Effects of The Marriage Exchange
Julius Caesar accused Cato of wife trafficking and marrying Marcia off to Hortensius simply in order to gain his wealth. . "For why," said Caesar, "should Cato give up his wife if he wanted her, or why, if he did not want her, should he take her back again? Unless it was true that the woman was at the first set as a bait for Hortensius, and lent by Cato when she was young that he might take her back when she was rich." However, this is generally thought to be political mudslinging as, Plutarch asserts that in actuality, in 49 BC Cato was fleeing Rome with the rest of the aristocracy with Pompeius as a result of Caesar's approach. Because of his impending absence, he needed someone to look after his young daughters and household in his place, which Marcia did.
Plutarch described Marcia as "...a woman of reputed excellence, about whom there was the most abundant talk..." This suggests that she was a more mature woman and Appian suggests that Cato was extremely fond of her. Because of this, one can assume that the involved parties viewed marriage as a perpetuation of State without romantic ideals of love.
Many assumptions have been made regarding Cato's character based upon his endorsement of the marriage between Marcia and Hortensius. Appian said that "as a girl; was extremely fond of her, and she had borne him children. Nevertheless, he gave her to Hortensius, one of his friends,— who desired to have children but was married to a childless wife..." This sacrifice is used by Plutarch and other historians to illustrate Cato's honorability and his willingness to sacrifice a wife he liked in the name of friendship. This positive interpretation of Cato's character is reflected in Lucan's Pharsalia and how the Uticans mourned his death.
In her Masters of Rome series of novels, Colleen McCullough suggests that Cato gave Marcia to Hortensius simply because he could not reconcile his passion for her with his Stoic ideals, that he never let her go emotionally, and that he took her back at the first opportunity.
Read more about this topic: Marcia (wife Of Cato The Younger)
Famous quotes containing the words effects, marriage and/or exchange:
“The machines that are first invented to perform any particular movement are always the most complex, and succeeding artists generally discover that, with fewer wheels, with fewer principles of motion, than had originally been employed, the same effects may be more easily produced. The first systems, in the same manner, are always the most complex.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)
“If a marriage is going to work well, it must be on a solid footing, namely money, and of that commodity it is the girl with the smallest dowry who, to my knowledge, consumes the most, to infuriate her husband. All the same, it is only fair that the marriage should pay for past pleasures, since it will scarcely procure any in the future.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“But come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)