Cincinnatus

• a cognomen of the renowned L. Quinctius, taken from the plough to the dictatorship, Liv. 3, 26, 6; 4, 13, 14 sq.; Cic. Fin. 2, 4, 12; id. Sen. 16, 56; Col. 1, praef. § 13; Plin. 18, 3, 4, § 20; Val. Max. 4, 4 al.

the name of a patrician family of the Quinctia gens. Some of the Quinctii, mentioned without a surname, probably belonged to this family.

1. L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. F. L. N., plays a conspicuous part in the civil and military transactions of the period in which he lived. He particularly distinguished himself as a violent opponent of the claims of the plebeians. He was born about B. C. 519. (Niebuhr, vol. ii. note 927.) The story of his having been reduced to poverty by the merciless exaction of the bail forfeited by the flight of his son Caeso (Liv. 3.13) has no foundation. (Niebuhr, ii. p. 289.) In B. C. 460 he was illegally appointed consul suffectus in the room of P. Valerius. (Liv. 3.19; Niebuhr, ii. p. 295.) Irritated by the death of his son Caeso, he proposed a most arbitrary attempt to oppose the enactment of the Terentilian law, but the design was abandoned. (Liv. 3.20, 21.)

Two years afterwards (B. C. 458), according to the common story, Cincinnatus was appointed dictator, in order to deliver the Roman consul and army from the perilous position in which they had been placed by the Aequians. (Plin. Nat. 18.4; Cic. de Senect. 16, who however refers the story to his second dictatorship.) The story of the manner in which he effected this is given by Livy (3.26_29). The inconsistencies and impossibilities in the legend have been pointed out by Niebuhr (ii. pp. 266-269), who is inclined to regard it as altogether fabulous. During his dictatorship, in defiance of the tribunes, he held the comitia for the trial of Volscius, through whose evidence his son Caeso had been condemned, and who was charged with false witness. The accused went into voluntary exile. (Dion. Exc. de Sent. 22, p. 151, ed. R.; Zonar. 7.15.) In B. C. 450 Cincinnatus was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of decemvir. (Liv. 3.35.) In the disputes about the law for opening the consulship to the plebeians, we find him the advocate of milder measures. (Liv. 4.6.) In B. C. 439, at the age of eighty, he was a second time appointed dictator to oppose the alleged machinations of Spurius Maelius. (Liv. 4.13_15.) This is the last event recorded of him.

2. L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. F. L. N., son of No. 1, was consular tribune in B. C. 438. In the following year he was appointed master of the horse by the dictator Aemilius Mamercus. (Liv. 4.16, 17; Diod. 12.38.) In 425 he was a second time elected consular tribune (Liv. 4.35; Diod. 12.81), and, according to Livy (4.44), a third time in 420.

3. T. Quinctius Cincinnatus Pennus, L. F. L. N., son of L. Cincinnatus, and son-in-law of A. Postumius Tubertus, was consul in B. C. 431. In this year the Aequians and Volscians renewed their attacks, and encamped on mount Algidus. The danger was so pressing, that it was resolved to appoint a dictator. The opposition of the consuls was overruled; and Cincinnatus, to whose lot it fell to do so, named as dictator his father-in-law. Cincinnatus and Postumius then led separate armies against the enemy, who sustained a severe defeat. (Liv. 4.26_29.) Cincinnatus was again consul in 428 (Liv. 4.30; Diod. 12.75) and consular tribune in 426. (Liv. 4.31; Diod. 12.80.) With two of his colleagues he commanded against the Veientians, but sustained a defeat, on which Aemilius Mamercus was appointed dictator. In the capacity of legatus he aided the dictator in the victory which he gained over the Veientians and Fidenatians. Having been subsequently brought to trial for his ill-conduct against the Veientians, he was acquitted on the ground of his services under the dictators, Postumius and Aemilius. (Liv. 4.41.)

4. Q. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. F. L. N., consular tribune in B. C. 415, and again in 405. (Liv. 4.49, 61; Diod. 13.34, 14.17.)

5. T. Quinctius Cincinnatus Capitolinus, consular tribune in B. C. 388, and again in 384. In 380, in the war with the Praenestines, he was appointed dictator, gained a decisive victory over them on the banks of the Alia, and in nine days captured nine towns. (Liv. 6.4, 18, 28, 29; Diod. 15.23, 36; Eutrop. 2.2; Festus, s. v. Triens.)

6. L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, consular tribune in B. C. 386, again in 385, and a third time in 377, when, with his colleague Ser. Sulpicius, he raised the siege of Tusculum, of which the Latins had nearly made themselves masters. (Liv. 6.6, 32, 33; Diod. 15.25, 28, 61.)

7. C. Quinctius Cincinnatus, consular tribune in B. C. 377. (Liv. 6.32.)

8. Q. Quinctius Cincinnatus, consular tribune in B. C. 369. (Liv. 6.36.)

9. T. Quinctius Cincinnatus Capitolinus, consular tribune in B. C. 368, and in the following year master of the horse to the dictator M. Furious Camillus, when the Licinian laws were carried. Livy calls him T. Quinctius Pennus, and as we have the surnames Cincinnatus Capitolinus in the Capitoline Fasti, his full name may have been T. Quinctius Pennus Cincinnatus Capitolinus. (Liv. 6.38, 42; Diod. 15.78.) [C.P.M]

A Roman patrician, whose name belongs to the earlier history of the Republic, and has a well-known and spiritstirring legend connected with it. His son, Caeso Quinctius, had been banished on account of his violent language towards the tribunes, and the father had retired to his own patrimony, aloof from popular tumults. The successes of the Aequi and Volsci in B.C. 458 rendered the appointment of a dictator necessary, and Cincinnatus was chosen to that high office. The delegates who were sent to announce this to him found the Roman noble ploughing his own fields, and from the plough he was transferred to the highest magistracy of his native State. The dictator laid aside his rural habiliments, assumed the ensigns of absolute power, levied a new army, marched all night to bring the necessary succour to the consul Minucius, who was surrounded by the enemy and blockaded in his camp, and before morning surrounded the enemy's army, and reduced it to a condition exactly similar to that in which the Romans had been placed. The baffled Aequi were glad to submit to the victor's terms; and Cincinnatus, thereupon returning in triumph to Rome, laid down his dictatorial power, after having held it only fourteen days, and returned to his farm. At an advanced age he was again appointed dictator, to restrain the power of Spurius Maelius (q.v.), and again proved himself the deliverer of his country (Val. Max. iv. 4, 7; Liv.iii. 26).