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CoriolanusCoriolanus, Part II.
Coriolanus, Part II.
During the interval before the appointed time (for the Romans hold their
sessions every ninth day, which from that cause are called nundianoe in
Latin), as war fell out with the Antiates, likely to be of some continuance,
which gave them hope they might one way or other elude the judgment. The
people, they presumed, would become tractable, and their indignation lessen
and languish by degrees in so long a space, if occupation and war did not
wholly put it out of their mind. But when, contrary to expectation, they made
a speedy agreement with the people of Antium, and the army came back to Rome,
the patricians were again in great perplexity, and had frequent meetings to
consider how things might be arranged, without either abandoning Marcius, or
yet giving occasion to the popular orators to create new disorders. Appius
Claudius, whom they counted among the senators most averse to th popular
interest, made a solemn declaration, and told them beforehand, that the senate
would utterly destroy itself and betray the government, if they should once
suffer the people to assume the authority of pronouncing sentence upon any of
the patricians; but the oldest senators and most favorable to the people
maintained, on the other side, that the people would not be so harsh and
severe upon them, as some were pleased to imagine, but rather become more
gentle and humane upon the concession of that power, since it was not contempt
of the senate, but the impression of being contemned by it, which made them
pretend to such a prerogative. Let that be once allowed them as a mark of
respect and kind feeling, and the mere possession of this power of voting
would at once dispossess them of their animosity.
When, therefore, Marcius saw that the senate was in pain and suspense
upon his account, divided, as it were, betwixt their kindness for him and
their apprehensions from the people, he desired to know of the tribunes what
the crimes were they intended to charge him with, and what the heads of the
indictment they would oblige him to plead to before the people; and being told
by them that he was to be impeached for attempting usurpation, and that they
would prove him guilty of designing to establish arbitrary government,
stepping forth upon this, "Let me go then," he said, "to clear myself from
that imputation before an assembly of them; I freely offer myself to any sort
of trial, nor do I refuse any kind of punishment whatsoever; only," he
continued, "let what you now mention be really made my accusation, and do not
you play false with the senate." On their consenting to these terms, he came
to his trial. But when the people met together, the tribunes, contrary to all
former practice, extorted first, that votes should be taken, not by centuries,
but tribes; a change, by which the indigent and factious rabble, that had no
respect for honesty and justice, would be sure to carry it against those who
were rich and well known, and accustomed to serve the state in war. In the
next place, whereas they had engaged to prosecute Marcius upon no other head
but that of tyranny, which could never be made out against him, they
relinquished this plea, and urged instead, his language in the senate against
an abatement of the price of corn, and for the overthrow of the tribunician
power; adding further, as a new impeachment the distribution that was made by
him of the spoil and booty he had taken from the Antiates, when he overran
their country, which he had divided among those that had followed him, whereas
it ought rather to have been brought into the public treasury; which last
accusation did, they say, more discompose Marcius than all the rest, as he had
not anticipated he should ever be questioned on that subject, and, therefore,
was less provided with any satisfactory answer to it on the sudden. And when,
by way of excuse, he began to magnify the merits of those who had been
partakers with him in the action, those that had stayed at home, being more
numerous than the other, interrupted him with outcries. In conclusion, when
they came to vote, a majority of three tribes condemned him; the penalty being
perpetual banishment. The sentence of his condemnation being pronounced, the
people went away with greater triumph and exultation than they had ever shown
for any victory over enemies; while the senate was in grief and deep
dejection, repenting now and vexed to the soul that they had not done and
suffered all things rather than give way to the insolence of the people, and
permit them to assume and abuse so great an authority. There was no need then
to look at men`s dresses, or other marks of distinction, to know one from
another: any one who was glad was, beyond all doubt, a plebeian; any one who
looked sorrowful, a patrician.
