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Abstract
This dissertation focuses on the presence of Cato Uticensis in Dante's Purgatorio. In addition to being extensively praised in both Monarchia and Convivio, Cato appears as the stern warden of Purgatorio, destined to future bliss in Heaven. He is subtly portrayed as an anti-Ulyssean hero whose journey led to salvation rather than destruction.
As the only historic figure to be held in such high esteem in three of Dante's works, one is bound to notice that his lofty portrait is in stark contrast with the contemptuous denigration of him by Augustine, an author well known to Dante. The Christian theologian viewed him as a vain heathen whose suicide was an act of cowardice, and Thomas Aquinas will agree with Augustine's unequivocal condemnation. Dante instead introduced him in the Divina Commedia with Biblical overtones and profound admiration, without apparently having any issue with his self-inflicted death. Thus, the Divina Commedia tells us that a pagan man who killed himself will be in Heaven next to the same saints who strongly condemned him.
My historical survey will show that Cato enjoyed high esteem in most of the Roman sources, as he embodied the “gravitas” and “libertas” that were the essence of ancient Rome. Dante embraced Lucan's and Cicero's positive appraisal of Cato and made him a powerful character entrusted with dealing with repenting souls. What is even more interesting is the fact that Cato was portrayed by ancient pagan and Christian sources as the Stoic by antonomasia; undoubtedly, Dante knew from Augustine and Lucan that Stoicism was antithetical to Christianity in many fundamental respects. My chapter on Stoicism and Christianity will underline the abyssal differences between the two systems, which will make it clear that Dante's choice of Cato as the warden of Purgatorio was a powerful statement of an independent mind that cannot be labeled as traditionally Christian. Furthermore, I will argue that Cato functions as a rejection of Augustine's negative concept of the pagan world of antiquity, besides being viewed by Dante as a kindred spirit, due to similar convictions and life experiences.
Through my analysis of the legal and rhetorical elements associated with Dante's Cato, I will also show that, in the poet's eyes, Cato embodied not only the epitome of high morals and freedom, but also the necessity of law and rhetoric for the attainment of the right political system, an ideal and aspiration in which Dante never ceased to believe.