Gaius Porcius Cato (tribune)


Gaius Porcius Cato was a distant relative, probably a second cousin, of the more famous Marcus Porcius Cato, called Cato the Younger. This Cato was probably the son of Gaius Porcius Cato, the homonymous consul of 114 BC, being then the grandson of Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus and thereby the great-grandson of the famous Cato the Censor, often called Cato the Elder.
Gaius Porcius Cato was a client of triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus and was an ally of Clodius the infamous Patrician tribune of the plebs, in his street gang war against Milo. He attacked Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in 59 BC by prosecuting a follower, Gabinius, for ambitus but was thwarted by a Pompeian praetor and was chased from the rostra by an angry crowd. In 57 BC he spoke against delaying the aedelician elections.

Tribunate

Cato served as a plebeian tribune himself in 56 BC, and in his political activities, he was usually associated with his colleague Nonius Sufenas. During their tribunate, they worked for the so-called First triumvirate of Gaius Julius Caesar, Crassus and Pompey, now allied with his benefactor Crassus, and delayed the comitia to promote the election of Pompey and Crassus as consuls. The following year, after his tribunate, Cato and Sufenas were both accused of procedural violations. Although Cato's prosecutor in the trial was the future Caesarian historian Gaius Asinius Pollio they were both acquitted. Cato won a praetorship in 55 BC.