Comment LONDON — “Like Cincinnati, I return to my plough,” Boris Johnson said Tuesday from a lectern outside Downing Street in his final speech as Britain’s prime minister before traveling to Scotland to tender his resignation to the queen. The comparison caused quite a stir on social media, with Google searches for “Cincinnatus” immediately increasing around 7:34am. local time, in the middle of Johnson’s speech, before returning to a level normally expected of a Roman politician more than 2,500 years ago. . So who is Cincinnatus and why does Johnson, a 21st century politician and student of the classics, compare himself to him? In the 5th century BC, the Roman Republic was in conflict with the Aequi tribe of Italy. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a former Roman consul, a sort of temporarily elected leader, who had turned to agriculture after his involvement in politics. In the “History of Rome,” the historian Livy writes that the leaders of Rome approached Cincinnatus and begged him to save the city from invasion. Legend has it that he stopped plowing his field, put on a toga and returned to the city. Appointed sole dictator of Rome in 458 BC. – a rare post with emergency powers – and led an effort to rescue Roman soldiers trapped by Aequi forces on Mount Algidus. He defeated the Aequi forces, then abdicated after only 15 days and returned to his farm. For this reason, he is considered a model of political restraint and virtue. George Washington has been compared to Cincinnati because he also responded to the call to serve and defeated the British, before voluntarily stepping down after two terms as president. The city of Cincinnati in Ohio is – indirectly – named after Cincinnatus. In 1790, the governor of the area that includes modern-day Ohio named the city after the Cincinnati Society, formed by Continental Army officers to commemorate the American War of Independence. Society members called themselves “Cincinnati”, the plural of Cincinnatus. While the details of Cincinnatus’ story are disputed by historians and classicists, many argue that it is the message that is important – good leaders are prepared to give up power for the good of the republic. How many lockdown parties did Boris Johnson and staff attend? Here is a guide. Johnson has referred to Cincinnatus more than once during his political career. In 2009, when he was mayor of London, Johnson said in an interview that he could not “foresee the circumstances” under which he would be asked to become prime minister. (He became prime minister 10 years later.) But, he said then, “if, like Cincinnati, I was called from my plow, then obviously it would be wrong not to help.” Leaving aside the question of whether Johnson’s time in No. 10 – a tenure marred by several scandals and official investigations – earns him a place on the same leadership bench as Washington, Cincinnatus “sets an extremely bad example for Boris who select’ in it. 2009 interview, Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer, argued in a piece at the time. “The point of Cincinnatus is that he is not a career politician who charms the parties of Rome by night and cuts deals with the great and the good by day,” Higgins wrote. “He’s a practical man with an honest, cracking job outside of politics, just getting on with his work with minimal fuss.” Liz Truss will replace Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The politician’s story does not end with his victory over the Aequi and subsequent resignation. Cincinnatus is said to have returned to Rome in 439 BC when he was asked to serve as dictator a second time to address concerns that the wealthy Roman Spurius Maelius was laying the groundwork to become king by hoarding wheat to secure the support of the plebeians. , or ordinary people. While historians largely believe this is the stuff of legends, some political observers interpreted Johnson’s reference to Kinkinnato in his farewell address as a sign that he would one day return. “This is not the speech of an outgoing prime minister who necessarily thinks he will be gone forever. And he is enough of a classics scholar to know, comparing himself to Cincinnatus leaving for his farm, that when the call came, Cincinnatus returned to Rome,” Scottish journalist Andrew Neil tweeted. On social media, some highlighted a less rosy aspect of Cincinnatus’ story – his opposition to expanded plebeian rights. “One thing you need to know about Cincinnatus is that he was a well-known enemy of the people,” Mary Beard, a professor of classics at Cambridge University, told Times Radio on Tuesday. “He didn’t want to give people their rights. He was an absolute elitist Roman patrician — in our terms, he was dead right.’ “There I wonder how far Jonson had thought through all the implications of the story of Cincinnatus,” added Beard.
