Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/770

Rh 752 CINCINNATUS. with orders tn take certain persons prisoners ; but secret instructijns were given to some young men who were sent with him, and the choice of whom was so managed as not to excite his suspicions. This step was taken because the ephors were igno- rant of the number of the conspirators. Accord- ingly, Cinadon was seized and tortured : letters were sent to Sparta mentioning the persons whom he had denounced as his confederates ; and it is a remarkable proof of the formidable character of the conspiracy that among them was Tisamenus, the soothsayer, a descendant of Tisamenus the Eleian, who had been admitted to the full franchise. (He- rod, ix. 33.) Cinadon was then brought to Sparta, and he and the other conspirators were led in irons through the streets, and scourged as they went, and 80 they were put to death. (Xen. Hell, iil 3, §§ 4—1 1 ; Aristot Pdit. V. 6. § 2.) [P. S.] CINAETHON {Kivadewv), of Lacedaemon, one of the most fertile of the Cyclic poets, is placed by Eusebius {Chron. 01. 3. 4) in B. c. 765. He was the author of: 1. Telegonia {Ti]jiyovla which gave the history of Odysseus from the point where the Odyssey breaks off to his death. (Euseb. I. c.) 2. Genealogies^ which are frequently re- ferred to by Pausanias (ii. 3. § 7, 18. § 5, iv. 2. § 1, viii. 53. § 2 ; comp. Schol. ad Horn. It. iii. 1 75), and which must consequently have been ex- tant in A. D. 175. 3. Herac/eia ('HpoKAcja), con- taining an account of the adventures of Heracles. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 1357.) 4. Oedipodia (OiStiroSia), the adventures of Oedipus, is ascrib- ed to Cinaethon in an ancient inscription (Heeren, in BiU. d. alien Literal, und Kunst^ voL iv. p. 57), but other authorities speak of the author as un- certain. (Paus. ix. 5. § 5 ; Schol. ad Eurip. Plioen. 1760.) 5. The Little Iliad ('lAidj niKpa) was also attributed by some to Cinaethon. (Schol. Vat. ad Eur. Troad. 822 ; comp. Welcker, Epis- dier Cydus, p. 243.) CINAETHUS or CYNAETHUS {Klvaieosox Kiiwiflos), of Chios, a rhapsodist, who was gene- rally supposed by the ancients to have been the author of the Homeric hymn to Apollo. He is said to have lived about the 69th Olympiad (b. c. 504), and to have been the first rhapsodist of the Homeric poems at Syracuse. (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. ii. 1.) This date, however, is much too low, as the Sicilians were acquainted with the Homeric poems long before. Welcker (Epischer Cyclus^ p. 243) therefore proposes to read Karei riiv €kttjv fj rrfv ivv6.Ti]v 'OA. instead of Kord. riv i^rjKoa-Trjv evvdrrfv *OA., and places him about e. c. 750. Cinaethus is charged by Eustathius (ad II. i. p. 16, ed. Polit.) with having interpolated the Homeric poems. (Fabric. Bibl. iSraec. i. p. 508.) CI'NCIA GENS, plebeian, of small importance. None of its members ever obtained the consulship: the first Cincius who gained any of the higher offices of the state was L. Cincius Alimentus, praetor in b. c. 209. The only cognomen of this gens is Alimkntus : those who occur without a surname are given under Cincius. CINCINNA'TUS, the name of a patrician family of the Quinctia gens. Some of the Quinctii, mentioned without a surname, probably belonged to this fiunily. 1. L. QUINCTIUS L. p. L. N. CiNCINNATUS, plays a conspicuous part in the civil and military transactions of the period in which he lived. He particularly distinguished himself as a violent oppo- CINCINNATUS. nent of the claims of the plebeians. He was born about B. c. 519. (Niebuhr, vol. ii. note 927.) The storj' of his having been reduced to poverty by the merciless exaction of the bail forfeited by the flight of his son Caeso (Liv. iii. 13) has no foundation. (Niebuhr, ii. p. 289.) In b. c. 460 he was ille- gally appointed consul suffectus in the room of P. Valerius. (Liv. iii. 19 ; Niebuhr, ii. p. 295.) Irri- tated by the death of his son Caeso, he proposed a most arbitrary attempt to oppose the enactment of the Terentilian law, but the design was abandoned. (Liv. iii. 20, 21.) Two years afterwards (b. c. 458), according to the common storj', Cincinnatus was appointed dic- tator, in order to deliver the Roman consul and army from the perilous position in which they had been placed by the Aequians. (Plin. H. N. xviii. 4 ; Cic. de Senect. 1 6, who however refers the story to his second dictatorship.) The story of the man- ner in which he effected this is given by Livy (iii. 26-29). The inconsistencies and impossibilities in the legend have been pointed out by Niebuhr (ii. pp. 266-269), who is inclined to regard it as altogether fabulous. During his dictatorship, in defiance of the tribunes, he held the comitia for the trial of Volscius, through whose evidence his son Caeso had been condemned, and who was charged with false witness. The accused went into voluntary exile. (Dion. Exc. de Sent. 22, p. 151, ed. R, ; Zonar. vii. 15.) In B. c. 450 Cin- cinnatus was an unsuccessful candidate for the oflSce of decemvir. (Liv. iii. 35.) In the disputes about the law for opening the consulship to the plebeians, we find him the advocate of milder mea- sures. (Liv. iv. 6.) In B.c. 439, at the age of eighty, he was a second time appointed dictator to oppose the alleged machinations of Spurius Maelius. (Liv. iv. 13 — 15.) This is the last event recorded of him. 2. L. QuiNCTius L. P. L. n. Cincinnatus, son of No. 1, was consular tribune in B. c. 438. In the following year he was appointed master of the horse by the dictator Aemilius Mamercus. (Liv. iv. 16, 17 ; Diod. xii. 38.) In 425 he was a second time elected consular tribune (Liv. iv. 35; Diod. xii. 81), and, according to Livy (iv. 44), a third time in 420. 3. T. QuiNCTius L. p. L. n. Cincinnatus Pkn- Nus, son of L. Cincinnatus, and son-in-law of A. Postumius Tubertus, was consul in B. c 431. In this year the Aequians and Volscians renewed their attacks, and encamped on mount Algidus. The danger was so pressing, that it was resolved to appoint a dictator. The opposition of the con- suls was overruled ; and Cincinnatus, to whose lot it fell to do so, named as dictator his father-in-law. Cincinnatus and Postumius then led separate ar- mies against the enemy, who sustained a severe defeat. (Liv. iv. 26-29.) Cincinnatus was again consul in 428 (Liv. iv. 30 ; Diod. xii. 75) and consular tribune in 426. (liiv. iv. 31 ; Diod. xii. 80.) With two of his colleagues he command- ed against the Veientians, but sustained a de- feat, on which Aemilius Mamercus was appoint- ed dictator. In the capacity of legatus he aided the dictator in the victory which he gained over the Veientians and Fidenatians. Having been subsequently brought to trial for his ill-conduct against the Veientians, he was acquitted on the ground of his services under the dictators, Postu- mius and Aemilius. (Liv. iv. 41.)