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Cato and Republican Liberty |
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This images comes from the first edition (1713) of Joseph Addison's play "Cato.
A Tragedy" which was so influential in the decades leading up to the American
Revolution with its story of the courageous Cato the Younger defying Julius
Caesar and choosing suicide over surrender. Liberty Fund has recently republished
this classic work which can be found online here.
The caption which accompanies the image above reads as follows (the first word
of some lines are illegible):
See with what Glorious Scorn the Cheife Disdains
To Save his life and link his Country's Chaines
Pent up in Utica and Remote from home
Cato's a Roman tho' Excluded Rome
[...ch] his Soul all Servile Acts Abhor'd
A Roman must not be a Romans Lord
He's master of himself whilst master of his Sword
His Sword was allways Drawn for Liberty
Nor
must be Sheath'd untill Its Masters free
He Conquers Falling and Triumphing Dyes
And Caesar Views his End with Envious Eyes
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