution from Sulla's villa, aged about 14, asked his tutor why no one had yet killed the dictator. Sarpedon's answer was thus: "They fear him, my child, more than they hate him." Cato replied to this, "Give me a sword, that I might free my country from slavery."
After this, Sarpedon was careful not to leave the boy unattended around the capital, seeing how firm he was in his republican beliefs. After receiving his inheritance, Cato moved from his uncle's house and began to study Stoic philosophy and politics, he began to live in a modest way, as his great-grandfather Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder had famously done. Cato subjected himself to violent exercise, learned to endure cold and rain with a minimum of clothes, he drank the cheapest wine on the market. This was for philosophical reasons, he remained in private life for a long time seen in public. But when he did appear in the forum, his speeches and rhetorical skills were most admired. Cato was known to drink wine generously. Cato was first engaged to Aemilia Lepida, a patrician woman, but she was married instead to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio, to whom she had been betrothed. Incensed, Cato threatened to sue for her hand, but his friends mollified him, Cato was contented to compose Archilochian iambics against Scipio in consolation.
Cato was married to a woman called Atilia. By her, he had a son, Marcus Porcius Cato, a daughter, who would become the second wife of Marcus Junius Brutus. Cato divorced Atilia for unseemly behavior. In 72 BC, Cato volunteered to fight in the war against Spartacus to support his brother Caepio, serving as a military tribune in the consular army of Lucius Gellius Poplicola. Gellius is remembered as an indifferent commander, but his army inflicted the greatest of any defeats on Spartacus before Crassus raised his six legions and defeated the slave uprising; as a military tribune, Cato was sent to Macedon in 67 BC at the age of 28 and given command of a legion. He led his men from the front, sharing their work and sleeping quarters, he was nonetheless loved by his legionaries. While Cato was in service in Macedon, he received the news that his beloved brother Caepio, from whom he was nearly inseparable, was dying in Thrace, he went to see him but was unable to arrive before his brother died. Cato was overwhelmed by grief, for once in his life, he spared no expense to org