Marcius alone, himself, was neither stunned nor humiliated. In mien,
carriage, and countenance, he bore the appearance of entire composure, and
while all his friends were full of distress, seemed the only man that was not
touched with his misfortune. Not that either reflection taught him, or
gentleness of temper made it natural for him, to submit: he was wholly
possessed, on the contrary, with a profound and deep - seated fury, which
passes with many for no pain at all. And pain, it is true, transmuted, so to
say, by its own fiery heat into anger, loses every appearance of depression
and feebleness; the angry man makes a show of energy, as the man in a high
fever does of natural heat, while, in fact, all this action of the soul is but
mere diseased palpitation, distention, and inflammation. That such was his
distempered state appeared presently plainly enough in his actions. On his
return home, after saluting his mother and his wife, who were all in tears and
full of loud lamentations, and exhorting them to moderate the sense they had
of his calamity, he proceeded at once to the city gates, whither all the
nobility came to attend him; and so, not so much as taking any thing with him,
or making any request to the company, he departed from them, having only three
or four clients with him. He continued solitary for a few days in place in the
country, distracted with a variety of counsels, such as rage and indignation
suggested to him; and proposing to himself no honorable or useful end, but
only how he might best satisfy his revenge on the Romans, he resolved at
length to raise up a heavy war against them from their nearest neighbors. He
determined, first to make trial of the Volscians, whom he knew to be still
vigorous and flourishing, both in men and treasure, and he imagined their
force and power was not so much abated, as their spite and anger increased, by
the late overthrows they had received from the Romans.
There was a man of Antium, called Tullus Aufidius, who, for his wealth
and bravery and the splendor of his family, had the respect and privilege of a
king among the Volscians, but whom Marcius knew to have a particular hostility
to himself, above all other Romans. Frequent menaces and challenges had passed
in battle between them, and those exchanges of defiance to which their hot and
eager emulation is apt to prompt young soldiers had added private animosity to
their national feelings of opposition. Yet for all this, considering Tullus to
have a certain generosity of temper, and knowing that no Volscian, so much as
he, desired an occasion to requite upon the Romans the evils they had done, he
did what much confirms the saying, that
"Hard and unequal is with wrath the strife,
Which makes us buy its pleasure with our life."
Putting on such a dress as would make him appear to any whom he might meet
most unlike what he really was, thus, like Ulysses, -
"The town he entered of his mortal foes."
His arrival at Antium was about evening, and though several met him in the
streets, yet he passed along without being known to any, and went directly to
the house of Tullus, and, entering undiscovered, went up to the fire - heart,
and seated himself there without speaking a word, covering up his head. Those
of the family could not but wonder, and yet they were afraid either to raise
or question him, for there was a certain air of majesty both in his posture
and silence, but they recounted to Tullus, being then at supper, the
strangeness of this accident. He immediately rose from table and came in, and
asked him who he was, and for what business he came thither; and then Marcius,
unmuffling, himself, and pausing awhile, "If," said he, "you cannot yet call
me to mind, Tullus, or do not believe your eyes concerning me, I must of
necessity be my own accuser. I am Caius Marcius, the author of so much
mischief to the Volscians; of which, were I seeking to deny it, the surname of
Coriolanus I now bear would be sufficient evidence against me. The one
recompense I received for all the hardships and perils I have gone through,
was the title that proclaims my enmity to your nation, and this is the only
thing which is still left me. Of all other advantages, I have been stripped
and deprived by the envy and outrage of the Roman people, and the cowardice
and treachery of the magistrates and those of my own order. I am driven out as
an exile, and become an humble suppliant at your heart, not so much for safety
and protection (should I have come hither, had I been afraid to die?), as to
seek vengeance against those that expelled me; which, methinks, I have already
obtained, by putting myself into your hands. If, therefore, you have really a
mind to attack your enemies, come then, make use of that affliction you see me
in to assist the enterprise, and convert my personal infelicity into a common
blessing to the Volscians; as, indeed, I am likely to be more serviceable in
fighting for than against you, with the advantage, which I now posses, of
knowing all the secrets of the enemy that I am attacking. But if you decline
to make any further attempts, I am neither desirous to live myself, nor will
it be well in you to preserve a person who has been your rival and adversary
of old, and now, when he offers you his service, appears unprofitable and
useless to you."
