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Death of Cato of Utica, 1670. Cato the Younger (95-46 BCE) was a prominent statesman and orator of the late Roman Republic. A follower of the Stoic philosophy, he was a political rival of Julius Caesar. He was noted for his moral integrity, his immunity to bribery and his disapproval of corruption. Cato committed suicide by stabbing himself in the abdomen rather than subject himself to life under Caesar after he emerged victorious in the Roman Civil War. The specific details were greatly embellished after his death. Plutarch's account states: 'Cato drew his sword from its sheath and stabbed himself below the breast. His thrust, however, was somewhat feeble... [and] he did not at once dispatch himself... His servants heard the noise and cried out, and his son at once ran in, together with his friends... [A] physician went to him and tried to replace his bowels, which remained uninjured, and to sew up the wound. Accordingly, when Cato recovered and became aware of this, he pushed the physician away, tore his bowels with his hands, rent the wound still more, and so died.'