Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently made reference to Cincinnatus. So, who was he?
In his final speech as British Prime Minister on Sept. 6, Boris Johnson said, “Like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plow.”
The comparison to the classical Roman figure caused a spike in search terms online to find out who Cincinnatus was, The reported.
So, who was this ancient Roman leader? Here’s a look.
Cincinnatus was sort of the inspiration for Cincinnati’s name, and his statue stands at Sawyer Point.
On Jan. 2, 1790, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name of Losantiville to Cincinnati. The new name derived from the Society of the Cincinnati, an order of Continental Army officers founded by Henry Knox in 1783 to preserve the ideals of the American Revolution.
The society, in turn, was named for Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a hero of the Roman Republic in the fifth century B.C. who was a model of civic responsibility by relinquishing his role as dictator after his victory in battle.
George Washington, who likewise gave up the opportunity to be king, was often called the American Cincinnatus. Washington served as the first president general of the Society of the Cincinnati, so the city’s name is as much a tribute to the Founding Father as to the Roman leader.
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But who was Cincinnatus? Not much is known for sure, and historians consider most of the stories about him to be legends.
