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CoriolanusCoriolanus, Part I.
Coriolanus, Part I.
The patrician house of the Marcii in Rome produced many men of
distinction, and among the rest, Ancus Marcius, grandson to Numa by his
daughter, and king after Tullus Hostilius. Of the same family were also
Publius and Quintus Marcius, which two conveyed into the city the best and
most abundant supply of water they have at Rome. As likewise Censorinus, who,
having been twice chosen censor by the people, afterwards himself induced them
to make a law that nobody should bear that office twice. But Caius Marcius, of
whom I now write, being left an orphan, and brought up under the widowhood of
his mother, has shown us by experience, that, although the early loss of a
father may be attended with other disadvantages, yet it can hinder none from
being either virtuous or eminent in the world, and that it is no obstacle to
true goodness and excellence; however bad men may be pleased to lay the blame
of their corruptions upon that misfortune and the neglect of them in their
minority. Nor is he less an evidence to the truth of their opinion, who
conceive that a generous and worthy nature without proper discipline, like a
rich soil without culture, is apt, with its better fruits, to produce also
much that is bad and faulty. While the force and vigor of his soul, and a
persevering constancy in all he undertook, led him successfully into many
noble achievements, yet, on the other side, also, by indulging the vehemence
of his passion, and through an obstinate reluctance to yield or accommodate
his humors and sentiments to those of people about him, he rendered himself
incapable of acting and associating with others. Those who saw with admiration
how proof his nature was against all the softnesses of pleasure, the hardships
of service and the allurements of gain, while allowing to that universal
firmness of his the respective names of temperance, fortitude, and justice,
yet, in the life of the citizen and the statesman, could not choose but be
disgusted at the severity and ruggedness of his deportment, and with his
overbearing, haughty, and imperious temper. Education and study, and the
favors of the muses, confer no greater benefit on those that seek them, than
these humanizing and civilizing lessons, which teach our natural qualities to
submit to the limitations prescribed by reason, and to avoid the wildness of
extremes.
Those were times at Rome in which the kind of worth was most esteemed
which displayed itself in military achievements; one evidence of which we find
in the Latin word for virtue, which is properly equivalent to manly courage.
As if valor and all virtue had been the same thing, they used as the common
term the name of the particular excellence. But Marcius, having a more
passionate inclination than any of that age for feats of war, began at once,
from his very childhood, to handle arms; and feeling that adventitious
implements and artificial arms would effect little, and be of small use to
such as have not their native and natural weapons well fixed and prepared for
service, he so exercised and inured his body to all sorts of activity and
encounter, that, besides the lightness of a racer, he had a weight in close
seizures and wrestlings with an enemy, from which it was hard for any to
disengage himself; so that his competitors at home in displays of bravery,
loath to own themselves inferior in that respect, were wont to ascribe their
deficiencies to his strength of body, which they said no resistance and no
fatigue could exhaust.
The first time he went out to the wars, being yet a stripling, was when
Tarquinius Superbus, who had been king of Rome and was afterwards expelled,
after many unsuccessful attempts, now entered upon his last effort, and
proceeded to hazard all as it were upon a single throw. A great number of the
Latins and other people of Italy joined their forces, and were marching with
him toward the city, to procure his restoration; not, however, so much out of
a desire to serve and oblige Tarquin, as to gratify their own fear and envy at
the increase of the Roman greatness, which they were anxious to check and
reduce. The armies met and engaged in a decisive battle, in the vicissitudes
of which, Marcius, while fighting bravely in the dictator`s presence, saw a
Roman soldier struck down at a little distance, and immediately stepped in and
stood before him, and slew his assailant. The general, after having gained the
victory, crowned him for this act, one of the first, with a garland of oaken
branches; it being the Roman custom thus to adorn those who had saved the life
of a citizen; whether that the law intended some special honor to the oak, in
memory of the Arcadians, a people the oracle had made famous by the name of
acorn - eaters;^1 or whether the reason of it was because they might easily,
and in all places where they fought, have plenty of oak for that purpose; or
finally, whether the oaken wreath, being sacred to Jupiter, the guardian of
the city, might, therefore, be thought a proper ornament for one who preserved
a citizen. And the oak, in truth, is the tree which bears the most and the
prettiest fruit of any that grow wild, and is the strongest of all that are
under cultivation; its acorns were the principal diet of the first mortals,
and the honey found in it gave them drink. I may say, too, it furnished fowl
and other creatures as dainties, in producing mistletoe for birdlime to
ensnare them. In this battle, meantime, it is stated that Castor and Pollux
appeared, and, immediately after the battle, were seen at Rome just by the
fountain where their temple now stands, with their horses foaming with sweat,
and told the news of the victory to the people in the Forum. The fifteenth of
July, being the day of this conquest, became consequently a solemn holiday
sacred to the Twin Brothers.
