ever, he appeared not to be sorry for himself, and to be the only one of
the patricians who was not. This calmness, however, was not due to any
evenness of temper or any intention of bearing his wrongs meekly. It
arose from concentrated rage and fury, which many do not know to be an
expression of great grief. When the mind is inflamed with this passion,
it casts out all ideas of submission or of quiet. Hence an angry man is
courageous, just as a fever patient is hot, because of the inflamed
throbbing excitement of his mind. And Marcius soon showed that this was
his own condition. He went home, embraced his weeping wife and mother,
bade them bear this calamity with patience, and at once proceeded to the
city gates, escorted by the patricians in a body. Thence, taking nothing
with him, and asking no man for any thing, he went off, accompanied by
three or four of his clients. He remained for a few days at some farms
near the city, agitated deeply by conflicting passions. His anger
suggested no scheme by which he might benefit himself, but only how to
revenge himself on the Romans. At length he decided that he would raise
up a cruel war against them, and proceeded at once to make application
to the neighbouring nation of the Volscians, whom he knew to be rich and
powerful, and only to have suffered sufficiently by their late defeats
to make them desirous of renewing their quarrel with Rome.
XXII. There was a certain citizen of Antium named Tullus Aufidius, who,
from his wealth, courage, and noble birth, was regarded as the most
important man in the whole Volscian nation. Marcius knew that this man
hated him more than any other Roman; for in battle they had often met,
and by challenging and defying one another, as young warriors are wont
to do, they had, in addition to their national antipathy, gained a
violent personal hatred for one another. In spite of this, however,
knowing the generous nature of Tullus, and longing more than any
Volscian to requite the Romans for their treatment, he justified the
verses,
"'Tis hard to strive with rage, which aye,
Though life's the forfeit, gains its way."
He disguised himself as completely as he could, and, like Ulysses,
"Into the city of his foes he came."
XXIII. It was evening when he entered Antium, and although many met him,
no one recognised him. He went to Tullus's house, and entering, sat down
by the hearth in silence, with his head wrapped in his cloak. The
domestics, astonished at his behaviour, did not dare to disturb him, as
there was a certain dignity about his appearance and his silence, but
went and told Tullus, who was at supper, of this strange incident.
Tullus rose, went to him, and inquired who he was and what he wanted.
Then at length Marcius uncovered his face, and, after a short pause,
said, "If you do not recognise me, Tullus, or if you do not believe your
eyes, I must myself tell you who I am. I am Caius Marcius, who has
wrought you and the Volscians more mischief than any one else, and who,
lest I should deny this, have received the additional title of
Coriolanus. This I cannot lose: every thing else has been taken from me
by the envious spite of the people, and the treacherous remissness of
the upper classes. I am an exile, and I now sit as a suppliant on your
hearth, begging you, not for safety or protection, for should I have
come hither if I feared to die, but for vengeance against those who
drove me forth, which I am already beginning to receive by putting
myself in your hands. If then, my brave Tullus, you wish to attack your
foes, make use of my misfortunes, and let my disgrace be the common
happiness of all the Volscians. I shall fight for you much better than I
have fought against you, because I have the advantage of knowing exactly
the strength and weakness of the enemy. If, however, you are tired of
war, I have no wish for life, nor is it to your credit to save the life
of one who once was your personal enemy, and who now is worn out and
useless." Tullus was greatly delighted with this speech, and giving him
his right hand, answered, "Rise, Marcius, and be of good courage. You
have brought us a noble present, yourself; rest assured that the
Volscians will not be ungrateful." He then feasted Marcius with great
hospitality, and for some days they conferred together as to the best
method of carrying on the war.
XXIV. Rome meanwhile was disturbed by the anger of the patricians
towards the plebeians, especially on account of the banishment of
Marcius, and by many portents which were observed both by the priests
and by private persons, one of which was as follows. There was one Titus
Latinus, a man of no great note, but a respectable citizen and by no
means addicted to superstition. He dreamed that he saw Jupiter face to
face, and that the god bade him tell the Senate that "they had sent a
bad dancer before his procession, and one who was very displeasing to
him."