Tullus on hearing this, was extremely rejoiced, and giving him his right
hand, exclaimed, "Rise, Marcius, and be of good courage; it is a great
happiness you bring to Antium, in the present you make us of yourself; expect
every thing that is good from the Volscians." He then proceeded to feast and
entertain him with every display of kindness, and for several days after they
were in close deliberation together on the prospects of a war.
While this design was forming, there were great troubles and commotions
at Rome, from the animosity of the senators against the people, heightened
just now by the late condemnation of Marcius. Besides that, their soothsayers
and priests, and even private persons, reported signs and prodigies not to be
neglected; one of which is stated to have occurred as follows: Titus
Latinus,^3 a man of ordinary condition, but of a quiet and virtuous character,
free from all superstitious fancies, and yet more from vanity and
exaggeration, had an apparition in his sleep, as if Jupiter came and bade him
tell the senate, that it was with a bad and unacceptable dancer that they had
headed his procession. Having beheld the vision, he said, he did not much
attend to it at the first appearance; but after he had seen and slighted it a
second and third time, he had lost a hopeful son, and was himself struck with
a palsy. He was brought into the senate on a liter to tell this, and the story
goes, that he had no sooner delivered his message there, but he at once felt
his strength return, and got upon his legs, and went home alone, without need
of any support. The senators, in wonder and surprise, made a diligent search
into the matter. That which his dream alluded to was this: some citizen had,
for some heinous offence, given up a servant of his to the rest of his
fellows, with charge to whip him first through the market, and then to kill
him; and while they were executing this command, and scourging the wretch, who
screwed and turned himself into all manner of shapes and unseemly motions,
through the pain he was in, the solemn procession in honor of Jupiter chanced
to follow at their heels. Several of the attendants on which were, indeed,
scandalized at the sight, yet no one of them interfered, or acted further in
the matter than merely to utter some common reproaches and execrations on a
master who inflicted so cruel a punishment. For the Romans treated their
slaves with great humanity in these times, when, working and laboring
themselves, and living together among them they naturally were more gentle and
familiar with them. It was one of the severest punishments for a slave who had
committed a fault, to have to take the piece of wood which supports the pole
of a wagon, and carry it about through the neighborhood; a slave who had once
undergone the shame of this, and been thus seen by the household and the
neighbors, had no longer any trust or credit among them, and had the name of
furcifer; furca being the Latin word for a prop, or support.
[Footnote 3: The correct name is probably Titus Latinius, for which Tiberius
Atinius, in Livy, is merely a misreading.]
When, therefore, Latinus had related his dream, and the senators were
considering who this disagreeable and ungainly dancer could be, some of the
company, having been struck with the strangeness of the punishment, called to
mind and mentioned the miserable slave who was lashed through the streets and
afterward put to death. The priests, when consulted confirmed the conjecture;
the master was punished; and orders given for a new celebration of the
procession and the spectacles in honor of the god. Numa, in other respects
also a wise arranger of religious offices, would seem to have been especially
judicious in his direction, with a view to the attentiveness of the people,
that, when the magistrates or priests performed and divine worship, a herald
should go before, and proclaim with a loud voice, Hoc age. Do this you are
about, and so warn them to mind whatever sacred action they were engaged in,
and not suffer any business or worldly avocation to disturb and interrupt it;
most of the things which men do of this kind, being in a manner forced from
them, and effected by constraint. It is usual with the Romans to recommence
their sacrifices and processions and spectacles, not only upon such a cause as
this, but for any slighter reason. If but one of the horses which drew the
chariots called Tensae, upon which the images of their gods were placed,
happened to fail and falter, or if the driver took hold of the reins with his
left hand, they would decree that the whole operation should commence anew;
and, in latter ages, one and the same sacrifice was performed thirty times
over, because of the occurrence of some defect or mistake or accident in the
service. Such was the Roman reverence and caution in religious matters.
