History Memes

Explanation: Cato the Younger was an ultraconservative of the Late Republic era of Rome. An inveterate political enemy of Julius Caesar, when Cato and his fellow conservatives created a crisis which led to a civil war, he wasted no time in becoming an inveterate military enemy of Caesar as well. The issue is, Caesar and his veteran legions ultimately crushed the Senate's forces, and, worst of all, Caesar had made a policy of forgiving his enemies, often without any preconditions! How awful!

Cato, of course, could not let such a terrible fate befall himself, and so, before Caesar's forces arrived to capture the remnants of the Senate's armies, Cato killed himself. Caesar is said to have mused, "I begrudge Cato his death, the same way he would have begrudged me his life [had he been captured]"