Podcast Episode 39 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Conclusion

Julius Caesar tried to paint Cato the Younger’s suicide as the depraved final act of a crazed fanatic.

In the triumph he celebrated after his victory over the last Republican holdouts in North Africa, he had paintings carried through the procession showing Cato “tearing open his own wound.” All this did was engender sympathy for Cato, who killed himself rather than submit to Rome’s new tyrant, who was granted a dictatorship of ten years.

The Republicans who had accepted clemency from Caesar now began to feel ashamed that they had taken the easy way out. Cato’s nephew Brutus divorced his wife without explanation and married Porcia, Cato’s daughter. He wrote a book about his uncle-turned-father-in-law, praising his steadfast commitment to Republican virtues.

Brutus even managed to persuade Cicero to write his own story of Cato, but his book focused on his old ally’s “personal virtue and steadfastness rather than his political career.” Cicero, typically, was afraid of offending Caesar. He had also known Cato at his best and worst, and likely didn’t want to rehash their shared history, which would remind everyone that Cicero caved to a dictator to save himself and Cato did not. He much preferred Cato as a symbol than a living, righteous man, who more often than not rebuked Cicero for his own lack of righteousness.

Even watered-down, these books about Cato were not good for Caesar’s regime. “Within months of his suicide, one of Caesar’s bitterest opponents was being held up as the ideal of aristocratic virtue in books which were openly circulated and widely praised.”

This is just the kind of thing that would not have been tolerated when Sulla was dictator. Maybe Julius Caesar really wasn’t the best at everything.

Sources

Addison, Joseph. “Cato A Tragedy.” Delhi Open Books, 2022.

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Goldsworthy, Adrian. “Caesar: Life of a Colossus.” Yale University Press, 2008.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

MountVernon.org. “Quotes from George Washington.” Retrieved March 30, 2022 from https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/quotes/article/gentlemen-you-will-permit-me-to-put-on-my-spectacles-for-i-have-grown-not-only-gray-but-almost-blind-in-the-service-of-my-country/

Podcast Episode 38 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part XIV

Julius Caesar was finally ready to put an end to that pesky civil war.

His best legions had mutinied while he was away in Egypt consorting with Queen Cleopatra. He had left Rome in the hands of less-capable surrogates for about a year, which gave the remaining Republican resistance time and space to fortify the North African city of Utica, under the careful management of Cato the Younger.

Caesar had had enough. It was time to finish this once and for all.

After winning the Battle of Thapsus, Julius Caesar entered Utica to find Cato already dead and buried. He said, “I begrudge you your death, just as you begrudged me the chance to spare your life.”

Even though he had ultimately won the civil war, Caesar knew that he had been beaten.

Eighteen centuries later, when George Washington huddled with his men at Valley Forge, knowing that they were all that stood between an American republic and subjugation by a king,  Cato the Younger was the example he followed.

In defying Julius Caesar, Cato the Younger played a big part in the birth of democracies centuries later. 

Sources

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Goldsworthy, Adrian. “Caesar: Life of a Colossus.” Yale University Press, 2008.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

Podcast Episode 037 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part XIII

The Roman Republic was making its last stand, but first it had to figure out who was in charge.

Not that it didn’t have bigger problems. Pompey the Great, thinking the civil war was over, failed to capitalize on his victory at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, allowing Julius Caesar all the time he needed to regroup so they could meet again at the Battle of Pharsalus in August of 48 BC.

Pompey did not win the Battle of Pharsalus.

After his crushing defeat, he retreated to Egypt, thinking he could get troops and money by picking a side in the ongoing incestuous power struggle between Cleopatra and her brother-husband, one of the last of the Ptolemaic kings. He picked the wrong side, and the Egyptians sent his severed head to Caesar, hoping that he would pick a side in the ongoing incestuous power struggle between Cleopatra and her brother-husband.

Julius Caesar would indeed pick a side, but that is a trainwreck for later.

He took some time off, managed to recover his mutinying legions, and headed for a final showdown in Africa.

Sources

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Goldsworthy, Adrian. “Caesar: Life of a Colossus.” Yale University Press, 2008.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

Podcast Episode 36 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part XII

Someone needed to rally the troops, and Rome’s greatest living general was having a hard time doing it.

Pompey the Great had a—well…great reputation as a commander, which his recruits and veterans alike could see for themselves. He trained and drilled right alongside them, and could swing a sword like a man half his age. But this time his troops weren’t just Romans—desperate times—and a civil war--had caused him to recruit men from the provinces instead of just Italy itself, and they were about to go to war against soldiers who had up until recently been on the same side.

If ever there was a time for an inspiring speech, this was it.

