Boris Johnson and Cincinnatus
Boris Johnson has said in an interview with the London Evening Standard that he may only serve as Mayor of the capital for one term. Further to this, he has also given notice of what will no doubt be interpreted as his ambition to be Prime Minister.
Or has he? The Evening Standard reports,
Asked if he might serve as Prime Minister [Johnson] said: “If like Cincinnatus I were to be called from my plough, then obviously it would be wrong of me not to help out.”
Cincinnatus (c. 519 - 430 BC) was a former consul in the early Roman Republic who had fallen on hard times and was eking out an existence on his little farm when he was made dictator by the senate in response to the threat posed to Rome by the Aequian tribe with whom it was at war.
Cincinnatus is notable not so much because he accepted the senate's request to become dictator but because after defeating the Aequians he promptly gave up his dictatorial powers and returned to his farm (more on Wikipedia here).
Boris Johnson, therefore, is saying that if the Conservative Party fell upon hard times, he would be prepared to answer her call for a new leader to guide her to safety. Whether Boris would give up his leadership straight afterwards or, perhaps more to the point, the Tory party would wish to have him as leader in the first place is quite another matter.
At any rate, if Boris really was ambitious to become the leader of the Conservative Party, there are better dictators of Rome with whom he could compare himself (most notably, of course, Julius Caesar).
Paul Burgin, whom I thank for mentioning the Standard's article on Mars Hill, regards Boris's comments as 'thinly veiled warnings towards David Cameron', but if Boris Johnson is serious in comparing himself to Cincinnatus he would not be thinking of himself as a rival to Cameron but someone to whom the party could turn should Cameron have to leave the leadership. Cameron, in this case, is analagous to the consul and senate in Rome which gave its power up to the dictator.
