Everything I’ve read about him would indicate the later but in 63 BC he was elected to the office of Tribune of the Plebs.
When Clodious , who was from a minor patrician family, was elected to that position only 4 years later, he had to renounce his status and be adopted by a pleb family in a ceremony headed by good ol’ J.C. (Pontifex Maximus).
I have not read anything to indicate that Cato did the same nor have I ever seen anyone bring this point up but it’s been bugging me a lot. I mean Cato is pretty much a paragon of what a patrician should be. Am I missing something here or was Cato just an extremely lucky and privileged pleb?
Pls help
When Clodious , who was from a minor patrician family
Minor?! The gens Claudia was one of the largest and most prestigious patrician gentes, outstripped only in surviving patrician lines by perhaps the gens Cornelia. To call Clodius a member of a minor family is like calling the sun a little hot.
You're completely misunderstanding what a plebeian (the singular of plebs is plebs, it's a collective singular) means. Patrician does not mean senator, and most senators were not patricians by far. Cato was a plebeian, like Cicero, Crassus, Pompey, Antony, Cassius, Lucullus, both Bruti, etc. The gens Porcia was a plebeian gens, and was heavily involved in the final stages of the Conflict of the Orders, during which members of the family passed several important leges Porciae, at least one of which protected soldiers on campaign from coercitio by extending provocatio to them