More commonly known as Cato the Younger, M. Porcius Cato was the great-grandson of Cato the Elder. During his service as a Roman senator and career as a Stoic philosopher, he became renowned for his unwavering integrity, moral rigor, and fierce opposition to Julius Caesar.

Cato rose to prominence during the late Roman Republic as a symbol of republican virtue. He was a staunch defender of the traditional senatorial aristocracy and an implacable critic of corruption, populism, and what he saw as the erosion of Roman liberty. He opposed Caesar’s rise and sided with Pompey during the civil war between Caesar and the Senate. After Caesar’s victory at the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BCE, rather than submit, Cato committed suicide in Utica (in modern-day Tunisia), an act that became legendary as a statement of philosophical and political defiance. His death was immortalized by later writers, especially within Stoic and republican traditions, as a martyrdom for the Republic and reason over tyranny.