Cato the Younger

I was reared in the house of Marcus Livius Drusus, where promises bought crowds and a dagger settled argument. From that schooling I chose the sterner guide: to be ruled by law, not by men. I kept to plain dress, spare speech, and the discipline the Stoics demand. Favor sought me; I sent it away.

As military tribune in Macedonia, I shared the soldiers’ rations and enforced the watches, so that order should not be a word only for others. I learned how swiftly a post turns into a purse when eyes are shut, and I did not shut mine.

As quaestor I found the treasury treated as private spoil. I made the clerks account in full, compelled debts to the state to be repaid, and brought charges where theft hid behind custom. When Catiline’s accomplices stood before the Senate, I urged lawful execution; delay is a tutor of sedition. Later, when Caesar as consul pressed an unlawful bill, I held the rostra until sunset; he had me dragged to prison, and the people broke his will before he broke the law.

Clodius sent me to strip the Cypriot king and bring the money to Rome; I obeyed the statute and kept my hands clean. I opposed the alliance of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus for the Republic’s sake, not for any man’s. After Thapsus I kept order at Utica, sent allies to safety, read Plato on the soul, and chose my own end. Let Rome learn that liberty is kept by resolve, not by fortune.