{"id":3711,"date":"2023-10-22T19:12:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T19:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2023-10-22T19:12:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T19:12:22","slug":"opinion-bojo-as-cincinnatus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=3711","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: BoJo as Cincinnatus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 14 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boris Johnson\u2019s name-drop of an ancient Roman statesman during his final speech as PM hinted at a future political return. As world-renown classics professor Mary Beard tells us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">If you are curious about Boris Johnson&#39;s reference to Cincinnatus in his goodbye speech &#8211; he was a 5th century BC Roman politician who saved the state from an invasion, then &#8211; job done &#8211; returned to his farm (&#39;to his plough&#39;). He was also an enemy of the people.<\/p>&mdash; mary beard (@wmarybeard) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wmarybeard\/status\/1567039650027413506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 6, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What Johnson has seemingly neglected here, despite his classical education at the University of Oxford, was that while Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus did indeed leave for a peaceful existence on the farm, he would later return to Rome again and rule as a dictator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"595\" height=\"284\" src=\"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/classics.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/classics.png 595w, https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/classics-300x143.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boris Johnson knows exactly what he\u2019s doing. A not-so-subtle brag, he is paralleling himself with the civic virtue and outstanding leadership so often associated with Cincinnatus. Simultaneously, he is playing up his controversial reputation: letting the classically educated draw the link between Cincinnatus and dictatorship, looking in and laughing at those left alarmed and triggered by his very clever joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With his furious resignation from the Commons in June, the fallout of \u2018Partygate\u2019 and a catastrophic premiership, a parliamentary return seems ruled out (for now), but we should still try to understand Johnson\u2019s populism. An intriguing aspect of this pertains to classical antiquity. Boris Johnson has been known to tweet Homer\u2019s <em>Iliad<\/em>, don togas, slip into Ancient Greek during UN speeches, and even try his hand at historical writing: (don\u2019t) see (the truly dreadful) <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/1280533.The_Dream_of_Rome\">The Dream of Rome<\/a><\/em>. For his efforts, Johnson has been kicked out of the movement <em><a href=\"https:\/\/classicsforall.org.uk\/\">Classics For All<\/a><\/em>, which looks to expand the teaching of Greek and Latin into lower-income schools, and was issued a <em>renuntiatio amicitiae <\/em> &#8211; a renunciation of friendship &#8211; by his former Oxford ancient history lecturer Oswyn Murray, something that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/oct\/06\/boris-johnson-classics-prime-minister-latin-greek\">&#8220;emperors sent to those they wanted to get rid of&#8221;<\/a>, ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/oct\/06\/boris-johnson-classics-prime-minister-latin-greek\">\u201can invitation to exile or suicide\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/(https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/oct\/06\/boris-johnson-classics-prime-minister-latin-greek)\">Charlotte Higgins\u2019 Guardian article<\/a> has done the work to expose Johnson\u2019s classical shortcomings. Having had the same education as the former PM, Higgins illuminates how Johnson approaches classics in the shallowest ways. Rather than using classical references to add strength or depth to his arguments, his uses of classics are egotistical flicks, and projections of classi(ci)st superiority. Johnson&#8217;s ultra-selective cleaving, a <a href=\"http:\/\/(https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/oct\/06\/boris-johnson-classics-prime-minister-latin-greek)\">\u201ccultural and political vandalism\u201d<\/a>, merely tries to present him as intelligent by disarming the uninitiated with the briefest flash of some ancient Roman Wikipedia page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Obviously, Johnson\u2019s bumbling is far from capturing the living energy of classics. When studying the discipline, students and scholars actively question and test the subject&#8217;s boundaries; asking why we valorise the ancient Mediterranean, bridging philology and language-learning with race, gender, art, philosophy, archaeology, politics, economics, reception, and other theoretical studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what has largely gone unrecognised is how &#8220;BoJo&#8221; has so fluidly deployed the classics. It cannot be said that the ancient past is objective. Throughout history, the classical world has been interpreted, manipulated, and distorted for countless political ends. Perhaps one of the most striking examples, the motif of the Olympic Flame &#8211; now a symbol of world unity, allowing all nations to compete together under the dazzling banner of the ancient games- originated in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, with Leni Riefenstahl\u2019s infamous propaganda piece <em>Olympia<\/em> depicting a distinctly Aryan male carrying \u2018Promethean fire\u2019 from Athens to Berlin, a blatant (mis)appropriation of classical culture by the Nazi political machine. Classics is never one thing. The same subject of reception could equally be world-uniting, or fascist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a way, Johnson\u2019s use of classics is therefore no less valid than any other. Is it factually inaccurate? Yes. Elitist? Yes. Reductionist? Yes. Eye-Rolling? Yes. But we need to go a little further than Higgins when she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/oct\/06\/boris-johnson-classics-prime-minister-latin-greek\">points out Johnson\u2019s classical manipulations<\/a>. Upon further investigation, the question arises of how classics feed into Johnson\u2019s peculiar brand of populism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clearly, Boris Johnson\u2019s love for a great, powerful, and beautiful ancient world fed into his charismatic leadership and appeals to nationalism. After all, mighty Rome would never have subjugated itself to the tyranny of an EU! At times, Johnson utilised his basic knowledge to pull out obscure ancient mavericks, reinforcing his own style of unconventional politics. Bewildering statements which simplified Rome\u2019s immensely complicated political history often directly validated Johnson\u2019s simplification of contemporary complexities (i.e., \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1YPXXDs4QZM\">Let\u2019s get Brexit done!<\/a>\u201d). Overall, Johnson\u2019s style of relatability, a dishevelled and eccentric persona, could be easily performed when using an obscure reference to jokingly imagine himself returning to Downing Street, reclaiming his emperorship, and establishing his own Roman tyranny <em>a la<\/em> Cincinnatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fact that Johnson might be an embarrassment to the graduates, scholars, and professors of classics is beside the point. We can\u2019t dismiss his appropriation as simply \u201clazy, tired, and utterly irrelevant\u201d. It certainly is! But this remains an active deployment of an imagined ancient world: for Johnson, the clich\u00e9 has become fact. Understanding how populists, like Johnson, are perfectly content to undermine their credibility in favour of charisma is crucial to help clear the brain fog so often caused by their messy ideologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/number10gov\/49474646626\">Boris Johnson Brexit Day<\/a>, 2020\/\/ <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/2.0\/\">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED<\/a><\/p>\n        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"3711\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div 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as PM hinted at a future political return. As world-renown classics <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":3712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,12,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british","category-latest","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}