Marcius and Tullus were now secretly discoursing of their project with
the chief men of Antium, advising them to invade the Romans while they were at
variance among themselves. And when shame appeared to hinder them from
embracing the motion, as they had sworn to a truce and cessation of arms for
the space of two years, the Romans themselves soon furnished them with a
pretence, by making proclamation, out of some jealousy or slanderous report,
in the midst of the spectacles, that all the Volscians who had come to see
them should depart the city before sunset. Some affirm that this was a
contrivance of Marcius, who sent a man privately to the consuls, falsely to
accuse the Volscians of intending to fall upon the Romans during the games,
and to set the city on fire. This public affront roused and inflamed their
hostility to the Romans; and Tullus, perceiving it, made his advantage of it,
aggravating the fact, and working on their indignation, till he persuaded
them, at last, to despatch ambassadors to Rome, requiring the Romans to
restore that part of their country and those towns which they had taken from
the Volscians in the late war. When the Romans heard the message, they
indignantly replied, that the Volscians were the first that took up arms, but
the Romans would be the last to lay them down. This answer being brought back,
Tullus called a general assembly of the Volscians; and the vote passing for a
war, he then proposed that they should call in Marcius, laying aside the
remembrance of former grudges, and assuring themselves that the services they
should now receive from him as a friend and associate, would abundantly
outweigh any harm or damage he had done them when he was their enemy. Marcius
was accordingly summoned, and having made his entrance, and spoken to the
people, won their good opinion of his capacity, his skill, counsel, and
boldness, not less by his present words than by his past actions. They joined
him in commission with Tullus, to have full power as general of their forces
in all that related to the war. And he, fearing lest the time that would be
requisite to bring all the Volscians together in full preparation might be so
long as to lose him the opportunity of action, left order with the chief
persons and magistrates of the city to provide other things, while he himself,
prevailing upon the most forward to assemble and march out with him as
volunteers without staying to be enrolled, made a sudden inroad into the Roman
confines, when nobody expected him, and possessed himself of so much booty,
that the Volscians found they had more than they could either carry away or
use in the camp. The abundance of provision which he gained, and the waste and
havoc of the country which he made, were, however, of themselves and in his
account, the smallest results of that invasion; the great mischief he
intended, and his special object in all, was to increase at Rome the
suspicions entertained of the patricians, and to make them upon worse terms
with the people. With this view, while spoiling all the fields and destroying
the property of other men, he took special care to preserve their farms and
lands untouched, and would not allow his soldiers to ravage there, or seize
upon any thing which belonged to them. From hence their invectives and
quarrels against one another broke out afresh, and rose to a greater height
than ever; the senators reproaching those of the commonalty with their late
injustice to Marcius; while the plebeians, on their side, did not hesitate to
accuse them of having, out of spite and revenge, solicited him to this
enterprise, and thus, when others were involved in the miseries of a war by
their means, they sat like unconcerned spectators, as being furnished with a
guardian and protector abroad of their wealth and fortunes, in the very person
of the public enemy. After this incursion and exploit, which was of great
advantage to the Volscians, as they learned by it to grow more hardy and to
contemn their enemy, Marcius drew them off, and returned in safety.
