Mussolini gave Cincinnati a statue. Should it still be in Eden Park?

In 2015, The Enquirer wrote a story highlighting the fact that a statue in Eden Park was actually a gift to Cincinnati from Benito Mussolini.

Yes, the Italian dictator.

That story was posted to Cincinnati.com nearly five years ago and when it was tweeted out by a local reporter Monday, Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach responded with a tweet of his own.

It's time for it to be moved, Seelbach said. Maybe to a museum, he added. He said he was drafting a motion to have it removed from the park.

"Statues from the monster that was Benito Mussolini don't belong in our parks," Seelbach wrote. "Museums? Maybe. But not Cincinnati parks."

"A museum is a place for discourse and debate," Seelbach told The Enquirer. "A park is a place for recreation and we don't need to celebrate a gift from Hitler's strongest ally."

But after the story was posted, commenters slammed Seelbach's idea on social media. Some said they liked the statue and it should stay. Others said Cincinnati City Council should concentrate on more important issues.

Seelbach later said he would hold off.

“What I’ve learned in the last 24 hours is that while Mussolini’s acts have always been horrible, Cincinnati has found the power to redefine this sculpture to no longer reflect the actions of the man who gave it to us," Seelbach told The Enquirer. "Instead of introducing a motion to remove the sculpture, I’ll continue to listen and have conversations with all interested parties before considering any future decisions about the Capitoline Wolf sculpture in Eden Park.”

More: How did Mussolini get involved in a statue in Eden Park?

Here's how it all unfolded: Council's Neighborhoods Commitee was discussing whether McMicken Avenue should be renamed, in the wake of public discussion about his past.

Charles McMicken's donation of land to Cincinnati after his death was pivotal to the establishment of the University of Cincinnati, according to a Dec. 17 Enquirer article. But McMicken owned slaves and fathered children with one, and possibly two, enslaved women, according to the article.

UC recently took McMicken's name off the College of Arts and Sciences but not an iconic campus building.

That discussion prompted Cincinnati Business Courier reporter Chris Wetterich to tweet the old Enquirer story, where Seelbach then saw it.

The statue, according to the previous Enquirer story, is a replica of the famous Capitoline Wolf located in Rome. It depicts the mythical story of Rome, which says that when King Numitor was overthrown from power, the new oligarch ordered Numitor's grandsons to be discarded in the Tiber River. Left for dead, the two were carried to safety and nursed by a female wolf. The Lupa (Latin for she-wolf) cared for the babies until rescued by a shepherd named Faustulus. Once the twins reached adulthood, the duo reclaimed their father's throne and restored the crown.

Those twins are known as Romulus and Remus.

The statue was given to Cincinnati in 1931 to commemorate Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. the city's namesake, who was known for good governance.

Mussolini, leader of Italy and a father of fascism, saw himself as the present-day Cincinnatus in his vision of "New Rome," a park official told The Enquirer for the 2015 story. And as such, the dictator wanted to spread goodwill to places around the globe with Italian ties. Similar gestures were made to the cities of Rome in New York and Georgia.