Cato the Younger

This is Stoicism for Winners, and this is a new chapter of Master Your Mind.

His name was Marcus Porcius Cato, and history knows him as Cato the Younger, to set him apart from his great-grandfather, the famous censor.

He was born in Rome in 95 BC, into a family with an illustrious name, but austere habits.

He lost his parents when he was very small, and was brought up in the house of his maternal uncle, Livius Drusus.

And Caesar and the reform faction were in favor of assigning this nationally owned land to farmers in a lottery, and the conservatives wanted Rome to continue to own this land directly.

So, and the conservatives were led by Cato, who personally hated Caesar.

It's not clear to me why Cato hated Caesar so much.

It could be because he found Caesar to be very ambitious.

It could be because he hated his politics as a reformer.

It could be that they had some personal grievance between them.

That is not recorded by history.

But Cato absolutely hated Caesar.

In Pompey's signet ring handed to Caesar in Egypt, along with his head.

And in Cato reading Plato at Utica on the night he chose death over Caesar's pardon.

We'll trace the crossing, Pharsalus, Pompey's murder, Thapsus, and Munda, ending with a triumph Caesar held over fellow Romans.

And once you've watched a vote for peace overruled by a few hardliners, you'll recognize the same failure in institutions we still trust today.

Caesar then got caught up in a dynastic war in Alexandria that kept him in Egypt for months.

And while he was there, the Pompeians who had survived Pharsalus regrouped in Africa.

They gathered under Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, with Cato holding the city of Utica and King Juba still on their side.

They had money and legions and the Numidian cavalry, and they were convinced they were the legitimate government of Rome in exile.

Today, I'm going to tell you the story of a man who was spat on in the face in the middle of the Roman Forum, in front of everyone, and how he responded.

His name was Cato.

From his story and from the teachings of the Stoics come six ways a Stoic responds to an insult.

And at the end, I'll tell you about another moment in his life, the one Seneca considered the highest response of all, a response almost nobody dares to give.

This is Stoicism for Winners, and this is a new chapter of Master Your Mind.

Marcus Porcius Cato, whom we call Cato the Younger to tell him apart from his great-grandfather, the famous Censor, was one of the most admired men of Republican Rome.

He lived in the first century before Christ, in an age of corruption, ambition, and political violence.

Votes were bought and sold, armed gangs fought in the streets, and the great generals carved up power among themselves like heirs dividing an estate.

And in this era, it comes in the form of a man who's named just like the historical figure he's sort of the reincarnation of.

His name is Cato, and he's known as Cato the Younger in history because Cato the Elder was the person who he almost looked like a twin of, at least someone who certainly modeled himself very well after his ancestor.

Cato the Elder had been the one back during the Punic Wars.

the one who ended every speech by saying, oh, and by the way, Carthage must be destroyed, a paragon of Roman virtue.

That's exactly what Cato the Younger set out to be as well.

He would become almost a stock character.

Someone writing a play could make a two-dimensional figure out of this guy because he was the moralist.

There was a time when the emperor of Rome sold the palace furnishings to pay down the empire's debts.

There was a time when a politician like Cato would rather die than submit to Caesar.

There was a time when men like Agrippinus or Rutilius would choose exile.

over going along with corruption, a time when Stoics like Helvidius spoke truth to power, regardless of the consequences.

But that example still shines for us.

That's what examples are for, after all.

The life of Cato, the life of Epictetus, the lives of Helvidius and Zeno are there to inspire us, to call us to our own great deeds.

Indeed, Seneca talked about how we need to choose ourselves a Cato, a standard to measure ourselves against.

Footnote.

The name of the author should be pronounced with the t sounding like s and rhyming with poesy accented on the last syllable.

End footnote.

was born at sarla southwestern france on november first fifteen thirty he came from the provincial nobility his father being an assistant to the governor of perigord his uncle a priest gave him his early training and prepared him for entrance to the school of law at the university of toulouse where in fifteen fifty three he received his degree with special honors During these years of study, he steeped himself also in the classics, so that later he translated from the Greek and composed poetry in Latin.

Early in this period, he wrote his immortal essay, presumably in 1548.

His reputation as a scholar procured for him at graduation, although he was underage, appointment as a judge attached to the court of Bordeaux.

he was named to a post vacated by an illustrious predecessor longa footnote william de sur known as longa among his associates at bordeaux mention is made here of this judge because la boissy revered him and refers to him by name twice in the course of his essay who was summoned as justice to paris during the next ten years we find la boissy's name on the official records of the court in connection with a number of difficult cases a justice of that day had to perform a wide variety of duties la boissy was called in as literary critic and censor when the collge de guienne wanted official sanction for the presentation of some plays A little later, he was entrusted with the delicate mission of traveling to Paris to petition the king, Henry II, for special financial arrangements for the regular payment of the salaries of the court.

He was successful in this quest and brought back also a personal message from the great chancellor of France, Michel de l'Hospital, who was trying to pacify Catholics and Protestants and prevent fratricidal bloodshed.