In Joseph Addison’s play Cato Cato is asked what it would take for him to be Caesar’s “friend” - his answer is that Caesar would have to first “disband his legions” and then “restore the commonwealth to liberty” (1713)
About this Quotation:
The image of Caesar as the general and then dictator who turned Rome from a republic into an empire fascinated 18th century intellectuals. There seemed to be two schools of thought on the issue: those who focused on Brutus the assassin who used violence to end Caesar’s life in order to save the Republic (an act of tyrannicide); and those who focused on Cato who used political and moral suasion to oppose Caesar. Shakespeare and Voltaire wrote plays in which Brutus played an important role. Trenchard and Gordon in Cato’s Letters and Addison in this play turned to the figure of Cato. This debate came to mind in early 2005 when Liberty Fund published its edition of Addison’s play.
Other quotes from this week:
- 2008: Thucydides on political intrigue in the divided city of Corcyra caused by the “desire to rule” (5thC BC)
- 2007: Frank Chodorov argues that taxation is an act of coercion and if pushed to its logical limits will result in Socialism (1946)
- 2006: J.S. Mill was convinced he was living in a time when he would experience an explosion of classical liberal reform because “the sprit of the age” had dramatically changed (1831)
Other quotes about Literature & Music:
- 2010: On Achilles’ new shield Vulcan depicts the two different types of cities which humans can build on earth; one based on peace and the rule of law; the other based on war, killing, and pillage (900 BC)
- 2009: Beethoven’s hero Florestan in the opera Fidelio laments the loss of his liberty for speaking the truth to power (1805)
- 2009: Voltaire in Candide says that “tending one’s own garden” is not only a private activity but also productive (1759)
- 2009: Augustin Thierry relates the heroic tale of the Kentishmen who defeat William the Conqueror and so are able to keep their ancient laws and liberties (1856)
- 2008: Confucius edited this collection of poems which contains a poem about “Yellow Birds” who ravenously eat the crops of the local people, thus alienating them completely (520 BC)
- 2008: Shakespeare has King Henry IV reflect on the reasons for invading the Holy Land, namely to distract people from domestic civil war and to “march all one way” under his banner (1597)
- 2007: J.S. Bach and Martin Luther on how God (the “feste Burg”) helps us gain our freedom (1730)
- 2007: Percy Bysshe Shelley on the new Constitution of Naples which he hoped would be “as a mirror to make … blind slaves see” (1820)
- 2006: Shakespeare in Pericles on how the rich and powerful are like whales who eat up the harding working “little fish” (1608)
- 2006: In Measure for Measure Shakespeare has Isabella denounce the Duke’s deputy for being corrupted by power, “it is excellent To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant” (1623)
- 2006: In Percy Shelley’s poem Liberty liberty is compared to a force of nature sweeping the globe, where “tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night” which will disappear in “the van of the morning light” (1824)
- 2006: In Shakespeare’s The Tempest Caliban complains about the way the European lord Prospero taught him language and science then enslaved him and dispossessed him of the island on which he was born (1611)
- 2006: In Shakespeare’s Henry V the king is too easily persuaded by his advisors that the English economy will continue to function smoothly, like obedient little honey-bees in their hive, while he is away with his armies conquering France (1598)
- 2006: In Shakespeare’s Henry V the soldier Williams confronts the king by saying that “few die well that die in a battle” and that “a heavy reckoning” awaits the king that led them to it (1598)
- 2005: Aeschylus has Prometheus denounce the lord of heaven for unjustly punishing him for giving mankind the gift of fire (5thC BC)
- 2005: John Milton in Paradise Regained has Christ deplore the “false glory” which comes from military conquest and the despoiling of nations in battle (1671)
- 2005: With the return of spring the memories of Petrarch’s beloved Laura awaken a new pang in him (late 14thC)
- 2004: During the American Revolution Thomas Paine penned a patriotic song called “Hail Great Republic” which is to be sung to the tune of Rule Britannia (of course!) (1776)
- 2004: Shakespeare farewells his lover in a Sonnet using many mercantile and legal metaphors (1609)
28 February, 2005
 | In Joseph Addison’s play Cato Cato is asked what it would take for him to be Caesar’s “friend” - his answer is that Caesar would have to first “disband his legions” and then “restore the commonwealth to liberty” (1713) |
In Act II Scene II of Addison’s play, Decius, the Ambassador from Caesar, asks Cato what it would take for Cato to be Caesar’s "friend" as Caesar began using his military successes to pave the way to his political conquest of Rome:
Bid him disband his legions,
Restore the commonwealth to liberty,
Submit his actions to the public censure,
And stand the judgment of a Roman senate:
Bid him do this, and Cato is his friend.
The full passage from which this quotation was taken can be be viewed below (front page quote in bold):
Decius: Caesar is well acquainted with your virtues,
And therefore sets this value on your life:
Let him but know the price of Cato’s friendship,
And name your terms.
Cato: Bid him disband his legions,
Restore the commonwealth to liberty,
Submit his actions to the public censure,
And stand the judgment of a Roman senate:
Bid him do this, and Cato is his friend.
Decius: Cato, the world talks loudly of your wisdom—
Cato: Nay more, though Cato’s voice was ne’er employed
To clear the guilty, and to varnish crimes,
Myself will mount the rostrum in his favour,
And strive to gain his pardon from the people.
Decius: A style like this becomes a conqueror.
Cato: Decius, a style like this becomes a Roman.
Decius: What is a Roman, that is Caesar’s foe?
Cato: Greater than Caesar: he’s a friend to virtue.