In Italy, it is not uncommon to find streets and neighborhoods named Cincinnatus, but even more familiar is the name of a city in the American state of Ohio. Although similar, these names have different origins: the U.S. city is named after The Society of Cincinnati (a society of veterans of the Revolution), while the Italian references honor the man who originally bore the name—Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a Roman dictator considered a model of virtue and integrity, as well as detachment from power.

It is important to clarify that, in Ancient Rome, the term dictator did not carry the negative connotation it has today. The dictatorship was a magistracy of the Republic era (magister populi was its official title, while dictator was a popular appellation) that granted its holder full powers to address an exceptional situation, usually related to security, ensuring that the two-prætor (and later two-consul) system would not hinder swift decision-making.

To prevent these vast powers from becoming a risk—tempting the dictator to remain in office—limitations were set, such as the obligation to exercise power only to address the crisis that had led to their appointment and to renounce it once the danger had passed (or within a six-month period).

Cincinnatus roman dictator
Cicero Denouncing Catiline, painting by Cesare Maccari (1889). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Generally, given the nature of the missions for which they were appointed, dictators were efficient military leaders, though their selection followed strictly political procedures: through a senatus consultum, the Senate authorized the prætors or consuls to choose a dictator. These officials would then make a joint decision or, failing agreement, resort to a lottery. Finally, the comitia curata or assembly would vote for approval and grant the elected dictator the imperium (command). Some of the most famous figures in Roman history held the dictatorship, even multiple times—Quintus Fabius Maximus, Julius Caesar, Sulla—but none attained the prestige and recognition of Cincinnatus.

It is estimated that he was born between 518 and 519 BCE, when Rome was still a monarchy. He belonged to the gens Quinctia, a minor patrician clan because it was not originally from Rome but from Alba Longa (a Latin city about twenty kilometers to the south), yet wealthy enough for its members to hold magistracies. In fact, Cincinnatus was merely a cognomen (a nickname) meaning “curly-haired”, likely referencing his physical appearance. His entry into history took time, emerging in the mid-5th century BCE, around 460 BCE, when some peoples from central and northwestern Italy began to pose a threat to Rome.

These were the Volsci, Sabines, and Aequi, who were related and whom the Romans considered veteres hostes romanorum, eternal enemies. Their periodic raids into Latium escalated when they broke a peace treaty with their neighbors in an attempt to seize Tusculum and managed to trap the army of Consul Lucius Minucius Esquilinus—who had been sent to defend the city—within its own camp.

Cincinnatus roman dictator
Area of Roman influence and surrounding peoples. Credit: Renato de carvalho ferreira / Wikimedia Commons

Facing the imminent danger of annihilation and leaving not only Tusculum but Rome itself defenseless, the consul urgently requested reinforcements. An extreme solution was required, and in such cases, as mentioned earlier, appointing a dictator was the standard course of action.

The other consul, Gaius Nautius Rutilus, and his new colleague, Marcus Horatius Pulvillus, agreed to appoint Cincinnatus. Why him? Because of the prestige he had gained years earlier, as he was not an unknown figure. In 460 BCE, after Consul Publius Valerius Publicola—one of the Republic’s founders, who had helped overthrow Tarquinius Superbus, the last king—was assassinated during a plebeian revolt against the tribunes (caused by opposition to the Lex Terentilia Arsa, which prohibited plebeians from trading land among themselves to prevent the formation of large estates), Cincinnatus was elected consul suffectus (replacement consul). He resolved the uprising through a shrewd policy of compromise: on the one hand, he crushed the disturbances with an iron fist, but on the other, he abolished the controversial law, thereby restoring peace.

However, this cost him both money and family. His son Caeso, accused of organizing street lynchings against plebeians, was forced to flee to Etruria and was sentenced to death in absentia, while his father had to pay a hefty fine. The amount was so high that he was forced to sell off his properties at a loss to cover it, ultimately leaving public life to retire to a small farm he still owned. Or so the story goes, as modern scholars believe that accounts of Cincinnatus’ life were likely constructed a posteriori to emphasize his virtues, and it is possible that the story of his impoverishment is fictional, just as other references to his military experience may also be inaccurate.

Cincinnatus roman dictator
Publius Valerius Publicola. Credit: ÖNB / Wikimedia Commons

In any case, tradition says that the senators in charge of delivering the appointment of dictator found him personally working in the field, plow in hand. He accepted the proposal, asked his wife Racilia for his toga, and headed to the Forum to assume the dictatorship for six months, convening an assembly in which he appointed Lucius Tarquitius as magister equitum (his deputy).

He also ordered that all men of military age present themselves at the Campus Martius at the end of the day with provisions for five days. They did so, and then each was given twelve sudes (sudis or vallus in singular; these were pointed wooden stakes over a meter and a half long, used to encircle the perimeter of legionary camps), setting off to break the siege that had trapped Lucius Minucius Esquilinus.

