# CHAPTER XXV —_Of the poverty of Cincinnatus and of many other Roman

CHAPTER XXV.—_Of the poverty of Cincinnatus and of many other Roman
Citizens.


Elsewhere I have shown that no ordinance is of such advantage to a
commonwealth, as one which enforces poverty on its citizens. And
although it does not appear what particular law it was that had this
operation in Rome (especially since we know the agrarian law to have
been stubbornly resisted), we find, as a fact, that four hundred years
after the city was founded, great poverty still prevailed there; and
may assume that nothing helped so much to produce this result as the
knowledge that the path to honours and preferment was closed to none,
and that merit was sought after wheresoever it was to be found; for
this manner of conferring honours made riches the less courted. In
proof whereof I shall cite one instance only.

When the consul Minutius was beset in his camp by the Equians, the
Roman people were filled with such alarm lest their army should be
destroyed, that they appointed a dictator, always their last stay in
seasons of peril. Their choice fell on Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, who
at the time was living on his small farm of little more than four
acres, which he tilled with his own hand. The story is nobly told by
Titus Livius where he says: “_This is worth listening to by those who
contemn all things human as compared with riches, and think that glory
and excellence can have no place unless accompanied by lavish wealth._”
Cincinnatus, then, was ploughing in his little field, when there
arrived from Rome the messengers sent by the senate to tell him he had
been made dictator, and inform him of the dangers which threatened the
Republic. Putting on his gown, he hastened to Rome, and getting
together an army, marched to deliver Minutius. But when he had defeated
and spoiled the enemy, and released Minutius, he would not suffer the
army he had rescued to participate in the spoils, saying, “_I will not
have you share in the plunder of those to whom you had so nearly fallen
a prey._” Minutius he deprived of his consulship, and reduced to be a
subaltern, in which rank he bade him remain till he had learned how to
command. And before this he had made Lucius Tarquininus, although
forced by his poverty to serve on foot, his master of the knights.

Here, then, we see what honour was paid in Rome to poverty, and how
four acres of land sufficed to support so good and great a man as
Cincinnatus. We find the same Poverty still prevailing in the time of
Marcus Regulus, who when serving with the army in Africa sought leave
of senate to return home that he might look after his farm which his
labourers had suffered to run to waste. Here again we learn two things
worthy our attention: first, the poverty of these men and their
contentment under it, and how their sole study was to gain renown from
war, leaving all its advantages to the State. For had they thought of
enriching themselves by war, it had given them little concern that
their fields were running to waste Further, we have to remark the
magnanimity of these citizens, who when placed at the head of armies
surpassed all princes in the loftiness of their spirit, who cared
neither for king nor for commonwealth, and whom nothing could daunt or
dismay; but who, on returning to private life, became once more so
humble, so frugal, so careful of their slender means, and so submissive
to the magistrates and reverential to their superiors, that it might
seem impossible for the human mind to undergo so violent a change.

This poverty prevailed down to the days of Paulus Emilius, almost the
last happy days for this republic wherein a citizen, while enriching
Rome by his triumphs, himself remained poor. And yet so greatly was
poverty still esteemed at this time, that when Paulus, in conferring
rewards on those who had behaved well in the war, presented his own
son-in-law with a silver cup, it was the first vessel of silver ever
seen in his house.

I might run on to a great length pointing out how much better are the
fruits of poverty than those of riches, and how poverty has brought
cities, provinces, and nations to honour, while riches have wrought
their ruin, had not this subject been often treated by others.