CATO THE ELDER AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

Week Four

less = without

speech_____ fear_____ breath_____

ology = the study of

cosmetology psychology meteorology

I. Cato the Elder

A spokesperson for traditional values, even as he benefits from the new world of commerce and internationalism

II. Hellenistic Greece

A. The Rise of Macedon

Philip II (359-336) fills the vacuum left by the Greek disunity

Assassination leaves the throne to son Alexander

II. Hellenistic Greece

B. Empire of Alexander the Great1. Alexander’s conquests

(334-323) Military victories to India

2. Binding together an empire

Respected local customs Alliances through marriage New cities: Alexandria in

Egypt

Alexander’s empire

III. The Roman Republic

A. Roman ideals Farming in Latium Paterfamilias:

system in which father has total authority; curia

Traditional values Honesty, hard work,

frugality, and farming

Legends of early Rome: Cincinnatus and Remus and Romulus

paterfamilias

Cincinnatus plowing his land

Roman legend of Romulus and Remus

III. Roman Republic

B. Etruscan realities (800-500) Not so provincial

Etruscan League. Urban growth

Not so ideal Class divisions between

patricians and plebeians Political inequalities in the new centuriate

Legacy of the Etruscans Rome transforms into a unified,

prosperous urban center

IV. Roman Imperialism

A. Political expansion

Military campaigns brought all of Italy under Roman control by 264.

B. Punic Wars First Punic War

(265-241): Rome outlasts Carthage

The Punic Wars

IV. Roman Imperialism

Second Punic War Cato joins the army Hannibal’s epic

march—with elephants!—inflicts devastation on Romans.

Romans rally; defeat Hasdrubal; take the fight to North Africa

Third Punic War Cato: “Carthage must

be destroyed”

Hannibal’s elephants

IV. Roman Imperialism

C. Expansion into the Hellenistic East

phobia = the fear of

acrophobia claustrophobia arachnophobia

ian/or = a person who . . .

What suffix could finish these?

centenar_____ vegetar_____ librar_____

V. The Roman Republic

A. Cato’s rise to power Public service

An arbitrator of disputes

Patronage Flaccus: a young

nobleman from a patrician family

Sabine farm

V. The Roman Republic

B. Cato’s offices and republican civilization Military tribune Aedile Quaestor Censor Consul: Oppian Law and

the women’s rebellion Governor of Hispania:

ruthless destruction and then incorporation of the conquered

V. The Roman Republic

Plebeian resistance

Law of the Twelve Tables

Cato’s support of democratic reform

Traditional values Severity Frugality Simplicity

Reading the Twelve Tables

Tour of a Roman home

V. The Roman Republic

Crisis of Roman Virtue

Gender roles change

More luxury Urban squalor Cato, like many

others, complicit in these changes

Cato as a transitional figure—Janus-faced

Roman fly-over

Epilogue

The Cato Institute A prominent libertarian

think tank in Washington, D.C.