Cato at Utica: The Emergence of a Roman Suicide Tradition

Abstract

Reported suicides, once chiefly confined to soldiers facing inevitable death, abruptly increased amidst the civil strife of the late Republic yet continued to occasion only brief comment in the sources. The unique nature of Cato's suicide, however, unleashed a surge of heated debate among his peers. Later tradition obscures the contemporary uncertainty on his motive and final moments that allowed participants to perform their own interpretative work. It is through this process of debate and negotiation that suicide assumed a new cultural position with ideological ramifications for later generations. Cato's suicide exerted practical impact in its own era that extended to behavior as well.