[Footnote 1: "You ask me for Arcadia," said the oracle to the Spartans, when
designing their early invasion. "You ask a great thing, I will not grant it.
There are in Arcadia many acorn - eaters ready to prevent you. I, however,
grudge you nothing. I grant you to dance about Tegea, and measure out the fair
plain by the line."]
It may be observed, in general, that when young men arrive early at fame
and repute, if they are of a nature but slightly touched with emulation, this
early attainment is apt to extinguish their thirst and satiate their small
appetite; whereas the first distinctions of more solid and weighty characters
do but stimulate and quicken them and take them away, like a wind, in the
pursuit of honor; they look upon these marks and testimonies to their virtue
not as a recompense received for what they have already done, but as pledge
given by themselves of what they will perform hereafter, ashamed now to
forsake or underlive the credit they have won, or, rather, not to exceed and
obscure all that is gone before by the lustre of their following actions.
Marcius, having a spirit of this noble make, was ambitious always to surpass
himself, and did nothing, how extraordinary soever, but he thought he was
bound to outdo it at the next occasion; and ever desiring to give continual
fresh instances of his prowess, he added one exploit to another, and heaped up
trophies upon trophies, so as to make it matter of contest also among his
commanders, the later still vying with the earlier, which should pay him the
greatest honor and speak highest in his commendation. Of all the numerous wars
and conflicts in those days, there was not one from which he returned without
laurels and rewards. And, whereas others made glory the end of their daring,
the end of his glory was his mother`s gladness; the delight she took to hear
him praised and to see him crowned, and her weeping for joy in his embraces,
rendered him, in his own thoughts, the most honored and most happy person in
the world. Epaminondas is similarly said to have acknowledged his feeling,
that it was the greatest felicity of his whole life that his father and mother
survived to hear of his successful generalship and his victory at Leuctra. And
he had the advantage, indeed, to have both his parents partake with him, and
enjoy the pleasure of his good fortune. But Marcius, believing himself bound
to pay his mother Volumnia all that gratitude and duty which would have
belonged to his father, had he also been alive, could never satiate himself in
his tenderness and respect to her. He took a wife, also, at her request and
wish, and continued, even after he had children, to live still with his
mother, without parting families.
The repute of his integrity and courage had, by this time, gained him a
considerable influence and authority in Rome, when the senate, favoring the
wealthier citizens, began to be at variance with the common people, who made
sad complaints of the rigorous and inhuman usage they received from the money
- lenders. For as many as were behind with them, and had any sort of property,
they stripped of all they had, by the way of pledges and sales; and such as
through former exactions were reduced already to extreme indigence, and had
nothing more to be deprived of, these they led away in person and put their
bodies under constraint, notwithstanding the scars and wounds that they could
show in attestation of their public services in numerous campaigns; the last
of which had been against the Sabines, which they undertook upon a promise
made by their rich creditors that they would treat them with more gentleness
for the future, Marcus Valerius, the consul, having, by order from the senate,
engaged also for the performance of it. But when, after they had fought
courageously and beaten the enemy, there was, nevertheless, no moderation or
forbearance used, and the senate also professed to remember nothing of that
agreement, and sat without testifying the least concern to see them dragged
away like slaves and their goods seized upon as formerly, there began now to
be open disorders and dangerous meetings in the city; and the enemy, also,
aware of the popular confusion, invaded and laid waste the country. And when
the consuls now gave notice, that all who were of an age to bear arms should
make their personal appearance, but found no one regard the summons, the
members of the government, then coming to consult what course should be taken,
were themselves again divided in opinion: some thought it most advisable to
comply a little in favor of the poor, by relaxing their overstrained rights,
and mitigating the extreme rigor of the law, while others withstood this
proposal; Marcius in particular, with more vehemence than the rest, alleging
that the business of money on either side was not the main thing in question,
urged that this disorderly proceeding was but the first insolent step towards
open revolt against the laws, which it would become the wisdom of the
government to check at the earliest moment.