On first seeing this vision he said that he disregarded it; but after it
had occurred a second and a third time he had the unhappiness to see his
son sicken and die, while he himself suddenly lost the use of his limbs.
He told this story in the senate house, to which he had been carried on
a litter; and as soon as he had told it, he found his bodily strength
return, rose, and walked home.
The senators, greatly astonished, inquired into the matter. It was found
that a slave, convicted of some crime, had been ordered by his master to
be flogged through the market-place, and then put to death. While this
was being done, and the wretch was twisting his body in every kind of
contortion as he writhed under the blows, the procession by chance was
following after him. Many of those who walked in it were shocked at the
unseemliness of the spectacle, and disgusted at its inhumanity, but no
one did anything more than reproach and execrate a man who treated his
slaves with so much cruelty.
At that period men treated their slaves with great kindness, because
the master himself worked and ate in their company, and so could
sympathise more with them. The great punishment for a slave who had done
wrong was to make him carry round the neighbourhood the piece of wood on
which the pole of a waggon is rested. The slave who has done this and
been seen by the neighbours and friends, lost his credit, and was called
_furcifer_, for the Romans call that piece of timber _furca_, "a fork,"
which the Greeks call _hypostates_, "a supporter."
XXV. So when Latinus related his dream to the senators, and they were
wondering who the bad and unacceptable dancer could be who had led the
procession, some of them remembered the slave who had been flogged
through the market-place and there put to death. At the instance of the
priests, the master of the slave was punished for his cruelty, and the
procession and ceremonies were performed anew in honour of the gods.
Hence we may see how wisely Numa arranged this, among other matters of
ceremonial. Whenever the magistrates or priests were engaged in any
religious rite, a herald walked before them crying in a loud voice "_Hoc
age_." The meaning of the phrase is, "Do this," meaning to tell the
people to apply their minds entirely to the religious ceremony, and not
to allow any thought of worldly things to distract their attention,
because men as a rule only attend to such matters by putting a certain
constraint on their thoughts.
It is the custom in Rome to begin a sacrifice, a procession, or a
spectacle, over again, not only when anything of this kind happens, but
for any trifling reason. Thus, if one of the horses drawing the sacred
car called Thensa stumbles, or the charioteer takes the reins in his
left hand, they have decreed that the procession must begin again. In
later times they have been known to perform one sacrifice thirty times,
because every time some slight omission or mistake took place.
XXVI. Meanwhile Marcius and Tullus in Antium held private conferences
with the chief men of the Volscians, and advised them to begin the war
while Rome was divided by its domestic quarrels. They discountenanced
this proposal, because a truce and cessation of hostilities for two
years had been agreed upon: but the Romans themselves gave them a
pretext for breaking the truce, by a proclamation which was made at the
public games, that all Volscians should quit the city before sunset.
Some say this was effected by a stratagem of Marcius, who sent a false
accusation against the Volscians to the magistrates at Rome, saying that
during the public games they meant to attack the Romans and burn the
city. This proclamation made them yet bitterer enemies to the Romans
than before; and Tullus, wishing to bring the business to a climax,
induced his countrymen to send ambassadors to Rome to demand back the
cities and territory which the Romans had taken from the Volscians in
the late war. The Romans were very indignant when they heard these
demands, and made answer, that the Volscians might be the first to take
up arms, but that the Romans would be the last to lay them down. Upon
this, Tullus convoked a general assembly, in which, after determining
upon war, he advised them to summon Marcius to their aid, not owing him
any grudge for what they had suffered at his hands, but believing that
he would be more valuable to them as a friend than he had been dangerous
as an enemy.
