Julius Caesar's Love Letter From a Rival’s Sister
How Caesar’s political opponent Cato was humiliated due to a love letter
The times in which Julius Caesar was a senator were very strange and complex. Due to the fact that Roman high society was very complicated and relatively small, it meant that better off Romans knew each other rather well, this sometimes led to complications when two people disagreed and some Romans knew how to exploit this.
The story goes that in 64 B.C when Julius Caesar was arguing with Cato, a fellow senator, over Caesar’s involvement in the Catiline conspiracy a letter was handed to him.
The Catiline conspiracy was a plot devised by senator Lucius Catilina along with a few fellow aristocrats meant to overthrow the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cato was convinced that Julius Caesar was involved in this plot in order to gain power in the Senate and became hellbent on proving it.
Once Caesar received this seemingly innocuous note Cato demanded that it be read out loud as it was potentially a message from the conspirators. While at first hesitant Caesar eventually caved and handed it over. To Cato’s dismay, it turned out the letter was a rather presumptuous love letter to Caesar… from Cato's half-sister.
