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In Republican Rome, it was a father's task to instruct his son and turn him into a worthy representative of his family. However, social reality did not confirm the picture of an exclusive father-to-son relationship since the concept of imitatio patris was challenged by high mortality rates as well as divorce and remarriage. It can be shown that the fragmentation of Roman families was countered by substitute parenting, especially by cognate kin or by the single mother herself thereby offering an alternative role model. However, the primary aim of Roman socialization, the ideal of imitatio patris to perpetuate the agnatic lineage not only in name but also in action, was thus missed and was replaced with the exercise of imitatio alieni. To outline the alternatives to paternal socialization, four different cases of surrogate parenting is discussed in which the impact on the moulding of tradition can be observed.

Both the epigrams that Hume uses on the title‐pages of the Treatise of Human Nature are very significant and reveal his freethinking and irreligious aims and intentions.. More specifically, the epigram from Tacitus that appears in Books I and II was used not only by Spinoza, but also by his followers in the Collins‐Toland circle to proclaim their bold defense of freethinking. At the same time, the Lucan epigram that appears in Book III also appears prominently in Collins's Freethinking and carries the message of Cato, a model of stoic virtue and the oracle of pantheism, freedom of thought, and anti‐superstition. Beyond this, these two epigrams are also intimately connected with Hume's Hobbist title and plan for his Treatise. In this way, Hume's use of epigrams on the title page of the Treatise is a notable and illuminating example of “esoteric” communication.

This chapter examines Cicero’s use of oratory as a means of establishing a connection between his subject matter, philosophy, and traditional public life. The emphasis is on the connection between philosophy and rhetoric as disciplines and the continuity between Cicero the orator and statesman and Cicero the philosopher. The chapter first considers how Cicero leverages the connection between Academic Skepticism and rhetoric, in contrast to the alienating thought and style of the Stoics exemplified by the person of Cato the Younger. The discussion focuses on the preface to the Paradoxa Stoicorum, which uses the figure of Cato the Younger to work out the relationship between philosophy and active political practice. Drawing on the preface to book one of De Natura Deorum and the preface to book one of Tusculan Disputations, the chapter concludes with an assessment of the continuity between Cicero the orator and Cicero the philosopher.

This chapter examines the nature and significance of a debate between Cicero and Cato in 56 BC over the repeal of Clodius’ tribunician laws. By combining close attention to the evidence of Plutarch and Dio with a study of the prosopography and geographical movements of some members of the Roman elite, it seeks to reconstruct the arguments used on each side and suggests identifications for several of the anonymous ‘gentlemen’ elliptically identified as Cicero’s adversaries in the contemporary De prouinciis consularibus. It is argued that Cicero’s attacks on these unnamed opponents relate to a recently-held Senate meeting in which the validity of Clodius’ laws was debated and Cicero’s position rejected both on technical grounds and in the interests of constitutional stability. The repercussions of this debate for Cicero and Cato personally and for Roman politics more broadly are also discussed.

This chapter explores the emergence of Cicero and Cato as iconic figures in eighteenth-century America and their reception in the early republic and antebellum era, focusing on their role in the evolution of a democratic political culture in the United States. Examining receptions of Cicero and Cato among both elites and wider circles of society, the study investigates the significance of classical icons in shaping ideals of leadership and civic engagement, concepts of liberty, and the foundational narrative of the United States. It also points to the role of the classical legacy in promoting oratory as a vital component of American democratic culture and in highlighting paradoxes and contentious issues within the public sphere. While exploring the role of classical receptions in the evolving democracy, the chapter also evaluates their significance in more recent trends and appropriations of the classics—particularly as they relate to essential aspects of American civic and political culture. Politicians discussed include John Adams, George W. Bush, Cato (the Younger/of Utica), Columbian Orator (Bingham), and Barack Obama

This chapter builds on the understanding of nostos as a binding master trope in the Odyssey, and as an end accomplished by hero (Odysseus) and poet (Homer) alike. It argues that Lucan crafts the journeys of each of his central characters—Caesar, Cato, and Pompey—as reversals of Odysseus’s nostos, each in a distinct way, but with none reaching home in the poem, and each conspicuously failing to achieve the spousal reunion that is so central to Odysseus’s nostos. It examines how each narrative arc is emblematic of the larger story in the Pharsalia of Rome’s own imperiled journey and ultimate loss of nostos and even the very idea of “home.” In this process, epic poetry too is undone, left without the fulfillment and completion of nostos—as here the marker of closure comes in the thematic exploration of opening up. Within this chapter the place of Homer’s Odyssey as an anti-model is paramount, but the chapter also advances the argument that Livius’s Odusia—the poem that first carried over and initiated the telling of epic at Rome—stands alongside the Homeric poem as a foil for Lucan, and in this way the unraveling of the epic arc of nostos carries a doubly powerful poetic force.

In two Lives, Plutarch gives a detailed treatment of how Pompey became sole consul in 52 BC. The rhythmically dense account in the Life of Pompey can be compared in detail with the looser account in the Life of Cato the Younger. The account in the Life of Pompey involves a comparison with Cato which is important to the Life; it also evokes a political meeting in a way that brings the reader nearer to the speeches and the drama. More of Cato’s quirkiness appears in the Life of Cato the Younger. Accounts by Cassius Dio and Appian can also be brought in to the discussion; all the Greek authors are philosophically and politically interested in the constitutional question.

This chapter and the next look at the Life of Brutus. This chapter looks at all the passages in the Life which display rhythmic density by the criteria given in ch. 3. Notably, they do not appear at the peaks of action—such as Caesar’s assassination or Brutus’ suicide; rather they involve moments of comparison and reflection. Three of them confront Brutus with Cassius, a central comparative concern internal to the Life: an explicit and sustained comparison of character, and two scenes of interaction, including a point where Brutus looks back on his own life. The other moment confronts Brutus with his brave wife, Porcia. Two of the passages also involve comparison with another vital figure of the Life, the Younger Cato. One of the passages is closely similar to the later Appian, and shows us Plutarch reshaping a source