XXVII. Marcius was called before the assembly, and having addressed the
people, was thought by them to know how to speak as well as how to
fight, and was considered to be a man of great ability and courage. He,
together with Tullus, was nominated general with unlimited powers. As he
feared the Volscians would take a long time to prepare for the war, and
that meanwhile the opportunity for attack might pass away, he ordered
the leading men in the city to make all necessary preparations, and
himself taking the boldest and most forward as volunteers, without
levying any troops by compulsory conscription, made a sudden and
unexpected inroad into the Roman territory. Here he obtained so much
plunder that the Volscians were wearied with carrying it off and
consuming it in their camp. However, his least object was to obtain
plunder and lay waste the country; his main desire was to render the
patricians suspected by the people. While all else was ravaged and
destroyed, he carefully protected their farms, and would not allow any
damage to be done or anything to be carried off from them. This
increased the disorders at Rome, the patricians reproaching the people
for having unjustly banished so able a man, while the plebeians accused
them of having invited Marcius to attack in order to obtain their
revenge, and said that, while others fought, they sat as idle
spectators, having in the war itself a sure safeguard of their wealth
and estates. Having produced this new quarrel among the Romans, and,
besides loading the Volscians with plunder, having taught them to
despise their enemy, Marcius led his troops back in safety.
XXVIII. By great and zealous exertions the entire Volscian nation was
soon assembled under arms. The force thus raised was very large; part
was left to garrison the cities, as a measure of precaution, while the
rest was to be used in the campaign against Rome. Marcius now left
Tullus to determine which corps he would command. Tullus, in answer,
said that as Marcius, he knew, was as brave a man as himself, and had
always enjoyed better fortune in all his battles, he had better command
the army in the field. He himself, he added, would remain behind, watch
over the safety of the Volscian cities, and supply the troops with
necessaries. Marcius, strengthened by this division of the command,
marched to the town of Circeii, a Roman colony. As it surrendered, he
did it no harm, but laid waste the country of Latium, where he expected
the Romans would fight a battle in defence of their allies the Latins,
who frequently sent to entreat their protection. But at Rome the people
were unwilling to fight, and the consuls were just at the expiry of
their term of office, so that they did not care to run any risks, and
therefore rejected the appeals of the Latins. Marcius now led his troops
against the Latian cities, Tolerium, Labici, Pedum, and Bola, all of
which he took by storm, sold the inhabitants for slaves, and plundered
the houses. Those cities, however, which voluntarily came to his side he
treated with the utmost consideration, even pitching his camp at a
distance, for fear they might be injured by the soldiery against his
will, and never plundering their territory.
XXIX. When at last he took Bollae, a town not more than twelve miles
from Rome, obtaining immense booty and putting nearly all the adult
inhabitants to the sword, then not even those Volscians who had been
appointed to garrison the cities would any longer remain at their posts,
but seized their arms and joined the army of Marcius, declaring that he
was their only general, and that they would recognise no other leader.
His renown and glory spread throughout all Italy, and all men were
astonished that one man by changing sides should have produced so great
a change. The affairs of Rome were in the last disorder, the people
refusing to fight, while internal quarrels and seditious speeches took
place daily, until news came that Lavinium was being invested by the
enemy. This town contains the most ancient images and sacred things of
the tutelary deities of Rome, and is the origin of the Roman people,
being the first town founded by Aeneas.
Upon this a very singular change of opinions befel both the people and
the Senate. The people were eager to annul their sentence against
Marcius, and to beg him to return, but the Senate, after meeting and
considering this proposal, finally rejected it, either out of a mere
spirit of opposition to anything proposed by the people, or because they
did not wish him to return by favour of the people; or it may be because
they themselves were now angry with him for having shown himself the
enemy of all classes alike, although he had only been injured by one,
and for having become the avowed enemy of his country, in which he knew
that the best and noblest all sympathised with him, and had suffered
along with him. When this resolution was made known to the people, they
were unable to proceed to vote or to pass any bill on the subject,
without a previous decree of the Senate.
XXX. Marcius when he heard of this was more exasperated than ever. He
raised his siege of Lavinium, marched straight upon Rome, and pitched
his camp five miles from the city, at the place called _Fossae
Cluiliae_. The appearance of his army caused much terror and
disturbance, but nevertheless put an end to sedition, for no magistrate
or patrician dared any longer oppose the people's desire to recall him.