There had been frequent assemblies of the whole senate, within a small
compass of time, about this difficulty, but without any certain issue; the
poor commonalty, therefore, perceiving there was likely to be no redress of
their grievances, on a sudden collected in a body, and, encouraging each other
in their resolution, forsook the city with one accord, and seizing the hill
which is now called the Holy Mount, sat down by the river Anio, without
committing any sort of violence or seditious outrage, but merely exclaiming,
as they went along, that they had this long time past been, in fact expelled
and excluded from the city by the cruelty of the rich; that Italy would
everywhere afford them the benefit of air and water and a place of burial,
which was all they could expect in the city, unless it were, perhaps, the
privilege of being wounded and killed in time of war for the defence of their
creditors. The senate, apprehending the consequences, sent the most moderate
and popular men of their own order to treat with them.
Menenius Agrippa, their chief spokesman, after much entreaty to the
people, and much plain speaking on behalf of the senate, concluded, at length,
with the celebrated fable. "It once happened," he said, "that all the other
members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only
idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to
hardships and the expense of much labor to supply and minister to its
appetites. The stomach, however, merely ridiculed the silliness of the
members, who appeared not to be aware that the stomach certainly does receive
the general nourishment, but only to return it again, and redistribute it
amongst the rest. Such is the case," he said, "ye citizens, between you and
the senate. The counsels and plans that are there duly digested, convey and
secure to all of you, your proper benefit and support."
A reconciliation ensued, the senate acceding to the request of the people
for the annual election of five protectors for those in need of succor, the
same that are now called the tribunes of the people; and the first two they
pitched upon were Junius Brutus and Sicinnius Vellutus, their leaders in the
secession.
The city being thus united, the commons stood presently to their arms,
and followed their commanders to the war with great alacrity. As for Marcius,
though he was not a little vexed himself to see the populace prevail so far,
and gain ground of the senators, and might observe many other patricians have
the same dislike of the late concessions, he yet besought them not to yield at
least to the common people in the zeal and forwardness they now showed for
their country`s service, but to prove that they were superior to them, not so
much in power and riches, as in merit and worth.
The Romans were now at war with the Volscian nation, whose principal city
was Corioli; when, therefore, Cominius the consul had invested this important
place, the rest of the Volscians, fearing it would be taken, mustered up
whatever force they could from all parts, to relieve it, designing to give the
Romans battle before the city, and so attack them, on both sides. Cominius, to
avoid this inconvenience, divided his army, marching himself with one body to
encounter the Volscians on their approach from without, and leaving Titus
Lartius, one of the bravest Romans of his time, to command the other and
continue the siege. Those within Corioli, despising now the smallness of their
number, made a sally upon them, and prevailed at first, and pursued the Romans
into their trenches. Here it was that Marcius, flying out with a slender
company, and cutting those in pieces that first engaged him, obliged the other
assailants to slacken their speed; and then, with loud cries, called upon the
Romans to renew the battle. For he had, what Cato thought a great point in a
soldier, not only strength of hand and stroke, but also a voice and look that
of themselves were a terror to an enemy. Divers of his own party now rallying
and making up to him, the enemies soon retreated; but Marcius, not content to
see them draw off and retire, pressed hard upon the rear, and drove them, as
they fled away in haste, to the very gates of their city; where, perceiving
the Romans to fall back from their pursuit, beaten off by the multitude of
darts poured in upon them from the walls, and that none of his followers had
the hardiness to think of falling in pellmell among the fugitives and so
entering a city full of enemies in arms, he, nevertheless, stood and urged
them to the attempt, crying out, that fortune had now set open Corioli, not so
much to shelter the vanquished, as to receive the conquerors. Seconded by a
few that were willing to venture with him, he bore along through the crowd,
made good his passage, and thrust himself into the gate through the midst of
them, nobody at first daring to resist him. But when the citizens, on looking
about, saw that a very small number had entered, they now took courage, and
came up and attacked them. A combat ensued of the most extraordinary
description, in which Marcius, by strength of hand, and swiftness of foot, and
daring of soul, overpowering every one that he assailed, succeeded in driving
the enemy to seek refuge, for the most part, in the interior of the town,
while the remainder submitted, and threw down their arms; thus affording
Lartius abundant opportunity to bring in the rest of the Romans with ease and
safety.
