helped build. As a politician, he was a constituent congressman and senator at different stages of development of Colombia. Private life He retired from office when he considered the duties to his nation to be completely fulfilled, and settled in his hacienda "Ayalas", where he dedicated his time to agriculture and the care of his numerous offspring. He was a Knight of the Order of the Liberator and the only Colombian to-date to have received the honorable title of Cincinnatus, an honor that he shares with George Washington. NOTE: Cincinnatus: Epigraph used after L. Quinctius Cincinnatus -and generally used to describe a virtuous Roman patrician-, a model of civic virtue. Cincinnatus saved Rome from the Celtic invasions of the North. Although the Roman dictatorship is attached to his name, it was not really a dictatorship as we know it today. This used to be an office held for a set time retrofitted with all the powers while implying the officer's resignation after completion of their missions. The meaning of Cincinnatus when applied to Washington and Mariño is that of worthy, honest, generous, brave, noble, patrician of the nation. Essentially Primus Inter Pares. This rare gentleman, as active and courageous in war as he was modest and peaceful in the home of his elders, determined his life in such fashion that he subjected himself to an unchanging hygienic system whereby he managed to live for almost a century. He used to: get up at dawn, have a light breakfast at seven in the morning, walk great distances, eat sparingly at two in the afternoon, and go to bed at seven o'clock. He had no vices; he did not even drink spirits. He never uttered a lie, or any word that would hurt. A firm believer in God, he knew how to worship uprightly. Family Born in the Tunja city, Francisco Mariño y Soler was member of one of the most noble colonial families in Kingdom of New Granada which descends from one of the oldest and most noble lineages of Spain, the Mariño Lineage, undoubtedly related to most ancient, noble and royal lineages as stated in the history of the Grandees of Spain, The Mariño surname, has been associated through myth with mermaids: "Vilaxoán tiene a los Mariño, una familia de nobles vinculada a los seres mitológicos del mar, estrechamente relacionados con los mitos y las leyendas gallegas. El apellido de