An Old Dictator
When a delegation arrived to let Cincinnatus know that he had been appointed dictator, they found the old man toiling in his farm. He set aside the plow, took up the sword, and led the Romans to a swift victory. He then resigned the dictatorship and went back to working his small farm. Cincinnatus was appointed dictator again in 439 BC when Rome was threatened with an internal conspiracy. He quelled the plot, laid down his power as soon as the crisis was over, and returned to his farm.
Cincinnatus went down as one of the most revered figures of the Roman Republic. He became an exemplar of civic virtue, modesty, and inspirational leadership. George Washington consciously sought to model his career after that of Cincinnatus. That resonated with contemporaries in the Age of the Enlightenment, who knew their Roman history well. When America’s first president voluntarily laid down his power at the end of his second term and went into retirement, he was praised as a modern Cincinnatus.