Corioli being thus surprised and taken, the greater part of the soldiers
employed themselves in spoiling and pillaging it, while Marcius indignantly
reproached them, and exclaimed that it was a dishonorable and unworthy thing,
when the consul and their fellow - citizens had now perhaps encountered the
other Volscians, and were hazarding their lives in battle, basely to misspend
the time in running up and down for booty, and, under a pretence of enriching
themselves, keep out of danger. Few paid him any attention, but, putting
himself at the head of these, he took the road by which the consul`s army had
marched before him, encouraging his companions, and beseeching them, as they
went along, not to give up, and praying often to the gods, too, that he might
be so happy as to arrive before the fight was over, and come seasonably up to
assist Cominius, and partake in the peril of the action.
It was customary with the Romans of that age, when they were moving into
battle array, and were on the point of taking up their bucklers, and girding
their coats about them, to make at the same time an unwritten will, or verbal
testament, and to name who should be their heirs, in the hearing of three or
four witnesses. In this precise posture Marcius found them at his arrival, the
enemy being advanced within view.
They were not a little disturbed by his first appearance, seeing him
covered with blood and sweat, and attended with a small train; but when he
hastily made up to the consul with gladness in his looks, giving him his hand,
and recounting to him how the city had been taken, and when they saw Cominius
also embrace and salute him, every one took fresh heart; those that were near
enough hearing, and those that were at a distance guessing, what had happened;
and all cried out to led to battle. First, however, Marcius desired to know of
him how the Volscians had arrayed their army, and where they had placed their
best men, and on his answering that he took the troops of the Antiates in the
centre to be their prime warriors, that would yield to none in bravery, "Let
me then demand and obtain of you," said Marcius, "that we may be posted
against them." The consul granted the request, with much admiration of his
gallantry. And when the conflict began by the soldiers darting at each other,
and Marcius sallied out before the rest, the Volscians opposed to him were not
able to make head against him; wherever he fell in, he broke their ranks, and
made a lane through them; but the parties turning again, and enclosing him on
each side with their weapons, the consul, who observed the danger he was in,
despatched some of the choicest men he had for his rescue. The conflict then
growing warm and sharp about Marcius, and many falling dead in a little space,
the Romans bore so hard upon the enemies, and pressed them with such violence,
that they forced them at length to abandon their ground, and to quit the
field. And, going now to prosecute the victory, they besought Marcius, tired
out with his toils, and faint and heavy through the loss of blood, that he
would retire to the camp. He replied, however, that weariness was not for
conquerors, and joined with them in the pursuit. The rest of the Volscian army
was in like manner defeated, great numbers killed, and no less taken captive.
The day after, when Marcius, with the rest of the army, presented
themselves at the consul`s tent, Cominius rose, and having rendered all due
acknowledgment to the gods for the success of that enterprise, turned next to
Marcius, and first of all delivered the strongest encomium upon his rare
exploits, which he had partly been an eyewitness of himself, in the late
battle, and had partly learned from the testimony of Lartius. And then he
required him to choose a tenth part of all the treasure and horses and
captives that had fallen into their hands, before any division should be made
to others; besides which, he made him the special present of a horse with
trappings and ornaments, in honor of his actions. The whole army applauded;
Marcius, however, stepped forth, and declaring his thankful acceptance of the
horse, and his gratification at the praises of his general, said, that all
other things, which he could only regard rather as mercenary advantages than
any significations of honor, he must waive, and should be content with the
ordinary proportion of such rewards. "I have only," said he, "one special
grace to beg, and this I hope you will not deny me. There was a certain
hospitable friend of mine among the Volscians, a man of probity and virtue,
who is become a prisoner, and from former wealth and freedom is now reduced to
servitude. Among his many misfortunes let my intercession redeem him from the
one of being sold as a common slave." Such a refusal and such a request on the
part of Marcius were followed with yet louder acclamations; and he had many
more admirers of this generous superiority to avarice, than of the bravery he
had shown in battle. The very persons who conceived some envy and despite to
see him so specially honored, could not but acknowledge, that one who so nobly
could refuse reward, was beyond others worthy to receive it; and were more
charmed with that virtue which made him despise advantage, than with any of
those former actions that had gained him his title to it. It is the higher
accomplishment to use money well than to use arms; but not to need it is more
noble than to use it.
