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Historical person

Cato the Younger

95–46 BCE

Cato the Younger was a Roman senator and Stoic remembered for uncompromising defence of the Republic. He opposed Caesar and the First Triumvirate, joined Pompey’s cause during civil war and took his own life at Utica rather than submit to Caesar.

Cato the Younger also held the offices or ranks of Praetor, tribune of the plebs, quaestor, and moneyer. Cato the Younger belonged to the Porcii Catones and operated within Roman Republic. Cato the Younger was born in Rome, Roman Republic and died in Utica, Roman Republic.

Plutarch’s The Makers of Rome presents Cato the Younger as an exemplar of austere republican virtue, setting his resistance to corruption and autocracy against the compromises of late Republican politics. Colleen McCullough’s Caesar turns those principles into a personal and political collision with Julius Caesar as civil war approaches. Alex Gough’s Caesar’s General follows the military struggle in which Cato remains aligned with the republican opposition after Pompey’s defeat. Richard Foreman’s Fight or Die uses episodes from the same late-Republican world to place Cato among men forced to choose between survival and principle, while Simon Turney’s Marius’ Mules XIII brings his uncompromising opposition into the African phase of the civil war that ends with the defeat of the Pompeian cause.

Periods

Periods linked to Cato the Younger

Caesar’s Civil War49–45 BCE Roman Republic509–27 BCE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Cato the Younger (4 series)

Marius’ Mules in Order

by Simon Turney 17 books 4.6(34,619)

The Marius’ Mules series follows Marcus Falerius Fronto and Caesar’s legions from the invasion of Gaul to the destruction of the Roman Republic. Battles recorded in Caesar’s commentaries are viewed through officers and soldiers who must endure the practical cost of his ambition, while conspiracies in Rome steadily…

All books in this series

Masters of Rome in Order

by Colleen McCullough 7 books 4.5(6,758)

The Masters of Rome series reconstructs the final century of the Roman Republic from the rise of Gaius Marius in 110 BCE to the settlement that made Octavian Augustus in 27 BCE. Across seven novels, military commands, elections, family alliances, provincial wealth and personal patronage become instruments in…

All books in this series

The Mark Antony Series in Order

by Alex Gough 4 books 4.5(1,714)

The Mark Antony series presents a biographical saga of the Roman commander from the Catilinarian crisis to his defeat by Octavian. Antony’s youth is shaped by the execution of his stepfather, service under Aulus Gabinius in Judaea and Egypt, and the campaigns in Gaul that bind him to…

All books in this series

Historical Heroes in Order

by Richard Foreman 3 books 4.2(37)

Historical Heroes is a three-volume collection of shorter fiction drawn from Foreman’s recurring worlds. Roman soldiers and spies appear beside a crusading knight, Dick Turpin, Raffles and the Hollywood screenwriter Pat Hobby. The books are not a continuous narrative; they are curated introductions to characters whose longer adventures…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Cato the Younger (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.