The Cincinnatus pattern

Roman tradition tells the story of Cincinnatus, a farmer who was ploughing his field when messengers arrived to tell him the Senate had named him dictator, granting him absolute power to save Rome from a military crisis. He took command, won the war in a matter of weeks, and then, with total power in his hands and no obligation to give it up, resigned the dictatorship and went straight back to his farm. He had taken the role because it needed doing, not because he wanted the power, and he left the moment the job was done. It is important to be honest about this one: the story comes from Roman historians writing centuries after the supposed events, so the man himself is at least partly legend, a tale the Romans told about the virtue they admired. But the pattern it captures is real and worth being able to recognise in people.

Some people take on a difficult role because the job genuinely needs doing, and others take it because they want the position, the status, the power, and the two look similar at the start but behave very differently over time. The person who took the role to do the work will let it go when the work is done. The person who took it for the power will find reasons to keep it. When you watch who steps up for a hard responsibility, and especially who is willing to step back down when it is finished, you learn something real about their motive that no interview will tell you. The legend is dressed up, but the distinction it points to is one you can actually observe.

SPQR

Mary Beard, 2015

On how Rome built and mythologized its own ideals, and how to read the legends it left behind.