Cincinnatus and the Origins of Civic Virtue (Leaf from Livy, Bk. III)

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Images(2)

Cincinnatus and the Origins of Civic Virtue

(Leaf from Livy, Bk. III)

Printer Conrad Sweynheym (German, active 1462 - 1477)

Artist Arnold Pannartz (German, active 1465 - 1476)

Author Titus Livius

Place of OriginItaly, Rome

Date1469

DimensionsOverall: 15 9/16 x 11 1/8 in. (39.5 x 28.3 cm)

MediumLetter Press

ClassificationBooks

Object number

1928.36

Not on View

DescriptionThis page comes from Livy’s monumental Ab Urbe Condita (History of Rome), one of the first classical texts printed in Rome. The passage belongs to Book III, describing political conflict between patricians and plebeians and the appointment of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus as dictator in 458 BCE.

Label TextCalled from his small farm to rescue the army, Cincinnatus led Rome to victory and then, having completed his duty, relinquished power and returned to his plow. To Renaissance readers, Livy’s account embodied the model of the virtuous citizen who places the welfare of the republic above personal ambition. In early America, this same ideal shaped the image of George Washington and inspired the naming of Cincinnati, Ohio, a city founded in 1788 and proudly invoking the Roman exemplar of civic humility.