History Main / Cincinnatus

Of course some {{Evil Overlord}}s gain their power by feigning this and crowning themselves emperor [[EvilChancellor when the time is right]] (that is if they are not already in power).

* In the TomClancy books, Jack Ryan is appointed Vice President, and soon after becomes President after Durling and most of the Congress are assassinated. He served out the remainder of Durling's term ''(who, in turn, was serving out Fowler's. Politicians in the Clancy-verse drop like flies)'' and was then reelected to a full term of his own. Halfway through his term, though, he resigned. Both to allow his best friend, Robby Jackson, to become the nation's first black President, and because he's accomplished all he wanted to do in office and wants to retire. After Jackson's own assassination ''(see?)'', Ryan is approached about running again but he declines, both for the same reasons that he left office in the first place and because he's been honestly heartbroken at his best friend's death and can't bring himself to go back to the position that was indirectly responsible.

** Slightly played straight when Dent retorts with: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Which is true when one considers that Rome's first dictator-for-life, Lucius Sulla, instituted the reforms necessary to avert civil war and preserve the Republic and then voluntarily resigned from the post, while Julius Caesar was assassinated soon after his appointment.
*** The Roman opinion of Sulla was mixed at best, and certainly wasn't considered a hero because regardless of stepping down his rise to power involved the proscription of his political opponents.
** Played fully straight with [[MorganFreeman Lucius Fox]] - Batman gives him the ability to destroy the mobile-phone spy network ''precisely'' because he knows Fox can be trusted to do so.

Partly because this is a [[SlidingScaleOFIdealismVersusCynicism highly idealistic]] trope, it's extremely rare in fiction, but notable for when it happens. However, it's TruthInTelevision: not only did it happen with Cincinnatus, but all succeeding Roman ''dictators'' ("he who dictates [orders]") also willingly gave up power before or at the end of the prescribed six months, up to and throughout the Punic Wars. It is only with Sulla, after the office had not been used for over a hundred years, that any Roman attempted to abuse the dictatorship. And even Sulla, while abusing his dictatorial power in many ways and having arranged to not have a time limit on his dictatorship, still stepped down after a year. The first ''successful'' attempt to defy this tradition came without the actual title of dictator, and resulted in the creation of the RomanEmpire.

* [[SubvertedTrope In 1940, faced with imminent defeat]], the [[WrongGenreSavvy French Assembly]] voted to give full powers to Maréchal Pétain, the WWI hero. [[SarcasmMode Yeah]], [[VichyRegime that]] turned out [[LesCollaborateurs well]].

Partly because this is a [[SlidingScaleOFIdealismVersusCynicism highly idealistic]] trope, it's extremely rare in fiction, but notable for when it happens. However, it's TruthInTelevision: not only did it happen with Cincinnatus, but all succeeding Roman ''dictators'' ("he who dictates [orders]") also willingly gave up power before or at the end of the prescribed six months, up to and throughout the Punic Wars. It is only with Sulla, after the office had not been used for over a hundred years, that any Roman attempted to abuse the dictatorship.

** Polk was before the two-term limit was imposed, but he didn't run for a second term, saying that there was no need as he'd already accomplished everything he wanted to in his first term. Rutherford B. Hayes also declined to run for a second term, keeping a promise he'd made shortly after being elected in highly suspicious circumstances (he won by ''one'' electoral vote and had lost the popular vote). Calvin Coolidge also declined to run again in 1928 despite having served for just under six years as President (similarly to Johnson, except that Coolidge had no term limits). All other one-term presidents (besides the ones that died in their first term) ran for a second term and either lost the election or were passed over by their party.

* The title character in the BellisariusSeries.

* Another historical example is GeorgeWashington, who was unanimously elected to two terms as U.S. president. When there was no law or even a custom about serving only that many, he declined to run for election again (in fact, he started the custom). He could have served even longer, but is considered a modern Cincinnatus for not doing so. Cincinnati is partly named in his honor also. Washington pulled this off once prior when he resigned his commission in the army and went back to private life for ''years'' before becoming president. On hearing that Washington planned to do so, King George III said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
** Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt both unsuccessfully ran for third terms. The precedent of not running for a third term was not broken until FDR succeeded in winning a third and then a fourth term at which point an amendment was made to enforce the two-term limit. However, one president in the post-FDR years declined to run when still eligible. Because JFK had already served more than half his term when he was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson was eligible to run for two full terms after serving the remainder of Kennedy's term, but declined to run for re-election after the first full term (though this was because his handling the VietnamWar had rendered him far too unpopular to win re-election).
*** Harry S Truman could have run for a third term but, like Johnson, was wildly unpopular at that point.

