# CHAPTER 25 — On the Poverty of Cincinnatus and Many Roman Citizens

We have explained elsewhere * that the most useful thing instituted in a free society is a way to keep the citizens poor. Although it is not apparent which institution had this effect in Rome, especially since the agrarian law encountered so much opposition, experience none the less reveals that 400 years after Rome had been founded, there existed great poverty in the city; nor can it be believed that any other institution was more important in producing this effect than the understanding that poverty did not close the path to any rank or honour whatsoever, and that exceptional ability was sought after wherever it made its home. This way of living made wealth less desirable. This is clearly evident, because when Minucius the consul along with his army was under siege by the Aequi, Rome was so fearful that this army would be lost that they had recourse to the creation of a dictator, the last remedy in critical situations. They appointed Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was at that time on his small farm, which he worked with his own hands. The event is celebrated by Livy with these golden words when he says: ‘Now I would solicit the particular attention of those numerous people who imagine that money is everything in this world, and that rank and ability are inseparable from wealth.’ * Cincinnatus was ploughing his little farm, which was no longer than four jugers, when the senate’s legates arrived from Rome to notify him of his election to the dictatorship and to show him the danger in which the Roman republic found itself. Donning his toga, he came to Rome, and after assembling an army, he marched off to free Minucius; and having routed and plundered the enemy and freed Minucius, he did not wish for the besieged army to share the spoils, speaking these words to them: ‘I do not want you to share in spoils taken from those who almost despoiled you’; and he deprived Minucius of the consulate and made him a legate, saying to him: ‘You will remain in this rank until you learn to know how to be consul.’ * He had made Lucius Tarquitius his master of horse, who was so poor he fought as a foot-soldier.

It is notable, so it is said, that in Rome honour was paid to poverty, and that, for a good and valiant man like Cincinnatus, four jugers of land were enough to feed him; this same poverty is also seen in the times of Marcus Regulus: when he was in Africa with the armies, he asked the senate for leave to return to take care of his farm which was being ruined by his workers. * Here, two things of great note can be seen: one, poverty, and how they were content with it; and the other, how winning honour from war was enough for those citizens, and how they left all profit to the public. Clearly, if Regulus had thought about making himself rich from the war, he would scarcely have troubled himself over the fact that his fields were being ruined. The second thing to consider is the generosity of spirit of those citizens, whose grandeur of heart rose above that of any prince when they were placed in command of an army; they did not overestimate kings or republics, nor did anything dismay or frighten them, and upon having later returned to being private citizens, they became frugal, humble, guardians of their own small pieces of land, obedient to the magistrates, and respectful to their superiors, so that it appears impossible for one and the same mind to undergo such a transformation. This poverty endured until the times of Paulus Emilius, which were practically the last happy times in that republic, where a citizen whose triumph enriched Rome nevertheless remained poor himself. And poverty was still so highly esteemed that, in honouring anyone who had conducted himself well in the war, Paulus gave to his son-in-law a silver cup, which was the first piece of silver in his home. It would be possible to demonstrate with a long discussion how much better are the fruits of poverty than of wealth and that poverty has honoured citizens, provinces, sects, while wealth has destroyed them, if this subject had not on many occasions been celebrated by other writers.