Cato the Younger
Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato),‘of Utica’ (‘Uticensis’) (95–46 BC), great-grandson of Cato the Elder (see preceding entry), nephew of Marcus Livius Drusus, and brought up in the Livian household with the children of his mother's marriage to Gnaeus Servilius Caepio. Quaestor probably in 64, in 63 he became tribune-designate in order to check Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, supported Lucius Licinius Murena's prosecution, and intervened powerfully in the senate to secure the execution of the Catilinarians (see Catiline). As tribune he conciliated the mob by increasing the numbers eligible to receive cheap corn, but in all else remained uncompromising; Cicero (Epistulae ad Atticum 1. 18. 7; 2. 1. 8) deplores his lack of realism which prevented revision of the Asian tax-contracts (61)—thus alienating the equites—and which frustrated every overture of
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