Departing PM references Cincinnatus, who turned to farming after leaving Rome – but then returned to power
In his departure speech, Boris Johnson likened himself to Cincinnatus a figure who “returned to his plough”, apparently suggesting he would return quietly to the backbenches.
However, what Johnson – a scholar of classics at the University of Oxford – did not include in his speech was that while the Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus is said to have left Rome for a bucolic existence on his farm, he was later called upon to return to Rome and lead as a dictator.