But when the whole strength of the Volscians was brought together into
the field, with great expedition and alacrity, it appeared so considerable a
body, that they agreed to leave part in garrison, for the security of their
towns, and with the other part to march against the Romans. Marcius now
desired Tullus to choose which of the two charges would be most agreeable to
him. Tullus answered, that since he knew Marcius to be equally valiant with
himself, and far more fortunate, he would have him take the command of those
that were going out to the war, while he made it his care to defend their
cities at home, and provide all conveniences for the army abroad. Marcius thus
reinforced, and much stronger than before, moved first towards the city called
Circaeum, a Roman colony. He received its surrender, and did the inhabitants
no injury; passing thence, he entered and laid waste the country of the
Latins, where he expected the Romans would meet him, as the Latins were their
confederates and allies, and had often sent to demand succors from them. The
people, however, on their part, showing little inclination for the service,
and the consuls themselves being unwilling to run the hazard of a battle, when
the time of their office was almost ready to expire, they dismissed the Latin
ambassadors without any effect; so that Marcius, finding no army to oppose
him, marched up to their cities, and, having taken by force Toleria, Lavici,
Peda, and Bola, all of which offered resistance, not only plundered their
houses, but made a prey likewise of their persons. Meantime, he showed
particular regard for all such as came over to his party, and, for fear they
might sustain any damage against his will, encamped at the greatest distance
he could, and wholly abstained from the lands of their property.
After, however, that he had made himself master of Bola, a town not above
ten miles from Rome, where he found great treasure, and put almost all the
adults to the sword; and when, on this, the other Volscians that were ordered
to stay behind and protect their cities, hearing of his achievements and
success, had not patience to remain any longer at home, but came hastening in
their arms to Marcius, saying that he alone was their general and the sole
commander they would own; with all this, his name and renown spread throughout
all Italy, and universal wonder prevailed at the sudden and mighty revolution
in the fortunes of two nations which the loss and the accession of a single
man had effected.
All at Rome was in great disorder; they were utterly averse from
fighting, and spent their whole time in cabals and disputes and reproaches
against each other; until news was brought that the enemy had laid close siege
to Lavinium, where were the images and sacred things of their tutelar gods,
and from whence they derived the origin of their nation, that being the first
city which Aeneas built in Italy. These tidings produced a change as universal
as it was extraordinary in the thoughts and inclinations of the people, but
occasioned a yet stranger revulsion of feeling among the patricians. The
people now were for repealing the sentence against Marcius, and calling him
back into the city; whereas the senate, being assembled to preconsider the
decree, opposed and finally rejected the proposal, either out of the mere
humor of contradicting and withstanding the people in whatever they should
desire, or because they were unwilling, perhaps, that he should owe his
restoration to their kindness; or having now conceived a displeasure against
Marcius himself, who was bringing distress upon all alike, though he had not
been ill treated by all, and was become a declared enemy to his whole country,
though he knew well enough that the principal and all the better men condoled
with him, and suffered in his injuries.
This resolution of theirs being made public, the people could proceed no
further, having no authority to pass any thing by suffrage, and enact it for a
law, without a previous decree from the senate. When Marcius heard of this, he
was more exasperated than ever, and, quitting the siege of Lavinium, marched
furiously towards Rome, and encamped at a place called the Cluilian ditches,
about five miles from the city. The nearness of his approach did, indeed,
create much terror and disturbance, yet it also ended their dissensions for
the present; as nobody now, whether consul or senator, durst any longer
contradict the people in their design of recalling Marcius; but, seeing their
women running affrighted up and down the streets, and the old men at prayer in
every temple with tears and supplications, and that, in short, there was a
general absence among them both of courage and wisdom to provide for their own
safety, they came at last to be all of one mind, that the people had been in
the right to propose as they did a reconciliation with Marcius, and that the
senate was guilty of a fatal error to begin a quarrel with him when it was a
time to forget offences, and they should have studied rather to appease him.
It was therefore, unanimously agreed by all parties, that ambassadors should
be despatched, offering him return to his country, and desiring he would free
them from the terrors and distresses of the war. The persons sent by the
senate with this message were chosen out of his kindred and acquaintance, who
naturally expected a very kind reception at their first interview, upon the
score of that relation and their old familiarity and friendship with him; in
which, however, they were much mistaken. Being led through the enemy`s camp,
they found him sitting in state amidst the chief men of the Volscians, looking
insupportably proud and arrogant. He bade them declare the cause of their
coming, which they did in the most gentle and tender terms, and with a
behavior suitable to their language. When they had made an end of speaking, he
returned them a sharp answer, full of bitterness and angry resentment, as to
what concerned himself, and the ill usage he had received from them; but as
general of the Volscians, he demanded restitution of the cities and the lands
which had been seized upon during the late war, and that the same rights and
franchises should be granted them at Rome, which had been before accorded to
the Latins; since there could be no assurance that a peace would be firm and
lasting, without fair and just conditions on both sides. He allowed them
thirty days to consider and resolve.