** [[MutantRancor This one]] has heard that Washington's officers after the revolution offered to start a coup d'etat to destroy the ''incredibly'' inefficient and ineffective government of the Articles of Confederation and install him as King of America. Washington's answer was, if I recall correctly, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "Do you think I expelled George III so that I could become George I?"]]
*** Yep. The Newburgh Conspiracy. Inspired by the fact that many soldiers hadn't been paid in years, despite promises from the highly ineffective Congress. George Washington popped up unannounced in the middle of the conspiracy. Sources say that it wasn't his speech that actually broke the mutiny, but his putting on reading glasses for the first time in public, with the words, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country." [[ManlyTears It's said there wasn't a dry eye left in the room.]]

* ''"If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve."''

** At least, the Turkish army ''thinks'' of itself as defending Turkey from the super-religious AK Parti. Since the big examples of Islamism include trying to lift a government ban on headscarves and the AKP has more female MPs & ministers than any previous parliament, we can take their claims with a pinch of salt.

** Cincinnati is specifically named after the Order of the Cincinnati, a military veterans' organization of which George Washington was a founding member. Many critics of the organization consider it ironic that despite ostensibly honoring the retirement of officers into private pursuits, the organization itself amassed a great deal of power after the Revolution and became the closest thing the country had to a landed gentry.

*** As noted below, the U.S. military to this day is allowed to stage a coup d'etat when the civilian government screws up enough that it becomes a national threat. As noted above, your sworn to defend the Constitution, not the Government it reins in.

*** Yep. The Newburgh Conspiracy. Inspired by the fact that many soldiers hadn't been paid in years, despite promises from the highly ineffective Congress. George Washington popped up unannounced in the middle of the conspiracy. Sources say that it wasn't his speech that actually broke the mutiny, but his putting on reading glasses for the first time in public, with the words, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country."

* In ''Cat City'' (Macskafogó, one of the best animation movies ever, for Hungarians) Grabovsky, the [[JamesBond Bond]]-Mouse was called back from retirement like Cincinnatus. The evil cat boss, spying on the meeting of mice leaders, heard the reference and thought that Cincinnatus was a new secret agent (in Hungarian, "Cincin" is the onomatopoeia for the sound mice make), so he sent his assistant Safranek to look him up. This led to Safranek being tortured, as he unwisely told his boss that Cincinnatus was a historical figure, which is common knowledge.

** With one exception, Marlenus of Ar, who was loved by his army and people and remained Ubar perpetually. He didn't just keep the title and power, he claimed it so completely he broke two precedents at once: making it hereditary and passing it to his daughter, the first Ubaress.

** YourMilageMayVary very, VERY much. Attaturk was far from a paragon of this trope, given the fact that he effectively ruled the country from the supposedly powerless Presidency pretty much for life and ruthlessly stamped out dissent and possible threats to his power (even constitutional, nonviolent threats) and it was a fairly open secret during his life that those "democratically elected officials" had to largely kowtow to his line in order to stand a chance in the elections or (if they were particularly irrating) avoid "disappearing." He did set a precedent for decentralized rule, but he also set one for the authorization of an activist military that would often react violently not merely against possible threats but also against those that displeased or otherwise threatened them (take a look at what tends to happen to Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek activists if you doubt this).

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Subtrope of ReluctantRuler. When played more cynically it may overlap with HonorBeforeReason.

When played more cynically it may overlap with HonorBeforeReason.

SubTrope of ReluctantRuler.

Of course some {{Evil Overlord}}s gain their power by feigning this and crowning themselves emperor when the time is right (that is if they are not already in power).

Often overlaps with CallToAgriculture, when the retired character decides to spend his free time with plants.