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SPQR: The Men Who Made and Secured the Roman Republic

Khalid Elhassan January 3, 2025 13 min

Roman - The Oath of Junius Brutus, by Fragonard Alexander Evarist — The Oath of Junius Brutus, by Fragonard Alexander Evarist. University Online

8. Continued Devotion to the Republic, Despite Great Grievances

Cincinnatus plowing his field, when a delegation arrives to inform him that he has been appointed dictator. K-Pics

By the time Cincinnatus had liquidated enough assets to pay the heavy fine, his possessions were reduced to a small farm, and he was reduced to manual labor at an advanced age, forced to toil in his fields with his own hands. Then a military emergency erupted in 458 BC. That led to his appointment as dictator – a constitutional office of absolute power to which Romans appointed a leader during crises for a six month period. When a delegation arrived to let him know, they found Cincinnatus hard at work in his farm. He put aside the plow and took up the sword, and led the Romans to a swift victory. He then resigned the dictatorship and went back to toiling on his small farm.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.