The ambassadors being departed, he withdrew his forces out of the Roman
territory. This, those of the Volscians who had long envied his reputation,
and could not endure to see the influence he had with the people, laid hold
of, as the first matter of complaint against him. Among them was also Tullus
himself, not for any wrong done him personally by Marcius, but through the
weakness incident to human nature. He could not help feeling mortified to find
his own glory thus totally obscured, and himself overlooked and neglected now
by the Volscians, who had so great an opinion of their new leader, that he
alone was all to them, while other captains, they thought, should be content
with that share of power, which he might think fit to accord. From hence the
first seeds of complaint and accusation were scattered about in secret, and
the malcontents met and heightened each other`s indignation, saying, that to
retreat as he did, was in effect to betray and deliver up, though not their
cities and arms, yet what was as bad, the critical times and opportunities for
action, on which depend the preservation or the loss of every thing else;
since in less than thirty days` space, for which he had given a respite from
the war, there might happen the greatest changes in the world. Yet Marcius
spent not any part of the time idly, but attacked the confederates of the
enemy, ravaged their land, and took from them seven great and populous cities
in the interval. The Romans, in the meanwhile, durst not venture out to their
relief; but were utterly fearful, and showed no more disposition or capacity
for action, than if their bodies had been struck with a palsy, and become
destitute of sense and motion. But when the thirty days were expired, and
Marcius appeared again with his whole army, they sent another embassy to
beseech him that he would moderate his displeasure, and would withdraw the
Volscian army, and then make any proposals he thought best for both parties;
the Romans would make no concessions to menaces, but if it were his opinion
that the Volscians ought to have any favor shown them, upon laying down their
arms they might obtain all they could in reason desire.
The reply of Marcius was, that he should make no answer to this as
general of the Volscians, but, in the quality still of a Roman citizen, he
would advise and exhort them, as the case stood, not to carry it so high, but
think rather of just compliance, and return to him, before three days were at
an end, with a ratification of his previous demands; otherwise, they must
understand that they could not have any further freedom of passing through his
camp upon idle errands.
When the ambassadors were come back, and had acquainted the senate with
the answer, seeing the whole state now threatened as it were by a tempest, and
the waves ready to overwhelm them, they were forced, as we say in extreme
perils, to let down the sacred anchor. A decree was made, that the whole order
of their priests, those who initiated in the mysteries or had the custody of
them, and those who, according to the ancient practice of the country, divined
from birds, should all and every one of them go in full procession to Marcius
with their pontifical array, and the dress and habit which they respectively
used in their several functions, and should urge him, as before, to withdraw
his forces, and then treat with his countrymen in favor of the Volscians. He
consented so far, indeed, as to give the deputation an admittance into his
camp, but granted nothing at all, nor so much as expressed himself more
mildly; but, without capitulating or receding, bade them once for all choose
whether they would yield or fight, since the old terms were the only terms of
peace. When this solemn application proved ineffectual, the priests, too,
returning unsuccessfully, they determined to sit still within the city, and
keep watch about their walls, intending only to repulse the enemy, should he
offer to attack them, and placing their hopes chiefly in time and in
extraordinary accidents of fortune; as to themselves, they felt incapable of
doing any thing for their own deliverance; mere confusion and terror and ill -
boding reports possessed the whole city; till at last a thing happened not
unlike what we so often find represented, without, however, being accepted as
true by people in general, in Homer. On some great and unusual occasion we
find him say: -
"But him the blue - eyed goddess did inspire;"
and elsewhere: -
"But some immortal turned my mind away,
To think what others of the deed would say;"
and again: -
"Were `t his own thought or were `t a god`s command."
