6 - Cato’s Origines: The historian and his enemies

Summary

A few months before Cato's death a scandal caused a considerable stir in Roman politics: in 150 BCE, the propraetor of Hispania Ulterior (Further Spain), Ser. Sulpicius Galba, after his victory over the Lusitanians, butchered a great number of the enemy and sold off the rest into slavery, even though they had surrendered and he had guaranteed them clemency. The provincial governor's rashness created such outrage in the capital (not otherwise known for its excessive sensitivity) that the plebeian tribune L. Scribonius Libo proposed a law to free the surviving Lusitanians and court-martial Galba. The proposal polarized politics at Rome with prominent men on both sides. Even Cato, now over eighty years old, stepped once more into the ring with all the vehemence at his disposal. He began his fiery tirade against Galba in the style of the elder Appius Claudius Caecus crusading against peace negotiations with Pyrrhus: “Many things have dissuaded me from appearing here, my years, my time of life, my voice, my strength, my old age; but nevertheless, when I reflected that so important a matter was being discussed . . .” Cato did not succeed: Libo's proposal was finally defeated by a dramatic vote of the popular assembly.