Photo, above: Cato (right) and his daughter, Porcia, who married Brutus, one of Caesar’s assassins (see Hour 3, Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni).

Cato the Younger was a Roman political figure whose opposition to Pompey and Caesar helped hasten the collapse of the Roman Republic.

Orphaned when a child and raised in the house of his uncle M. Livius Drusus, the reformer, Cato early cultivated habits of austerity and made a great show of political and moral probity. After serving as military tribune in Macedonia (67-66 B.C.), he toured Asia to prepare himself for public life. As quaestor, or minister of finance, Cato was notable for his punishment of corrupt treasury clerks and the strict rectitude of his accounts. But he was not free of favoritism. As tribune-elect in 63, he prosecuted for electoral bribery one of the men who defeated Catiline for the consulship, exempting the other because he was a relative.

Cato’s fiery speech on December 5 led the Senate to vote for the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators who had been caught in Rome after an unsuccessful attempt at seizing control of the state.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (1 of 6)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (2 of 6)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (3 of 6)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (4 of 6)

 

Hour Two

 

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block A:  Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (5 of 6)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (6 of 6)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block C:  Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm (1 of 2)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block D:  Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm (2 of 2)

Hour Three

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni (1 of 4)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni (2 of 4)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni (3 of 4)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel (1 of 4)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel (2 of 4)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel (3 of 4)

Sunday 1 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel (4 of 4)

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Music

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