The American Cincinnatus

What makes a revolution successful: winning power or knowing when to give it up?

"You have often heard him compared to Cincinnatus," the French traveller Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville wrote after visiting George Washington at Mount Vernon in 1788. "The comparison is doubtless just. The celebrated General is nothing more at present than a good farmer, constantly occupied in the care of his farm and the improvement of cultivation."

Can you imagine Julius Caesar willingly turning back power? History is littered with examples of military men who seized power and were reluctant to give it up. Yet two remarkable individuals, separated by 2,000 years, both made the decision to give up near-absolute authority in favor of life as a citizen. George Washington, America’s first president, and Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, an early Roman statesman, lived dramatically different lives, but both understood the nature and importance of civic virtue. Washington’s decision to not seek a third term as president set a lasting precedent for the peaceful transition of power that endures today.

1) Who was Cincinnatus? 

2) Why was George Washington called the Cincinnatus of the West?

3) What precedent did George Washington set and why is it still so important today?

4) What do you think Washington would say about this statue that makes him look like Zeus?

5) How did the city of Cincinnati get its name?