People are apt, in such passages, to censure and disregard the poet, as if, by
the introduction of mere impossibilities and idle fictions, he were denying
the action of a man`s own deliberate thought and free choice; which is not, in
the least, the case in Homer`s representation, where the ordinary, probable,
and habitual conclusions that common reason leads to are continually ascribed
to our own direct agency. He certainly says frequently enough: -
"But I consulted with my own great soul;"
or, as in another passage: -
"He spoke. Achilles, with quick pain possessed,
Revolved two purposes in his strong breast;"
and in a third: -
"- Yet never to her wishes won
The just mind of the brave Bellerophon."
But where the act is something out of the way and extraordinary, and seems in
a manner to demand some impulse of divine possession and sudden inspiration to
account for it, here he does introduce divine agency, not to destroy, but to
prompt the human will; not to create in us another agency, but offering images
to stimulate our own; images that in no sort or kind make our action
involuntary, but give occasion rather to spontaneous action, aided and
sustained by feelings of confidence and hope. For either we must totally
dismiss and exclude divine influences from every kind of causality and
origination in what we do, or else what other way can we conceive in which
divine aid and cooperation can act? Certainly we cannot suppose that the
divine beings actually and literally turn our bodies and direct our hands and
our feet this way or that, to do what is right: it is obvious that they must
actuate the practical and elective element of our nature, by certain initial
occasions, by images presented to the imagination, and thoughts suggested to
the mind, such either as to excite it to, or avert and withhold it from, any
particular course.
In the perplexity which I have described, the Roman women went, some to
other temples, but the greater part, and the ladies of highest rank, to the
altar of Jupiter Capitolinus. Among these suppliants was Valeria, sister to
the great Poplicola, who did the Romans eminent service both in peace and war.
Poplicola himself was now deceased, as is told in the history of his life; but
Valeria lived still, and enjoyed great respect and honor at Rome, her life and
conduct no way disparaging her birth. She, suddenly seized with the sort of
instinct or emotion of mind which I have described, and happily lighting, not
without divine guidance, on the right expedient, both rose herself, and bade
the others rise, and went directly with them to the house of Volumnia, the
mother of Marcius. And coming in and finding her sitting with her daughter -
in - law, and with her little grandchildren on her lap, Valeria, then
surrounded by her female companions, spoke in the name of them all: -
"We that now make our appearance, O Volumnia, and you, Vergilia, are come
as mere women to women, not by direction of the senate, or an order from the
consuls, or the appointment of any other magistrate; but the divine being
himself, as I conceive, moved to compassion by our prayers, prompted us to
visit you in a body, and request a thing on which our own and the common
safety depends, and which, if you consent to it, will raise your glory above
that of the daughters of the Sabines, who won over their fathers and their
husbands from mortal enmity to peace and friendship. Arise and come with us to
Marcius; join in our supplication, and bear for your country this true and
just testimony on her behalf: that notwithstanding the many mischiefs that
have been done her, yet she has never outraged you, nor so much as thought of
treating you ill, in all her resentment, but does now restore you safe into
his hands, though there be small likelihood she should obtain from him any
equitable terms."
The words of Valeria were seconded by the acclamations of the other
women, to which Volumnia made answer: -
"I and Vergilia, my countrywomen, have an equal share with you all in the
common miseries, and we have the additional sorrow, which is wholly ours, that
we have lost the merit and good fame of Marcius, and see his person confined,
rather than protected, by the arms of the enemy. Yet I account this the
greatest of all misfortunes, if indeed the affairs of Rome be sunk to so
feeble a state as to have their last dependence upon us. For it is hardly
imaginable he should have any consideration left for us, when he has no regard
for the country which he was wont to prefer before his mother and wife and
children. Make use, however, of our service; and lead us, if you please, to
him; we are able, if nothing more, at least to spend our last breath in making
suit to him for our country."
