Echoes of ancient Rome shaped the revolutionary spirit of the budding United States.

In their struggle against King George III of England, the Founding Fathers sought inspiration from the legends of ancient Rome. Romans like Brutus, Cincinnatus, and Cato, who shaped Rome’s Republic and fought to protect it against power-hungry individuals, were idolized and used as propaganda in young America’s battle against authoritarianism. Allusions to Roman history, literature, and art remained significant in the first generation of the United States’ leadership.

Cato the Younger’s struggle against the charismatic Julius Caesar was a major source of inspiration for George Washington. Indeed, Joseph Addison’s Cato, a Tragedy (1713), which follows Cato the Younger in the last days of his resistance against Julius Caesar, became one of the most popular plays in prerevolutionary America. Washington even commissioned a performance of it for his troops in 1778.

Cato, a Tragedy

Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme; London
Ca. 1804–1811

Written by Joseph Addison and first performed in London in 1713, this play follows Cato the Younger in the last days of his resistance against Julius Caesar’s army in 46 BCE. The play and the historical events take place in the wealthy province of Africa (modern Tunisia). The Roman Republic is in chaos; over the past generation, Rome’s political power has shifted from the body of the senate (around 500 members) to just a few charismatic individuals such as Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, who commanded their own armies.

After suffering yet another military defeat, Cato recognizes that the Roman Republic he knew is gone. Rather than live under Caesar, a king but in name, Cato chooses to die by suicide as a final act of rebellion.

In reality, just two years later, Julius Caesar’s fellow senators assassinated him in a desperate act. However, the people of Rome had already been swayed; they deified Caesar and built a temple to him in the center of the Roman Forum. Later emperors would point to Caesar’s divinity to justify their reigns.