When the noise of approbation and applause ceased, Cominius, resuming,
said, "It is idle, fellow - soldiers, to force and obtrude those other gifts
of ours on one who is unwilling to accept them; let us, therefore, give him
one of such a kind that he cannot well reject it; let us pass a vote, I mean,
that he shall hereafter be called Coriolanus, unless you think that his
performance at Corioli has itself anticipated any such resolution." Hence,
therefore, he had his third name of Coriolanus, making it all plainer that
Caius was a personal proper name, and the second, or surname, Marcius, one
common to his house and family; the third being a subsequent addition which
used to be imposed either from some particular act or fortune, bodily
characteristics, or good quality of the bearer. Just as the Greeks, too, gave
additional names in old time, in some cases from some achievement, Soter, for
example, and Callinicus; or personal appearance, as Physcon and Grypus; good
qualities, Euergetes and Philadelphus; good fortune, Eudaemon, the title of
the second Battus.^2 Several monarchs have also had names given them in
mockery, as Antigonus was called Doson, and Ptolemy, Lathyrus. This sort of
title was yet more common among the Romans. One of the Metelli was surnamed
Diadematus, because he walked about for a long time with a bandage on his
head, to conceal a scar; and another, of the same family, got the name of
Celer, from the rapidity he displayed in giving a funeral entertainment of
gladiators within a few days after his father`s death, his speed and energy in
doing which was thought extraordinary. There are some, too, who even at this
day take names from certain casual incidents at their nativity; a child that
is born when his father is away from home is called Proculus; or Postumus, if
after his decease; and when twins come into the world, and one dies at the
birth, the survivor has the name of Vopiscus. From bodily peculiarities they
derive not only their Syllas and Nigers, but their Caeci and Claudii; wisely
endeavoring to accustom their people not to reckon either the loss of sight,
or any other bodily misfortune, as a matter of disgrace to them, but to answer
to such names without shame, as if they were really their own. But this
discussion better befits another place.
[Footnote 2: Soter, Saviour; Callinicus, Victorius; Physcon, Fat - paunch;
Grypus, Hook - nose; Euergetes, Benefactro; Philadelphus, Brotherly; Eudaemon,
Fortunate; Doson, Going - to - give; Lathyrus is not certain.]
The war against the Volscians was no sooner at an end, than the popular
orators revived domestic troubles, and raised another sedition, without any
new cause of complaint or just grievance to proceed upon, but merely turning
the very mischiefs that unavoidably ensued from their former contests into a
pretext against the patricians. The greatest part of their arable land had
been left unsown and without tillage, and the time of war allowing them no
means or leisure to import provision from other countries, there was an
extreme scarcity. The movers of the people then observing, that there was no
corn to be bought, and that, if there had been, they had no money to buy it,
began to calumniate the wealthy with false stories, and whisper it about, as
if they, out of malice, had purposely contrived the famine. Meanwhile, there
came an embassy from the Velitrani, proposing to deliver up their city to the
Romans, and desiring they would send some new inhabitants to people it, as a
late pestilential disease had swept away so many of the natives, that there
was hardly a tenth part remaining of their whole community. This necessity of
the Velitrani was considered by all more prudent people as most opportune in
the present state of affairs; since the dearth made it needful to ease the
city of its superfluous members, and they were in hope also, at the same time,
to dissipate the gathering sedition by ridding themselves of the more violent
and heated partisans, and discharging, so to say, the elements of disease and
disorder in the state. The consuls, therefore, singled out such citizens to
supply the desolation at Velitrae, and gave notice to others, that they should
be ready to march against the Volscians, with the politic design of preventing
intestine broils by employment abroad, and in the hope, that when rich as well
as poor, plebeians and patricians, should be mingled again in the same army
and the same camp, and engage in one common service for the public, it would
mutually dispose them to reconciliation and friendship.
