Need information on emperor Cincinnatus for feature film

[rishi851]

Hi everyone.

I am a film producer/director. My company has received an opportunity to develop a project on emperor Cincinnatus, and if all goes well we might be working with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. Looking on book sites and other online sources there aren't many books on him. Just to get a basic understanding of the character and subject is there any book you can guide me towards that is based on Emperor Cincinnatus?

Thank you, and much appreciated. 

PS: The only book in English I can find is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Cincinnatus-Citizen-Servant-Ideal-Legends-Legacy/dp/1401011268

[valexylix]

Hi.

First of all… Emperor Cincinnatus? Cincinnatus was not an emperor at all, on the contrary he is one of the most famous symbol of the republican value system, in which freedom played a big role.

He lived in the 5th century BC and he was an important politician/general (during the republican times political and military power went together), who became a “dictator” to face a military crisis. Dictator had not the bad meaning that we know now, instead it was a special role thought to better manage a crisis, usually during wars: so for 6 months his power was greater than the two consuls’ one and having just one man, rather than two, to head the army was obviously better when romans needed to take fast decisions. It was though an office that was held just in exremely dangerous situations and only for few months, because the romans were afraid that if a man had too much power for too much time, he could have tried to establish the monarchy again.

Cincinnatus was considered a model of virtue because after he defeted Rome’s enemies, he renounced the office after just two weeks or little more, even if he had the right to held the power for the whole 6 months. 

About what to read… I don’t know if there are some modern biographies; I just know that the ancient authors wrote about him, like Livy (Ab Urbe condita, III, 26-29). It’s not a lot and it would always be better to read something modern that could prevent us to accept fictional events as they were real, like sometimes happens with the ancient sources, but it’s better than nothing.