Pate Williams

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Weekend breakfast at the Echo.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@visegrad24 Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

@TracyLynnCohen you do not even need your own telescope, You can rent time on a bigger telescope if you want. pretty cool.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

@TracyLynnCohen @billyjhowell I looked into this a year or so ago...Pretty cool idea.

[Ancient History Hub @AncientHistorry]

In 458 BC, Rome was on the brink of collapse.

An invading army had trapped the Roman consul and his legion in a mountain pass. Panic spread through the city. The Senate did the only thing they could think of:

They sent messengers to find a 60-year-old farmer plowing his field.

His name was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He had once been a senator, then lost his fortune paying his son's bail. Now he worked his own four-acre plot just to feed his family.

When the Senate's envoys arrived, they found him sweating behind a plow. They asked him to put on his toga so they could deliver an official message.

The message: Rome was making him dictator. Absolute power. Total command of the army. No checks. No oversight. No term limit.

He accepted.

Within 16 days, Cincinnatus had raised an army, marched out, surrounded the enemy, and forced their surrender. The republic was saved.

He had legal authority to rule for six months. He could have stayed. He could have expanded his power. He could have done what every other ruler in human history did when handed unlimited control.

Instead, he resigned on day 16.

He took off the toga, walked back to his farm, and finished plowing the field he'd left half-done.

Twenty years later, when Rome faced another crisis, they called him back. He was 80 years old. He took command, crushed the conspiracy, and resigned again, this time after just 21 days.

He died poor. On his farm.

2,200 years later, when George Washington was offered a kingship after winning the American Revolution, he refused and went home to Mount Vernon. The reason he was hailed as "the American Cincinnatus" is because Europeans literally could not believe a man who had won would willingly give up power.

King George III, on hearing Washington would resign rather than rule, said: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

The lesson isn't that Cincinnatus was humble.

The lesson is that for most of human history, the people most qualified to lead were the ones who didn't want to. And the moment a society starts rewarding those who chase power instead of those who flee from it is the moment the republic begins to die.

Cincinnati, Ohio is named after him.

Most people who live there have no idea why.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Rocket launch and Italian food. Nice Wednesday.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Big breakfast day. Metro Diner

[Pate Williams @patewill]

It is starting to become a Wednesday habit.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

@TracyLynnCohen Scary, but it is practically the first thing I look for in the morning.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

A pizzeria in Bergamo, northern Italy

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson injured vs Bengals in NFL Week 13 - Cincinnati Enquirer
⁦@Enquirer⁩ predicting the future now? https://t.co/DX5NQLTfip

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Third time here this week. I might have a problem.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Game day at Metro Diner

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Back for more. Day 2 of the Echo.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Hot chicken day. Yippee!

[Pate Williams @patewill]

@oliviatiedmann Heat

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Very nice sunrise this morning.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Breakfast at the Echo. It is busy this morning earlier than usual.

[Pate Williams @patewill]

Heading home