Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, working a small farm…
465 BCE to 454 BCE
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, working a small farm at the time of a Roman crisis in which a consular army is surrounded by the Aequi on Mount Algidus, is appointed dictator at Rome in order to rescue the beleaguered force.
Cincinnatus allegedly defeats the enemy in a single day, celebrates a triumph in Rome, then, after seeing the city safely through the emergency, resigns the dictatorship and returns to his farm.