Cincinnatus Called from the Plough: Roman Virtue Incarnate
In 458 BCE, a Roman army under the consul Minucius found itself surrounded by the Aequi on Mount Algidus. The Senate appointed Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus as dictator. The Senate's envoys found him ploughing. Informed of his appointment, he crossed the Tiber to Rome. Within days he had levied an army, marched to Algidus, and ordered his soldiers to entrench a full circumvallation around the Aequi position — encircling the encirclers. The Aequi capitulated the following morning. Cincinnatus returned to Rome, celebrated a triumph, and then — with approximately fifteen days remaining of his six-month dictatorial term — resigned. He crossed back over the Tiber to his farm. Cincinnatus became the archetypal Roman citizen-soldier: a man of the land, indifferent to wealth, who serves the state when called, asks for nothing in return, and returns to private life the moment his service is complete. When George Washington resigned his commission in 1783, the analogy was immediately drawn. The Society of the Cincinnati — founded that year by Continental Army officers — took its name explicitly from this Roman moment.
- Year: 458 BCE
- Category: Political