However, the mission of the sudes was not to reinforce the besieged castrum but to isolate the Aequi camp, which was on Mount Algidus. The unusual operation was carried out at night, and in the morning, the affected troops tried to engage in battle, but that angled line of stakes obstructed them. Furthermore, Minucius Esquilinus took the opportunity to break out of his entrenchment and join Cincinnatus, surrounding the enemy. The Aequi, caught in their own trap, could not fight for long and eventually surrendered. Cincinnatus allowed them to leave in exchange for handing over their leaders, after which he permitted his men to plunder the enemy camp and take whatever they wished as a reward.

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Cincinnatus Leaves the Plow to Dictate Laws to Rome (Juan Antonio Ribera). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

His return was as triumphant for him as it was humiliating for Minucius Esquilinus, who had to resign from the consulship. However, this was not the only humiliation, as the Aequi leaders—except for the three main ones, who were executed—were forced to pass under a yoke held up by spears to symbolize their submission. Thus, sixteen days after being appointed dictator, Cincinnatus declared his mission complete, dissolved the improvised army, and despite having almost five and a half months of his term remaining, renounced the position to return to his farm, earning general admiration. This episode took place in 458 B.C.

Eight years later, he briefly left his retirement to run for the decemvirate, an extraordinary magistracy that granted consular powers to its holder and that, during the conflict between patricians and plebeians, had been copied from the Greeks along with the Law of the Twelve Tables in response to complaints from some tribunes of the plebs about the arbitrariness of certain consuls.

However, Cincinnatus was not elected and had to wait until 439 B.C. to return to the political scene of Rome, this time facing not an external but an internal threat: the coup attempt of Spurius Maelius, who was said to be plotting to overthrow the republic and crown himself king, supposedly stockpiling weapons in his own house to distribute to his supporters when the time came.

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Reconstruction of sudes. Credit: MathiasKabel / Wikimedia Commons

As with the consulship of Cincinnatus, there was likely some exaggeration in this account, as recorded by historians of the time. The issue was that Spurius Maelius was a plebeian—an extremely wealthy one, but still a plebeian—something that the entrenched Roman ruling class could not tolerate. Especially considering that, at a time when the city was suffering from a severe subsistence crisis, with famine driving many to throw themselves into the Tiber for a quick death rather than a slow and agonizing one, Maelius purchased grain from the Etruscans and sold it at a very low price to the people, thereby promoting his candidacy for consul. His opponents, mainly patricians, deemed a dictator necessary to handle the crisis, and Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus, the serving consul, rushed to summon his cousin Cincinnatus (or brother, according to some accounts).

By then, he was an elderly man in his eighties but accepted the position. He appointed Gaius Servilius Structus Ahala as magister equitum, a decorated military officer whom he tasked with arresting Maelius on the very night he intended to seize power. Ahala stationed his men at strategic points throughout the city, particularly on the Capitoline Hill and at certain fortresses. At dawn, as the people gathered in the Forum for the inauguration, he ordered Maelius to appear before the dictator.

The accused hesitated and attempted to take refuge among the assembled crowd, but the magister equitum pursued and killed him. Supposedly, he used a pugio hidden under his armpit (since carrying weapons during public events was prohibited), though some scholars believe this detail to be a kind of etiological myth meant to explain his cognomen (as “Ahala” is an Etruscan word meaning “armpit”).

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Ahala Presents Cincinnatus with the Body of Maelius (Domenico di Pace Beccafumi). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Cincinnatus thanked him for his service, declaring that he had saved the state. Later authors also praised this act as patriotic, including Cicero and Plutarch, the latter of whom claimed that Servilia, the mother of Marcus Junius Brutus (the assassin of Julius Caesar), was a descendant of Ahala. However, there seems to be no solid basis for this claim beyond an attempt to link the figure to a renowned tyrant-slayer.

At the time, however, the killing of Maelius was considered a crime, and Ahala was put on trial. He avoided conviction only by voluntarily going into exile. It is worth noting that, according to Livy, three years later, a tribune of the plebs also named Spurius Maelius demanded the confiscation of Ahala’s property, though the motion was ultimately rejected.

As for Cincinnatus, once again, he renounced the dictatorship since the problem had been resolved, further enhancing his reputation as a man of integrity. His legacy became so celebrated that additional legends emerged about him, such as the story of how, when one of his sons was prosecuted for military incompetence, he was acquitted simply because no one wanted to humiliate his father by informing him of a guilty verdict. He passed away around 430 B.C., nearly ninety years old, and there is no doubt that a politician capable of relinquishing power of his own volition was rare enough to have streets and cities named after him.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on October 8, 2019: Cincinato, el dictador que renunció voluntariamente a su poder dos veces, después de salvar a Roma

SOURCES

Tito Livio, Los orígenes de Roma

Dionisio de Halicarnaso, Historia antigua de Roma

Marco Tulio Cicerón, La república

Michael J. Hillyard, Cincinnatus and the Citizen-Servant Ideal

Sergei Ivanovich Kovaliov, Historia de Roma

Wikipedia, Cincinato

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