Cincinnatus
Cincinnatus (Lucius Quincius Cincinnatus),a patrician listed in the fasti as suffect consul (see consul) in 460 BC. In 458, according to tradition, when a Roman army under the consul L. Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus was besieged by the Aequi on Mt Algidus, Cincinnatus was called from the plough and appointed dictator. Within fifteen days he assembled an army, defeated the Aequi, triumphed, laid down his office, and returned to his ploughing. The story was frequently cited as a moral example, illustrating the austere modesty of early Rome and its leaders. An area on the right bank of the Tiber called the ‘Quinctian Meadows’ (prata Quinctia) was regarded as the site of Cincinnatus' four-iugera farm (Liv. 3. 26. 8). He is said to have been appointed dictator a second time in 439 BC during the Spurius Maelius crisis (this man was a wealthy plebeian— see
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