But Sicinnius and Brutus, the popular orators, interposed, crying out,
that the consuls disguised the most cruel and barbarous action in the world
under that mild and plausible name of a colony, and were simply precipitating
so many poor citizens into a mere pit of destruction, bidding them settle down
in a country where the air was charged with disease, and the ground covered
with dead bodies, and expose themselves to the evil influence of a strange and
angered deity. And then, as if it would not satisfy their hatred to destroy
some by hunger, and offer others to the mercy of a plague, they must proceed
to involve them also in a needless war of their own making, that no calamity
might be wanting to complete the punishment of the citizens for refusing to
submit to that of slavery to the rich.
By such addresses, the people were so possessed, that none of them would
appear upon the consular summons to be enlisted for the war; and they showed
entire aversion to the proposal for a new plantation; so that the senate was
at a loss what to say or do. But Marcius, who began now to bear himself higher
and to feel confidence in his past actions, conscious, too, of the admiration
of the best and greatest men of Rome, openly took the lead in opposing the
favorers of the people. The colony was despatched to Velitrae, those that were
chosen by lot being compelled to depart upon high penalties; and when they
obstinately persisted in refusing to enroll themselves for the Volscian
service, he mustered up his own clients, and as many others as could be
wrought upon by persuasion, and with these made an inroad into the territories
of the Antiates, where, finding a considerable quantity of corn, and
collecting much booty, both of cattle and prisoners, he reserved nothing for
himself in private, but returned safe to Rome, while those that ventured out
with him were seen laden with pillage, and driving their prey before them.
This sight filled those that had stayed at home with regret for their
perverseness, with envy at their fortunate fellow - citizens, and with
feelings of dislike to Marcius, and hostility to his growing reputation and
power, which might probably be used against the popular interest.
Not long after he stood for the consulship; when, however, the people
began to relent and incline to favor him, being sensible what a shame it would
be to repulse and affront a man of his birth and merit, after he had done them
so many signal services. It was usual for those who stood for offices among
them to solicit and address themselves personally to the citizens, presenting
themselves in the forum with the toga on alone, and no tunic under it; either
to promote their supplications by the humility of their dress, or that such as
had received wounds might more readily display those marks of their fortitude.
Certainly, it was not out of suspicion of bribery and corruption that they
required all such petitioners for their favor to appear ungirt and open,
without any close garment; as it was much later, and many ages after this,
that buying and selling crept in at their elections, and money became an
ingredient in the public suffrages; proceeding thence to attempt their
tribunals, and even attack their camps, till, by hiring the valiant, and
enslaving iron to silver, it grew master of the state and turned their
commonwealth into a monarchy. For it was well and truly said that the first
destroyer of the liberties of a people is he who first gave them bounties and
largesses. At Rome the mischief seems to have stolen secretly in, and by
little and little, not being at once discerned and taken notice of. It is not
certainly known who the man was that did there first either bribe the
citizens, or corrupt the courts; whereas, in Athens, Anytus, the son of
Anthemion, is said to have been the first that gave money to the judges, when
on his trial, toward the latter end of the Peloponnesian war, for leteing the
fort of Pylos fall into the hands of the enemy; in a period while the pure and
golden race of men were still in possession of the Roman forum.
Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was showing the scars
and gashes that were still visible on his body, from the many conflicts in
which he had signalized himself during a service of seventeen years together
they were, so to say, put out of countenance at this display of merit, and
told one another that they ought in common modesty to create him consul. But
when the day of election was now come, and Marcius appeared in the forum, with
a pompous train of senators attending him, and the patricians all manifested
greater concern, and seemed to be exerting greater efforts than they had ever
done before on the like occasion, the commons then fell off again from the
kindness they had conceived for him, and in the place of their late
benevolence, began to feel something of indignation and envy; passions
assisted by the fear they entertained, that if a man of such aristocratic
temper, and so influential among the patricians, should be invested with the
power which that office would give him, he might employ it to deprive the
people of all that liberty which was yet left them. In conclusion, they
rejected Marcius. Two other names were announced, to the great mortification
of the senators, who felt as if the indignity reflected rather upon themselves
than on Marcius. He, for his part, could not bear the affront with any
patience. He had always indulged his temper, and had regarded the proud and
contentious element of human nature as a sort of nobleness and magnanimity;
reason and discipline had not imbued him with that solidity and equanimity
which enters so largely into the virtues of the statesman. He had never
learned how essential it is for any one who undertakes public business, and
desires to deal with mankind, to avoid above all things that self - will,
which, as Plato says, belongs to the family of solitude; and to pursue, above
all things, that capacity so generally ridiculed, of submission to ill -
treatment. Marcius, straightforward and direct, and possessed with the idea
that to vanquish and overbear all opposition is the true part of bravery, and
never imagining that it was the weakness and womanishness of his nature that
broke out, so to say, in these ulcerations of anger, retired, full of fury and
bitterness against the people. The young patricians, too, all that were
proudest and most conscious of their noble birth, had always been devoted to
his interest, and, adhering to him now, with a fidelity that did him no good,
aggravated his resentment with the expression of their indignation and
condolence. He had been their captain, and their willing instructor in the
arts of war, when out upon expeditions, and their model in that true emulation
and love of excellence which makes men extol, without envy or jealousy, each
other`s brave achievements.
In the midst of these distempers a large quantity of corn reached Rome, a
great part bought up in Italy, but an equal amount sent as a present from
Syracuse, from Gelo, then reigning there. Many began now to hope well of their
affairs, supposing the city, by this means, would be delivered at once, both
of its want and discord. A council, therefore, being presently held, the
people came flocking about the senate - house, eagerly awaiting the issue of
that deliberation, expecting that the market - prices would now be less cruel,
and that what had come as gift would be distributed as such. There were some
within who so advised the senate; but Marcius, standing up, sharply inveighed
against those who spoke in favor of the multitude, calling them flatterers of
the rabble, traitors to the nobility, and alleging, that, by such
gratifications, they did but cherish those ill seeds of boldness and petulance
that had been sown among the people, to their own prejudice, which they should
have done well to observe and stifle at their first appearance, and not have
suffered the plebeians to grow so strong, by granting them magistrates of such
authority as the tribunes. They were, indeed, even now formidable to the
state, since every thing they desired tas granted them; no constraint was put
on their will; they refused obedience to the consuls, and, overthrowing all
law and magistracy, gave the title of magistrate to their private factious
leaders. "When things are come to such a pass, for us to sit here and decree
largesses and bounties for them, like those Greeks where the populace is
supreme and absolute, what would it be else," said he, "but to take their
disobedience into pay, and maintain it for the common ruin of us all? They
certainly cannot look upon these liberalities as a reward of public service,
which they know they have so often deserted; nor yet of those secessions, by
which they openly renounced their country; much less of the calumnies and
slanders they have been always so ready to entertain against the senate; but
will rather conclude that a bounty which seems to have no other visible cause
of reason, must needs be the effect of our fear and flattery; and will,
therefore, set no limit to their disobedience, nor ever cease from
disturbances and sedition. Concession is mere madness; if we have any wisdom
and resolution at all, we shall, on the contrary, never rest till we have
recovered from them that tribunician power they have extorted from us; as
being a plain subversion of the consulship, and a perpetual ground of
separation in our city, that is no longer one, as heretofore, but has in this
received such a wound and rupture, as is never likely to close and unite
again, or suffer us to be of one mind, and to give over inflaming our
distempers, and being torment to each other."
