Rome's Last Citizen Summary

Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar was co-authored by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni. Goodman has a Ph.D. in Political Theory, with a minor in Law. Goodman was a speechwriter for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senator Chris Dodd. He has a B.A in English and a M.A in Public Policy. He likes to study the history of political thought, classics, and rhetoric. Soni was a managing editor at the Huffington Post. He was also a speechwriter for the office of the mayor of the Washington D.C. Soni and Goodman have collaborated on projects other than Rome’s Last Citizen.
Rome’s Last Citizen is a biography about Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger. Cato is a well-known name and legend from Ancient Rome and the exemplar …show more content…
When Pompey was elected sole consul because Caesar had begun to threaten the senate with war, and then the threats became a reality, Pompey ordered the evacuation of Rome; Cato, aligned himself with Pompey, despite having resisted the alliance for years. When Pompey was eventually assassinated, Caesar took sole power. While Cato had seen Pompey the lesser of two evils and had backed him against Caesar, Pompey’s defeat, left him in Northern Africa, in a city called Utica. Cato led in Utica and tried to hold the city. It remained one of the final cities to hold out against Caesar and stay true to the republic. When the news of Pompey’s assassination reached Cato, he knew that his fight was a lost cause. Cato ordered and evacuation of the city of Utica, leaving Cato and just a handful of his closest friends behind. Knowing that Caesar was on his way and that he was now an enemy to the most powerful man in Rome, rather than be taken as a prisoner, Cato took his life by stabbing himself in the stomach with his sword. Cato was willing to die, rather than live under the rule of a dictator. He stood up for his belief for a free Rome until the