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Coriolanus
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- This article is about the legendary figure. For the Shakespeare play, see Coriolanus (play).
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a fifth century BC Roman general.
According to Plutarch, Coriolanus represented the Roman aristocracy and was well respected in the Roman Senate for arguing against the democratic inclinations of the plebeians. He was permanently banished from Rome upon being convicted on charges of misappropriation of public funds. He later 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 sneaked into the home of a wealthy Volscian noble, a certain Tullus Aufidius, and appealed to him as a supplicant. Coriolanus and Aufidius then persuaded the Volscians to break their truce with Rome and raise an army to invade. When Coriolanus' 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 Veturia, 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' home city of Antium. Aufidius then raised support to have Coriolanus put on trial by the Volscians, and then formed a conspiracy to assassinate him before the trial had ended.
The tale of Coriolanus' 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 travelled 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 retailiation against Athens.
