Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

3-2014

Abstract

Joseph Addison’s 1713 play, Cato: A Tragedy, dramatizes the final days of Cato the Younger’s resistance to Julius Caesar before his eventual suicide at Utica in 46 BC. Although Addison initially seems to present Cato as a model for emulation, we argue that Addison is ultimately critical of both Cato and the Stoicism he embodies. Via the play’s romantic subplot and via his work as an essayist, Addison offers a revision of the Catonic model, reworking it into a gentler model that elevates qualities such as love, friendship, and sympathy and that is more appropriate to the type of peaceful civil and commercial society he wishes to promote.

Discipline

Ethics and Political Philosophy | Political Theory

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Review of Politics

Volume

76

Issue

2

First Page

223

Last Page

241

ISSN

0034-6705

Identifier

10.1017/S0034670514000060

Publisher

University of Notre Dame

Embargo Period

3-30-2021

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670514000060

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