The Conflict
Between Cato and Scipio
by Richard L. Trumbo,
St. Catherine's School
Cato's attacks on the Scipios (and on at
least one prominent ally) appear to have gone beyond ordinary
partisan conflict. Plutarch tells us that when Cato was censor
in 184 BC (possibly also the year in which the aforementioned
prosecution took place) he excluded Lucius Quinctius, brother
of Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the "liberator of Greece,"
from the Senate on the grounds of shocking abuse of power during
his consulship. Whatever Titus' affiliations before, he became
a strong opponent of Cato and an ally of the Scipios, and it
is likely that they already supported one another because of
similar views on policy towards Greece. Cato also deposed Lucius
Scipio from the equestrian order in the same censorship.33
Livy tells us that even after Scipio Africanus' death (probably
in 183 BC) Cato mounted attacks on him and his brother, putting
a motion before the Senate to reopen the investigation of the
financial transactions of Lucius Scipio as consul in the war
against Antiochus of Syria (in which Scipio Africanus had served
as Lucius' advisor).34
In other cases, Cato had dropped prosecutions once a political
opponent had withdrawn from candidacy for an office, but in the
case of Scipio Africanus Cato seemed to be anxious to root out
any vestiges of his influence.
Cato's virulent opposition to Scipio Africanus
and those around him, which far exceeded his treatment of other
political rivals, seems intelligible only in the light of Cato's
concern for the soundness of the Republic. Scipio posed a potential
threat to the Republican order which was afterwards realized
by the great imperators such as Marius, Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar.
Scipio himself was too public-spirited and too committed to the
Republic to follow through in his independence of the Senate,
but his career might well have pointed the way for his less scrupulous
successors. One might particularly note the "formula"
implicit in Scipio's career: entire subject provinces as personal
clients, a large, well-trained, and devoted army, and popularity
with the lower classes because of his military success and his
willingness to defy the Senate. These would become indispensable
factors in the rise of the great dictators and would-be dictators
of the Late Republic. The issue was not whether Scipio actually
tried to take over the Republic. Despite justifiable pride in
his military accomplishments and a certain haughtiness of manner,
Scipio clearly did not take advantage of opportunities to seize
undue power. Scipio's military and popular support, especially
with the potential aid of Spain and Africa, did inherently pose
a threat to the oligarchical balance within the Senate, and Cato
perceived this early on and devoted a great deal of effort to
"break up" the power bases of Scipio and his supporters.
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