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"Venturia at the Feet of Coriolanus" by Gaspare Landi
Photo courtesy of The VRoma Project.

19th-century humorous caricature of Coriolanus parting from his Wife and Family.

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was possibly a legendary Roman general who lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic title "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general. ^[1] In later ancient times, it was generally accepted by historians that Coriolanus had lived, and a consensus narrative story of his life appeared, retold by leading historians such as Livy and Plutarch.

According to Plutarch, Coriolanus represented the Roman aristocracy. As a general, he successfully led the city's soldiers against an enemy tribe, the Volscians. After defeating the Volscians and winning support from the patricians of the Roman Senate, Coriolanus argued against the democratic inclinations of the plebeians, thereby making many personal enemies. The general was charged of misappropriation of public funds, convicted, and permanently banished from Rome. As a result of this ingratitude, the exiled general turned against Rome and made allegiance with the same Volscians he had once fought against.

Plutarch's account of his defection tells that Coriolanus donned a disguise and entered the home of a wealthy Volscian noble, Tullus Aufidius. The unmasked Coriolanus appealed to Aufidius as a supplicant. Coriolanus and Aufidius then persuaded the Volscians to break their truce with Rome and raise an army to invade. When Coriolanus's Volscian troops threatened the city, Roman matrons, including his wife and mother, were sent to persuade him to call off the attack.

At the sight of his mother Venturia, wife Volumnia and children throwing themselves at his feet in supplication, Coriolanus relented, withdrew his troops from the border of Rome, and retired to Aufidius's home city of Antium. Coriolanus had thus committed acts of disloyalty to both Rome and the Volscians. Aufidius then raised support to have Coriolanus first put on trial by the Volscians, and then assassinated before the trial had ended.

The tale of Coriolanus's appeal to Aufidius is quite similar to a tale from the life of Themistocles, a leader of the Athenian democracy who was a contemporary of Coriolanus. During Themistocles' exile from Athens, he traveled to the home of Admetus, King of the Molossians, a man who was his personal enemy. Themistocles came to Admetus in disguise and appealed to him as a fugitive, just as Coriolanus appealed to Aufidius. Themistocles, however, never attempted military retaliation against Athens.

Coriolanus's history, as retold by these ancient historians, is a moralistic tale, which displays traits of individual and group temperament such as disloyalty and ingratitude. The story is today deemed legendary by most modern scholars, probably devised in order to justify the fact that the Romans had several times been badly defeated by the Volscians. In order to maintain their self-respect, descendants of the surviving Romans came to believe that the reason they had been defeated was because a Roman defector had led the enemy forces. This myth would have held harmless the Romans' belief in the quality of their military leadership, by telling them 'Only an ex-Roman can beat us Romans.'

• From Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans :
  • The Life of Coriolanus - 17th century English translation by John Dryden
  • The Life of Coriolanus - 19th century English translation by Aubrey Stewart and George Long
• Coriolanus - Shakespeare's play based on Plutarch. Full text HTML.
• Overture Coriolan - A famous music piece written by Van Beethoven for Von Collin's opera Full text HTML.