Cato the Younger

Marcus Porcius Cato (95-46 BCE), also known as Cato the Younger, was a Roman Soldier and Senator.
He was the great grandson of Cato the Elder.

Between 72-65 BCE, Cato served as an officer in the Roman Army, becoming a Military Tribune in 67 BCE and being given command of a Legion in Macedon.
He returned to Rome in 65 BCE where he was elected Quaestor and joined the Optimates.
In 63 BCE, Cato was elected Tribune of the Plebs.
He then worked with Cicero to prevent the Catiline Conspiracy.

Cato led the opposition of the Optimates, against the First Triumvirate, consisting of the Roman Generals Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus.
Cato used the tactic of obstructionism in the Senate to oppose every attempt by the Triumvirs to pass Laws, be voted as Governors of Provinces, raise Taxes in those Provinces or hold Triumphs in Rome.
Eventually the Triumvirate exiled Cato by voting him to become the Governor of Cyprus.
Cato returned to Rome and was elected Praetor in 54 BCE.
The First Triumvirate dissolved when Crassus was defeated and killed by the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
Cato and the Optimates then worked to separate Caesar and Pompey.

After Crassus died, Pompey aligned himself with Cato and the Roman Senate against Julius Caesar.
In 50 BCE, Cato, Pompey and the Roman Senate ordered Julius Caesar to disband his army as his term as Proconsul had finished, or be declared an Enemy of the People. Although he had completed the necessary ten years gap for being re-elected as Consul again, he was prohibited from standing for re-election ‘in absentia’.
Julius Caesar had to return to Rome to be re-elected, but he knew that if he entered Rome without an Army or without the legal immunity enjoyed as Consul, he would be prosecuted by Cato and Pompey and his political career ended.
Cato and Pompey had laid charges against him of Insubordination and Treason, and various other Charges were pending against him.

On the 10 January 49 BCE Julius Caesar responded by returning from Gaul with a single Legion, the Legio XIII Gemina, and with it, he crossed the River Rubicon to head for Rome.
He is quoted by Suetonius as saying Alea Jacta Est, ‘The die has been cast’.

The Roman Senate, led by Pompey, and the leading Optimates such as Cato the Younger and Metellus Scipio avoided battle by fleeing via Brindisi (Brindisium) to Greece. When Julius Caesar arrived at the Harbour, the fleet with Pompey and the Optimates had sailed.
In 48 BCE, Cato defended Dyrrachium with Pompey at the Battle of Dyrrhachium (Albania) but neither side won.
When in 48 BCE, Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus, Metellus Scipio and Cato moved their armies to North Africa. Caesar defeated Metellus Scipio in 46 BCE at the Battle of Thapsus in Tunisia.

Cato decided not to fight in the Battle of Thapsus and rather than accept life under Caesar’s Dictatorship, he took his own life.
In 45 BCE, Caesar defeated Pompey’s son, Gnaeus Pompeius at the Battle of Munda in Spain.
The end of the Great Roman Civil War led to Julius Caesar becoming Dictator for life of the Roman Republic.

Rome