Sources

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Duncan, Mike. “The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.” Public Affairs, 2017.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

UNRV.com. “Battle of Dyrrhachium.” Retrieved March 21, 2022 from https://www.unrv.com/julius-caesar/battle-of-dyrrhachium.php

UNRV.com. “Battle of Pharsalus.” Retrieved March 21, 2022 from https://www.unrv.com/julius-caesar/battle-of-pharsalus.php

Podcast Episode 35 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part XI

“Not bad for a lawyer.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero, former Roman consul, famed orator, Senator, and jurist, had been sent to govern the province of Cilicia, near modern-day Turkey. He had vanquished some roving bands of thieves, sent a Parthian reconnaissance force scurrying back to their territory, and stormed a hilltop fortress.

He didn’t equate himself with the two great generals circling Rome like tigers about to pounce—Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus—but since his performance was pretty good for an intellectual egghead, Cicero thought he deserved a triumph.

Even though Rome was a year away from the total collapse of its ancient republic, this was just the kind of distraction that kept things spiraling down the drain.

Sources

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Duncan, Mike. “The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.” Public Affairs, 2017.

Everitt, Anthony. “Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician.” Random House, 2011.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

Podcast Episode 34 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part X

It was every man for himself.

The First Triumvirate was collapsing. Julia, the beloved daughter of Julius Caesar and adored wife of Pompey the Great, died in childbirth in 54 BC. Her daughter lived only a few days. Pompey fell into deep mourning, which was unusual. This was a time when upper-class marriages were only means to an end—forging political alliances, in the case of Pompey and Caesar, populating the Republic with more elite male citizens (especially in a time when infant mortality—and disposing of girl babies on trash heaps—was at an all time high), and propping up one’s bank account.

The upper classes of Rome made fun of Pompey behind his back because he was actually in love with his wife.

With her death, Pompey was sidelined for a while by grief and the thin bonds tying him to Caesar, his rival for power, were gone.

Love is powerful, and should never be underestimated.

Sources

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Cambridge University Press. “Chapter IX – Death of Crassus.’ Retrieved February 24, 2022 from https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/history-of-rome/death-of-crassus-rupture-between-the-joint-rulers/D36A4FE9BB14E712845F2BFDA7209D97

Duncan, Mike. “The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.” Public Affairs, 2017.

Everitt, Anthony. “Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician.” Random House, 2011.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

Houser, James. “53 BC – The Battle of Carrhae and the Death of Crassus.” Retrieved February 24, 2022 from https://www.unknownsoldierspodcast.com/post/53-bc-the-battle-of-carrhae-and-the-death-of-crassus

 

 

 

Podcast Episode 33 - Stubborn Nags of Ancient Rome, Part IX

The dancing girls would take their clothes off, but not while Cato the Younger was in the audience.

It was 55 BC, and the Floral Games were in full…um…bloom. The Games were the culmination of a week-long festival celebrating fertility, with the usual accompanying shenanigans: outrageous dress, lots of drinking, prostitutes being treated like queens, and a troupe of dancing girls in an amphitheatre reminding the spectators of the rites of spring.

A message came down to Cato where he was seated in the crowd. The spectators wanted “to encourage the girls to take off their clothes, but are embarrassed to do so with Cato watching.”

Cato got up from his seat without a word and went for the exit. A chronicler reports that “As he was leaving, the crowd loudly applauded him and then went back to their usual theatrical pleasures.”

The spectators catcalled, the dancers disrobed, “and the Floral Games went on.”

This scene captures the feeling Rome had for the man who was their moral compass. They didn’t want him to see them at their low points, but instead of rising to the high ground that Cato had staked out for himself, they just wanted him to be somewhere else. They were “eager to applaud him for leaving, unwilling to follow him out.”

If we can equate the dismantling of the Republic with some dancing girls stripping to the buff, the same scenario plays out: Rome would embrace empire, shamefully, as long as Cato wasn’t watching them as they did it, reminding them the entire time that they could have done better.

Like trying to keep the clothes on the dancing girls at the Floral Games, Cato’s uprightness and moral authority didn’t last, and the Romans—elite and poor alike—wanted him to leave so they could get back to business as usual.

Business as usual, in this case, meant delivering the Republic into the hands of the three men who would bring it to an end: Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. 

Cato’s weakening hold on Rome couldn’t stand against the storm. Forced to choose between bad and worse, the time had come for him to pick a side.

Sources

Beard, Mary. “SPQR.” Profile Books, 2015.

Duncan, Mike. “The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.” Public Affairs, 2017.

Everitt, Anthony. “Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician.” Random House, 2011.

Goodman, Rob and Soni, Jimmy. “Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.” St. Martin’s Press, 2012.