Farmer Dictator Saves Rome

A man named Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was given absolute power as dictator to save Rome from an invasion by the Aequi, and he crushed the threat in just 16 days before resigning and going back to his small farm. According to Roman tradition, he left his plow in 458 BC when officials told him of the crisis, took command, surrounded the enemy on the Algidus, and forced their surrender.

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