Cato's Characteristics

When Cato was just 13, he threatened to kill Sulla. The threat would be natural for a boy like him with his strong sense of justice. Over the next few years, as he grew into manhood, Cato's distinctive personality showed through unmistakably. Quite unlike Caesar with his elaborate grooming, Cato was developing a taste for austerity. Around the age of twenty, Cato established his own household where he could impress visitors with his self-control. He rejected fancy foods and drank sparingly. Notoriously this was later to change. But any hour of the day he would walk the streets rather than take a carriage. While others embraced a new fashion for a particularly vivid shade of purple