Seducers of Rome - Cato Part 2

Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating. A blessed Saturnalia to others.

Here’s your gift: a scary story.

Cato Part 2: Seducers of Rome, is live.

In this episode:

• Cato discovers a raunchy note from his (half) sister Servilia to Caesar

• The real motivations behind the formation of the First Triumvirate

• How Cato turns a gilded exile in Cyprus into a triumph

• Cato’s vices (drinking too much??)

• His memorable year as Praetor and battles against corruption

• Some shocking deaths among the nobility open a window for Cato

This is a story of political intrigue, street violence, and the struggle to preserve Republican institutions against the rising tide of mob-seducing populist strongmen. At the heart of it all stands Cato—refusing to compromise his principles even as Rome's political system crumbles around him.

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Join us for a little theory and a lot of PRACTICE in the ancient Art of Oratory. Our theme is Julius Caesar.

We’ll be joined by Ben Wilson of How to Take Over the World podcast.

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You can listen to the new Cato episode here:

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Takeaways

For the full story, listen to the episode. But here are a few takeaways:

1. Principles vs. Pragmatism

Cato's unwavering principles were both his greatest strength and limitation. As Cicero observed,

I admire Cato as much as you do, but the fact remains that for all his patriotism and integrity he is sometimes a political liability. He speaks in the senate as though he were living in Plato's Republic instead of Romulus' Cesspool.

Cato’s steadfast defense of Roman traditional values and opposition to corruption earned him widespread respect. But his refusal to compromise - even with potential allies like Pompey - may have inadvertently helped consolidate power among his opponents.

Consider how he rejected Pompey's marriage alliance proposal. Pompey wanted to reintegrate himself in Roman society, especially with the conservative nobles, and a marriage deal was the best way to go about it. He would marry Cato's elder niece, and in turn his son could marry Cato's younger niece.

Alas, it was not to be. Cato rejected this outright, to the harsh cries of everyone around him. Eventually, this pushed Pompey to turn to Caesar.

As Plutarch later reflected, “None of these things perhaps would have happened, had not Cato been so afraid of the slight transgressions of Pompey as to allow the man to commit the greatest of all, and add his power to that of another.”

2. The Triumph of Informal Power

At this time, the political dynamics of Rome were increasingly dominated by informal power arrangements rather than traditional authority, and this can best be seen through the First Triumvirate, a secret, and then not so secret, pact formed between Rome's three most powerful men: Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. This arrangement is credited by many as spelling the effective downfall of the Republic.

The Triumvirate’s methods were brutal and effective. Financed through dark channels by Crassus, and from the plunder coming in from Caesar's fort smashing campaigns in Gaul, Clodius' gangs were regularly beating up and intimidating rivals in the streets and the forum.

You can see the erosion of constitutional norms in rising electoral violence. When Cato and Domitius were making their way down to the voting grounds in the Campus Martius before dawn, they found that thugs were waiting for them... daggers drawn.

Even more telling was how money had corrupted the electoral process. It was becoming so rampant that most candidates were just giving up on the notion of honest elections—if you don't bribe, you don't survive... this was making offices ruinously expensive for everybody but the top 1% of the top 1%, and winnowing the talent pool de facto to consist merely of the rich rather than the patriotic or talented.

Cato did the only thing he felt he could do: resist, obstruct, and—perhaps the most successful of his tactics—sound the alarm.

3. The Unheeded Prophet

Cato consistently warned about Caesar's threat to the Republic. When Caesar's German victories were being celebrated, Cato was practically the sole dissenting voice. He argued that they should rather surrender Caesar to the men he had wronged, and not turn upon themselves and upon their city the pollution of his wicked crime.

"Let us also sacrifice to the Gods" he added, "that they may not turn the punishment for the general's folly and madness upon his soldiers, and upon the city."

His warnings were often dismissed, though retrospect shows they were not off the mark. Sometimes, his appearance may even have undermined his message. Plutarch recounts:

"Cato was elected praetor, but 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."

Praetors were supposed to embody the austere dignity of Roman imperial might, and many patriotic Romans felt like I imagine many Americans would, if their supreme court justices and senators started dressing in tech founder T-shirts. It was seen as a form of open contempt for Roman greatness.

More and more, average people started treating Cato like a crazy vagrant shouting in the streets. They rolled their eyes and ignored his warnings.

I think this is very interesting phenomenon: when someone makes a name for themselves with contrarianism, certifying their prophetic status by a singular lifestyle… eventually people get used to it, and get desensitized to it. It can even start to be annoying to everyone but your “1000 true fans.” Cato certainly had his supporters among the nobility and the commons, but you wonder if Cato might have partly been the victim of “audience capture.” They want him to keep the bit up, even though it’s losing its broader appeal.

Will it be too late by the time the Romans wake up to Cato’s counsels about the threat looming over the Republic?

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