Why does Mario Cavaradossi agree to help Cesare Angelotti?

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Art Nouveau poster by Adolfo Hohenstein for Puccini's opera Tosca, showing a woman in a gold dress standing over a fallen figure, with dramatic red and black background and bold title text. — Tosca Poster by Adolfo Hohenstein for Giacomo Puccini's opera *Tosca*, 1906.

Mario Cavaradossi agrees to help Cesare Angelotti primarily because they are old friends and fellow revolutionary sympathizers. Upon discovering that Angelotti has escaped from imprisonment, Cavaradossi immediately vows to assist him.1

As the plot unfolds, Cavaradossi further commits to aiding Angelotti by offering to hide him at his own country villa to protect him from the pursuit of the police chief, Baron Scarpia.1