Death of Cato. Seneca, Epistles 3.24.6-8

Cato the Younger has appeared in Seneca's epistles before (1.11, 2.13, 2.14). Here we get a more detailed look at his last moments, when he committed suicide rather than surrender to Caesar in the wake of Metellus' defeat at Thapsus (46 BCE).

Decantatae inquis in omnibus scholis fabulae istae sunt; iam mihi, cum ad contemnendam mortem ventum fuerit, Catonem narrabis. Quidni ego narrem ultima illa nocte Platonis librum legentem posito ad caput gladio? Duo haec in rebus extremis instrumenta prospexerat, alterum ut vellet mori, alterum ut posset. Compositis ergo rebus, utcumque componi fractae atque ultimae poterant, id agendum existimavit ne cui Catonem aut occidere liceret aut servare contingeret; et stricto gladio quem usque in illum diem ab omni caede purum servaverat, nihil inquit egisti, fortuna, omnibus conatibus meis obstando. Non pro mea adhuc sed pro patriae libertate pugnavi, nec agebam tanta pertinacia ut liber, sed ut inter liberos, viverem: nunc quoniam deploratae sunt res generis humani, Cato deducatur in tutum. Impressit deinde mortiferum corpori vulnus; quo obligato a medicis cum minus sanguinis haberet, minus virium, animi idem, iam non tantum Caesari sed sibi iratus nudas in vulnus manus egit et generosum illum contemptoremque omnis potentiae spiritum non emisit sed eiecit.

“These fables are sung off constantly in all the schools!” you say. “Now that it's time to talk to me about despising death, you will recount the end of Cato.” Why shouldn't I tell you that he was reading one of Plato's books on that fateful night when the sword took his life? For his final moments he had provided these two tools, book and sword: the first to furnish him with the will to die, and the second with the means. Then, when all his affairs were finished, as the last broken bits fell into place, he saw his time to act, to prevent anyone else from killing Cato or saving him. Drawing the sword, whose blade he had kept clean of all slaughter for this very moment, he uttered these words: “You have achieved nothing, Fortune, by frustrating my efforts. I have fought not for my own liberty, but for the freedom of my fatherland. The object of my persistent action was not to be free myself, but to live among free men. Now that the state of my kin has fallen to ruin, let Cato at least be led away to safety.” Then he made the mortal wound in his flesh. The doctors bound it up, but though he lost blood and strength, our man kept all his mind. Furious not merely with Caesar, but with himself, he plunged his naked hands into the wound, and rather than let his last breath slip he hurled it forth, noble and contemptuous of all power to the very end.