When they beheld the women running distractedly through the city, the
old men weeping and praying at the altars, and no one able to take
courage and form any plan of defence, it was agreed that the people had
been right in wishing to come to terms with Marcius, and that the Senate
had committed a fatal error in inflicting a new outrage upon him, just
at the time when all unkindness might have been buried. It was
determined, therefore, by the whole city that an embassy should be
despatched to Marcius, to offer him restoration to his own country, and
to beg of him to make peace. Those of the Senate who were sent were
relations of Marcius, and expected to be warmly welcomed by a man who
was their near relation and personal friend. Nothing of the kind,
however, happened. They were conducted through the enemy's camp, and
found him seated, and displaying insufferable pride and arrogance, with
the chiefs of the Volscians standing round him. He bade the ambassadors
deliver their message; and after they had, in a supplicatory fashion,
pronounced a conciliatory oration, he answered them, dwelling with
bitterness on his own unjust treatment; and then in his capacity of
general-in-chief of the Volscians, he bade them restore the cities and
territory which they had conquered in the late war, and to grant the
franchise to the Volscians on the same terms as enjoyed by the Latins.
These, he said, were the only conditions on which a just and lasting
peace could be made. He allowed them a space of thirty days for
deliberation, and on the departure of the ambassadors immediately drew
off his forces.
XXXI. This affair gave an opportunity to several of the Volscians, who
had long envied and disliked his reputation, and the influence which he
had with the people. Among these was Tullus himself, who had not been
personally wronged by Marcius, but who, as it is natural he should, felt
vexed at being totally eclipsed and thrown into the shade, for the
Volscians now thought Marcius the greatest man in their whole nation,
and considered that any one else ought to be thankful for any measure of
authority that he might think fit to bestow. Hence secret hints were
exchanged, and private meetings held, in which his enemies expressed
their dissatisfaction, calling the retreat from Rome an act of treason,
not indeed that he had betrayed any cities or armies to the enemy, but
he had granted them time, by which all other things are won and lost. He
had given the enemy a breathing time, they said, of thirty days, being
no less than they required to put themselves in a posture of defence.
Marcius during this time was not idle, for he attacked and defeated the
allies of the Romans, and captured seven large and populous towns. The
Romans did not venture to come to help their allies, but hung back from
taking the field, and seemed as if paralysed and benumbed. When the term
had expired, Marcius presented himself a second time before Rome, with
his entire army. The Romans now sent a second embassy, begging him to
lay aside his anger, withdraw the Volscians from the country, and then
to make such terms as would be for the advantage of both nations. The
Romans, they said, would yield nothing to fear; but if he thought that
special concessions ought to be made to the Volscians, they would be
duly considered if they laid down their arms. To this Marcius answered
that, as general of the Volscians, he could give them no answer; but
that as one who was still a citizen of Rome he would advise them to
adopt a humbler frame of mind, and come to him in three days with a
ratification of his proposals. If they should come to any other
determination, he warned them that it would not be safe for them to come
to his camp again with empty words.
XXXII. When the ambassadors returned, and the Senate heard their report,
they determined in this dreadful extremity to let go their sheet anchor.
They ordered all the priests, ministers, and guardians of the sacred
mysteries, and all the hereditary prophets who watched the omens given
by the flight of birds, to go in procession to Marcius, dressed in their
sacred vestments, and beseech him to desist from the war, and then to
negotiate conditions of peace between his countrymen and the Volscians.
Marcius received the priests in his camp, but relaxed nothing of his
former harshness, bidding the Romans either accept his proposals or
continue the war.
When the priests returned, the Romans resolved in future to remain
within the city, repulse any assault which might be made on the walls,
and trust to time and fortune, as it was evident that they could not be
saved by anything that they could do. The city was full of confusion,
excitement, and panic terror, until there happened something like what
is mentioned in Homer, but which men as a rule are unwilling to believe.
