Society of the Cincinnati
The Society of the Cincinnati is a fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of military officers who served in the Continental Army.
Portrait of General George Washington, President General of the Society of the Cincinnati, by Edward Savage, 1790 (Harvard Art Museums).
Cincinnatus Abandons the Plow to Dictate Laws to Rome, by Juan Antonio Ribera, (Museo del Prado).
The Verplanck House (present-day Mount Gulian), Fishkill, New York, Steuben's headquarters, where the Society was instituted May 13, 1783.
Insignia of the Society, c. 1783.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic.
The sculpture of Cincinnatus in Vienna's Schönbrunn Garden
Juan Antonio Ribera's c. 1806 Cincinnatus Leaves the Plough to Dictate Laws to Rome
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus by Denis Foyatier (1793–1863) Tuileries Garden, Paris
Beccafumi's Ahala, Master of the Horse, Presents the Dead Maelius to Cincinnatus, a fresco in Siena's Public Palace
