Obstructionism, Roman-Style
posted by James Grimmelmann
Cato the Younger made his name by tirelessly advertising his high personal morals. His public career as a senator and tribune of the Roman republic was distinguished by a use of obstructionist tactics whose mixture of pig-headed stubbornness and improvisation may sound humorously familiar to modern Congress-watchers. Here are some highlights, based on Adrian Goldsworthy’s fantastic biography of Julius Caesar, Cato’s principal political enemy.
Cato was a filibusterer par excellence. The rules of debate in the Roman senate forbade cutting off a speaker. When asked his opinion on an issue he opposed, Cato gave it, and gave it, and gave it, talking all day, without notes, until the Senate would adjourn with the issue unresolved. Most notably, in 59 BC, Cato so infuriated Caesar by trying to run out the clock on a land-reform bill that Caesar simply ordered him jailed. It was a (short-lived) political triumph for Cato: one senator walked out, saying he’d rather join Cato in prison than remain with Caesar, and Cato was rapidly released.
In 62 BC, while serving as tribune, Cato used his veto powers to block another bill being proposed by Quintus Metellus Nepos with Caesar’s support. As Goldsworthy describes it:
Nepos ordered a clerk to read the bill aloud. Cato used his veto to forbid this, and when Nepos himself took up the document and started to read, he snatched it from his hands. Knowing the text by heart, [Nepos] then began to recite it, until [Cato’s ally] Thermius slapped his hand over his mouth to stop him.
A riot ensued, again embarrassing Cato’s political enemies. But not everything he did to embarrass Caesar worked out so well. During a critical debate over how to punish the Catiline conspirators, a note was brought in and handed to Caesar. Cato, who was speaking, proclaimed that it must be a secret communication from those conspirators still at large. When Cato demanded that the note be read aloud, Caesar instead passed it to Cato. It turned out to be a love letter from Cato’s half-sister.
You can keep your blood-drenched fictionalizations; good legislative floor fights are timeless.
May 22, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Posted in: History of Law
Print This Post
Responses (1)
Alex Bienkowski - May 22, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Well, there’s Cato and then again there’s Cato. You are discussing Marcus Porcius Cato, the Younger,(95-46 BC) great grandson of the even more famous Marcus Porcius Cato,(234-149 BC) the Elder,called the Censor because he was frequently yelling at his fellow citizens, urging them to man-up and not be such sniveling softies. He was also the guy who get so scared of a revival of the power of Carthage that he concluded every speech, no matter what the topic, with” By the way, I think Carthage has to be destroyed”…which it finally was.
Leave a Reply