He observes that on great and important occasions
"Athene placed a thought within his mind;"
and again--
"But some one of th' immortals changed my mind,
And made me think of what the folk would say;"
and--
"Because he thought it, or because the god
Commanded him to do so."
Men despise the poet, as if, in order to carry out his absurd
mythological scheme, he denied each man his liberty of will. Now Homer
does nothing of this kind, for whatever is reasonable and likely he
ascribes to the exercise of our own powers, as we see in the common
phrase--
"But I reflected in my mighty soul;"
and--
"Thus spoke he, but the son of Peleus raged,
Divided was his soul within his breast;"
and again--
"But she persuaded not
The wise Bellerophon, of noble mind."
But in strange and unlikely actions, where the actors must have been
under the influence of some supernatural impulse, he does speak of the
god not as destroying, but as directing the human will; nor does the god
directly produce any decision, but suggests ideas which influence that
decision. Thus the act is not an involuntary one, but opportunity is
given for a voluntary act, with confidence and good hope superadded. For
either we must admit that the gods have no dealings and influence at all
with men, or else it must be in this way that they act when they assist
and strengthen us, not of course by moving our hands and feet, but by
filling our minds with thoughts and ideas which either encourage us to
do what is right, or restrain us from what is wrong.
XXXIII. At Rome at this time the women were praying in all the temples,
especially in that of Jupiter in the Capitol, where the noblest ladies
in Rome were assembled. Among them was Valeria, the sister of the great
Poplicola, who had done such great services to the State both in peace
and war. Poplicola died some time before, as has been related in his
Life, but his sister was held in great honour and esteem in Rome, as her
life did credit to her noble birth. She now experienced one of the
divine impulses of which I have spoken, and, inspired by Heaven to do
what was best for her country, rose and called on the other ladies to
accompany her to the house of Volumnia, the mother of Marcius. On
entering, and finding her sitting with her daughter-in-law, nursing the
children of Marcius, Valeria placed her companions in a circle round
them, and spoke as follows: "Volumnia, and you, Virgilia, we have come
to you, as women to women, without any decree of the Senate or
instructions from a magistrate; but Heaven, it would appear, has heard
our prayers, and has inspired us with the idea of coming hither to beg
of you to save our countrymen, and to gain for yourselves greater glory
than that of the Sabine women when they reconciled their husbands and
their fathers. Come with us to Marcius, join us in supplicating him for
mercy, and bear an honourable testimony to your country, that it never
has thought of hurting you, however terribly it has been injured by
Marcius, but that it restores you to him uninjured, although possibly it
will gain no better terms by so doing." When Valeria had spoken thus,
the other women applauded, and Volumnia answered in the following words:
"My friends, besides those sufferings which all are now undergoing, we
are especially to be pitied. We have lost the glory and goodness of our
Marcius, and now see him more imprisoned in than protected by the army
of the enemy. But the greatest misfortune of all is that our country
should have become so weak as to be obliged to rest its hopes of safety
on us. I cannot tell if he will pay any attention to us, seeing that he
has treated his native country with scorn, although he used to love it
better than his mother, his wife, and his children. However, take us,
and make what use of us you can. Lead us into his presence, and there,
if we can do nothing else, we can die at his feet supplicating for
Rome."
XXXIV. Having spoken thus, she took Virgilia and her children, and
proceeded, in company with the other women, to the Volscian camp. Their
piteous appearance produced, even in their enemies, a silent respect.
Marcius himself was seated on his tribunal with the chief officers; and
when he saw the procession of women was at first filled with amazement;
but when he recognised his mother walking first, although he tried to
support his usual stern composure, he was overcome by his emotion. He
could not bear to receive her sitting, but descended and ran to meet
her. He embraced his mother first, and longest of all; and then his wife
and children, no longer restraining his tears and caresses, but
completely carried away by his feelings.
XXXV. When he had taken his fill of embraces, perceiving that his mother
desired to address him, he called the chiefs of the Volscians together,
and listened to Volumnia, who addressed him as follows: