Cato, Roman Stoicism, and the American ‘Revolution’

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of the influence of Cato the Younger on the American colonists during the Revolutionary period. It assesses the vast array of references to Cato that appear in the literature, which is a phenomenon not previously given an independent examination. Chapter One assesses the classical education that the American colonists received. It refutes the belief that the colonists’ classical learning was superficial, and establishes that they were steeped in the classics through the colonial grammar school and college curricula, as well as through their own private reading. Chapter Two determines how the Cato narrative was disseminated amongst the colonists. It looks primarily at Joseph Addison’s Cato: A Tragedy (1713) and establishes that the play came to resonate with the colonists as they descended into war with Britain. Chapter Three gives an overview of the American colonies’ relationship with Britain from 1760 until the early years of the war. It shows that the colonists perceived the world through the lens of Roman history, and that as their relationship with Britain deteriorated they established and retreated into a Catonian identity. Chapter Four consists of four case studies of prominent colonists who adopted a Catonian identity in order to express certain political grievances and their viewpoint. The frequency and general acceptance of these Catonian episodes reveals how entrenched in the colonial mindset the Cato narrative was. Chapter Five looks at how women engaged with the Cato narrative through adopting as role models Roman matrons who offered similar principles and characteristics to Cato. The Epilogue traces the decline of Cato’s popularity and the colonists’ transference of favour to Cincinnatus as their new classical role model.