The E-Sylum:  Volume 3, Number 37, September 10, 2000, Article 7

MORE ON CINCINNATUS 

   Some were unclear on whether last week's discussion of 
   the famed Roman citizen-soldier Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus 
   was a real person. 

   Pete Smith writes:  "It is my understanding that he was a real 
   person.  However, his accomplishments have been 
   glamorized and embellished until it is difficult to separate fact 
   from fiction." 

   Mike Hodder writes:  "He became a personification of civic 
   virtue but he was a real person first.  He was consul in 460 
   B.C. When his term expired he went back to his farm.  In 
   458 B.C. he was appointed dictator for the war against the 
   Aequians. Sixteen days later, after defeating his enemy and 
   recapturing the legionary standards, he returned to his farm 
   and plough. 

   His example of rustic virtue, civic devotion, and military skill 
   became an example for later Romans.  Here's what 
   St. Augustine (speaking of Christians of his time who boasted 
   of their righteous poverty) had to say about him: 
   "...Quintius Cincinnatus, who, possessing only four acres of 
   land, and cultivating them with his own hands, was taken from 
   the plough to be made dictator -- an office more honorable 
   even than that of consul -- and that, after having won great 
   glory by conquering the enemy, he preferred notwithstanding 
   to continue in his poverty" 

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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