Caesar

Being eager to take Cato alive, Caesar hastened towards Utica, for Cato was guarding that city, and took no part in the battle. But he learned that Cato had made away with himself[*](See the Cato Minor lxv.) and he was clearly annoyed, though for what reason is uncertain. At any rate, he said: Cato, I begrudge thee thy death; for thou didst begrudge me the preservation of thy life. Now, the treatise which Caesar afterwards wrote against Cato when he was dead, does not seem to prove that he was in a gentle or reconcilable mood. For how could he have spared Cato alive, when he poured out against him after death so great a cup of wrath?

And yet from his considerate treatment of Cicero and Brutus and thousands more who had fought against him, it is inferred that even this treatise was not composed out of hatred, but from political ambition, for reasons which follow. Cicero had written an encomium on Cato which he entitled Cato; and the discourse was eagerly read by many, as was natural, since it was composed by the ablest of orators on the noblest of themes.

This annoyed Caesar, who thought that Cicero’s praise of the dead Cato was a denunciation of Caesar himself. Accordingly, he wrote a treatise in which he got together countless charges against Cato; and the work is entitled Anti-Cato. Both treatises have many eager readers, as well on account of Caesar as of Cato.