Marcius, with much more to this purpose, succeeded, to an extraordinary
degree, in inspiring the younger men with the same furious sentiments, and had
almost all the wealthy on his side, who cried him up as the only person their
city had, superior alike to force and flattery; some of the older men,
however, opposed him, suspecting the consequences. As, indeed, there came no
good of it; for the tribunes, who were present, perceiving how the proposal of
Marcius took, ran out into the crowd with exclamations, calling on the
plebeians to stand together, and come in to their assistance. The assembly met
and soon became tumultuous. The sum of what Marcius had spoken, having been
reported to the people, excited them to such fury, that they were ready to
break in upon the senate. The tribunes prevented this, by laying all the blame
on Coriolanus, whom, therefore, they cited by their messengers to come before
them, and defend himself. And when he contemptuously repulsed the officers who
brought him the summons, they came themselves, with the Aediles, or overseers
of the market, proposing to carry him away by force, and, accordingly, began
to lay hold on his person. The patricians, however, coming to his rescue, not
only thrust off the tribunes, but also beat the Aediles, that were their
seconds in the quarrel; night, approaching, put an end to the contest. But as
soon as it was day, the consuls, observing the people to be highly
exasperated, and that they ran from all quarters and gathered in the forum,
were afraid for the whole city, so that, convening the senate afresh, they
desired them to advise how they might best compose and pacify the incensed
multitude by equitable language and indulgent decrees; since, if they wisely
considered the state of things, they would find that it was no time to stand
upon terms of honor, and a mere point of glory; such a critical conjuncture
called for gentle methods, and for temperate and humane counsels. The
majority, therefore, of the senators giving way, the consuls proceeded to
pacify the people in the best manner they were able, answering gently to such
imputations and charges as had been cast upon the senate, and using much
tenderness and moderation in the admonitions and reproofs they gave them. On
the point of the price of provisions, they said, there should be no difference
at all between them. When a great part of the commonalty was grown cool, and
it appeared from their orderly and peaceful behavior that they had been very
much appeased by what they had heard, the tribunes, standing up, declared, in
the name of the people, that since the senate was pleased to act soberly and
do them reason, they, likewise, should be ready to yield in all that was fair
and equitable on their side; they must insist, however, that Marcius should
give in his answer to the several charges as follows: first, could he deny
that he instigated the senate to overthrow the government and annul the
privileges of the people? and, in the next place, when called to account for
it, did he not disobey their summons? and, lastly, by the blows and other
public affronts to the Aediles, had he not done all he could to commence a
civil war?
These articles were brought in against him, with a design either to
humble Marcius, and show his submission, if, contrary to his nature, he should
now court and sue the people; or, if he should follow his natural disposition,
which they rather expected from their judgment of his character, then that he
might thus make the breach final between himself and the people.
He came, therefore, as it were, to make his apology, and clear himself;
in which belief the people kept silence, and gave him a quiet hearing. But
when, instead of the submissive and deprecatory language expected from him, he
began to use not only an offensive kind of freedom, seeming rather to accuse
than apologize, but, as well by the tone of his voice as the air of his
countenance, displayed a security that was not far from disdain and contempt
of them, the whole multitude then became angry, and gave evident signs of
impatience and disgust; and Sicinnius, the most violent of the tribunes, after
a little private conference with his colleagues, proceeded solemnly to
pronounce before them all, that Marcius was condemned to die by the tribunes
of the people, and bid the Aediles take him to the Tarpeian rock, and without
delay throw him headlong from the precipice. When they, however, in compliance
with the order, came to seize upon his body, many, even of the plebeian party,
felt it to be a horrible and extravagant act; the patricians, meantime, wholly
beside themselves with distress and horror, hurried up with cries to the
rescue; and while some made actual use of their hands to hinder the arrest,
and, surrounding Marcius, got him in among them, others, as in so great a
tumult no good could be done by words, stretched out theirs, beseeching the
multitude that they would not proceed to such furious extremities; and at
length, the friends and acquaintance of the tribunes, wisely perceiving how
impossible it would be to carry off Marcius to punishment without much
bloodshed and slaughter of the nobility, persuaded them to forbear every thing
unusual and odious; not to despatch him by any sudden violence, or without
regular process, but refer the cause to the general suffrage of the people.
Sicinnius then, after a little pause, turning to the patricians, demanded what
their meaning was, thus forcibly to rescue Marcius out of the people`s hands,
as they were going to punish him; when it was replied by them, on the other
side, and the question put, "Rather, how came it into your minds, and what is
it you design, thus to drag one of the worthiest men of Rome, without trial,
to a barbarous and illegal execution?" "Very well," said Sicinnius, "you shall
have no ground in this respect for quarrel or complaint against the people.
The people grant your request, and your partisan shall be tried. We appoint
you, Marcius," directing his speech to him, "the third market - day ensuing,
to appear and defend yourself, and to try if you can satisfy the Roman
citizens of your innocence, who will then judge your case by vote." The
patricians were content with such a truce and respite for that time, and
gladly returned home, having for the present brought off Marcius in safety.
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