2-588-032 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

'Cato Uticensis', c1795. Cato the Younger (95-46 BC) was a prominent statesman and orator of the late Roman Republic. A follower of the Stoic philosophy, he was a political rival of Julius Caesar. He was noted for his moral integrity, his immunity to bribery and his disapproval of corruption. Cato committed suicide rather than subject himself to life under Caesar after he emerged victorious in the Roman Civil War. Found in the collection of the State Hermitage, St Petersburg.