In the 100 years since the failure of the Crassus brothers' reforms, Rome has entered an extension era called the first century of civil war.
After the Second Punic War, Rome took control of the Mediterranean and was like having no enemies.
Humans are mysterious creatures. When the enemy disappears, he creates the enemy himself.
Rome, with no enemies outside, finally began to fight for themselves.
It was during the Caesar and Pompey eras that the conflict reached its peak in the first century of such civil war.
At that time there was a man who violently resisted the Triumvirate side.
His name is Marcus Porchius Kato Uticensis, and history gave him the name of the Little Kato to distinguish it from the long and the Kato that destroyed Carthage.
Let's take a look at the life of a man who rebelled against Caesar and couldn't keep up with the times.
Innocent and innocent conservatives
The large Cato, who once filed a Scipio trial and forced the Roman hero Scipio to virtually retire, is the ancestor of the small Cato.
Probably because it is bloody, both large and small have the same part of being an anti-hero. The Great Cato was hostile to Scipio and the Small Cato was hostile to Caesar, hating them and trying to get them out of Rome.
Originally born of a commoner rather than an aristocrat, Cato the Elder became a conservative person who loved the republic that gave him a key position.
It often becomes radical when those who do not have it, but the Great Kato strongly insisted on the destruction of Carthage, and finally erased Carthage from the ground and sprinkled salt so as not to grow crops.
I don't know what drove him to that point.
And what was the driving force behind the small Kato to anti-Caesar?
Was it peace in the republic?
There is a movie called Star Wars. It's a story about a giant empire defeated by those who love the peace and republic of the galaxy, such as Luke.
In Star Wars terms, Luke, Leia, and Han were Kato, and Caesar was trying to create an empire.
The Kato clan was a strong republican follower.
His life was very simple and he is said to have made no major expense other than performing the funeral of his brother in his lifetime. Perhaps he was fainted by the Stoic philosophy that was the source of the stoic when he was young.
It must have been incompatible with his flashy and feminine Caesar.
Small Kato, who inherited heritage from his brother and his father, started his career by being elected Quaestor (Finance Officer) and made a name for himself by accusations of fraud. He gained support from Roman citizens, especially for his pursuit of the injustices of the Sulla and Pompey factions. After all, the small Kato itself belonged to the Cato the Younger faction.
The innocence of the small Kato makes enemies but also supporters, and when he became a tribune in 63 BC, he impeached Catilinarian's plot with Cicero, and Caesar who defended Catilina became more prominent from this time. It is said that they have begun to confront each other.
Small Kato sought Caesar violently as a companion to Caesar and, at one point, demanded that Caesar publish the contents of the letter he received. Caesar reluctantly announced it, but there is an episode that Caesar was more embarrassed because the content was a love letter from Servia, the sister of Caesar. This is probably the story that best describes the relationship between the two.
Conflict with the Triumvirate
Pompey is said to have formed an alliance with Caesar because he applied for marriage to the daughter of Little Kato but was refused. As it is, Pompey married Caesar's daughter, and the triumvirate was completed.
Kato was in conflict with the Triumvirate, especially in the "Agricultural Land Act" to limit large land ownership, and was often disturbed by long speeches, eventually ordering Caesar, the chairman, to leave. ..
Kato is, in a sense, a consistent ally of the conservatives, and I think it's interesting that he had a politics close to the aristocratic side even though he was a commoner class. On the contrary, it is also interesting that Caesar, a traditional aristocratic class, belongs to the Reformed Protesters. In modern Japan, it would be like a LDP member opposes hereditary succession and a first-generation politician praises hereditary succession.
The Triumvirate sent Kato to Cyprus in the Greek region, and Kato often ruled the area. After that, when he entered Rome, a political struggle began as to whether either the Triumvirate side or the Senate side could produce a consul, and a fierce political battle was fought, but one of the three Caesar died in Partia. Due to what he did and the death of Julius, Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife, the Triumvirate collapsed, creating a confrontational structure between Caesar and a member of the Senate in Rome. Caesar ignores the notification. He led his own corps across the Rubicon River.
Indeed, the sword was thrown.
Winners and losers
If there is a winner, there is always a loser.
Kato fought Caesar with Pompey but lost.
While many senators opposed Pompey, who claimed endurance, and created a defeat, only Kato respected Pompey's opinion.
Brutus said that Cassius fell to Caesar, while Kato did not succumb to Caesar.
Kato, who lost in Farsala, fled to Utica in North Africa.
Caesar eventually landed in Africa and Battle of Thapsus against the Metterus-led Senate. If you break it with, it will surround Utica as it is.
Kato then persuaded his family and friends to send him to Caesar.
Caesar knew that he would forgive even hostile figures. Although he was hostile, it may have been this Kato who trusted Caesar more than anyone else.
After seeing the safety of his family and friends, Kato died.
Cicero, his ally and hostile, wrote and published "Kato" in honor of Kato's death.
In posterity, Dante, a representative figure of the Renaissance, describes Kato as the gatekeeper of purgatory in his masterpiece Divine Comedy.
It can be said that Brutus and Casius are treated differently from being at the bottom of hell.
Personal evaluation of small Kato
Nothing is more difficult than the evaluation of a small Kato.
Unlike other foolish senators, he was a straightforward person, and his political attitude was always innocent, and in a sense even an ideal politician.
It was not his position or wealth that he tried to protect, but the republican Rome itself.
It can be said that he was one of the few true patriots, while many senators were only thinking about filling their stomachs.
However, it is another matter whether it was in tune with the times.
The work of Pompey and Caesar has multiplied the territory of Rome. Wealth has also flowed. I think it would have been virtually impossible to maintain the good old Rome.
Times pass and people change.
The times always love those who change, and those who are left behind by change are weeded out.
Kato would sooner or later be the one to be weeded out.
And perhaps, it's sad that Kato himself knew that.