Having spoken thus, she took Vergilia by the hand, and the young
children, and so accompanied them to the Volscian camp. So lamentable a sight
much affected the enemies themselves, who viewed them in respectful silence.
Marcius was then sitting in his place, with his chief officers about him, and,
seeing the party of women advance toward him, wondered what should be the
matter; but perceiving at length that his mother was at the head of them, he
would fain have hardened himself in his former inexorable temper, but,
overcome by his feelings, and confounded at what he saw, he did not endure
they should approach him sitting in state, but came down hastily to meet them,
saluting his mother first, and embracing her a long time, and then his wife
and children, sparing neither tears nor caresses, but suffering himself to be
borne away and carried headlong, as it were, by the impetuous violence of his
passion.
When he had satisfied himself, and observed that his mother Volumnia was
desirous to say something, the Volscian council being first called in, he
heard her to the following effect: "Our dress and our very persons, my son,
might tell you, though we should say nothing ourselves, in how forlorn a
condition we have lived at home since your banishment and absence from us; and
now consider with yourself, whether we may not pass for the most unfortunate
of all women, to have that sight, which should be the sweetest that we could
see, converted, through I know not what fatality, to one of all others the
most formidable and dreadful, - Volumnia to behold her son, and Vergilia her
husband, in arms against the walls of Rome. Even prayer itself, whence others
gain comfort and relief in all manner of misfortunes, is that which most adds
to our confusion and distress; since our best wishes are inconsistent with
themselves, nor can we at the same time petition the gods for Rome`s victory
and your preservation, but what the worst of our enemies would imprecate as a
curse, is the very object of our vows. Your wife and children are under the
sad necessity, that they must either be deprived of you, or of their native
soil. As for myself, I am resolved not to wait till war shall determine this
alternative for me; but if I cannot prevail with you to prefer amity and
concord to quarrel and hostility, and to be the benefactor to both parties,
rather than the destroyer of one of them, be assured of this from me, and
reckon steadfastly upon it, that you shall not be able to reach your country,
unless you trample first upon the corpse of her that brought you into life.
For it will be ill in me to wait and loiter in the world till the day come
wherein I shall see a child of mine, either led in triumph by his own
countrymen, or triumphing over them. Did I require you to save your country by
ruining the Volscians, then, I confess, my son, the case would be hard for you
to solve. It is base to bring destitution on our fellow - citizens; it is
unjust to betray those who have placed their confidence in us. But, as it is,
we do but desire a deliverance equally expedient for them and us: only more
glorious and honorable on the Volscian side, who as superior in arms, will be
thought freely to bestow the two greatest of blessings, peace and friendship,
even when they themselves receive the same. If we obtain these, the common
thanks will be chiefly due to you as the principal cause; but if they be not
granted, you alone must expect to bear the blame from both nations. The chance
of all war is uncertain, yet thus much is certain in the present, that you, by
conquering Rome, will only get the reputation of having undone your country;
but if the Volscians happen to be defeated under your conduct, then the world
will say, that, to satisfy a revengeful humor, you brought misery on your
friends and patrons."
Marcius listened to his mother while she spoke, without answering her a
word; and Volumnia, seeing him stand mute also for a long time after she had
ceased, resumed: "O my son," said she, "what is the meaning of this silence?
Is it a duty to postpone every thing to a sense of injuries, and wrong to
gratify a mother in a request like this? Is it the characteristic of a great
man to remember wrongs that have been done him, and not the part of a great
and good man to remember benefits such as those that children receive from
parents, and to requite them with honor and respect? You, methinks, who are so
relentless in the punishment of the ungrateful, should not be more careless
than others to be grateful yourself. You have punished your country already;
you have not yet paid your debt to me. Nature and religion, surely, unattended
by any constraint, should have won your consent to petitions so worthy and so
just as these; but if it must be so, I will even use my last resource." Having
said this, she threw herself down at his feet, as did also his wife and
children; upon which Marcius, crying out, "O, mother! what is it you have done
to me?" raised her up from the ground, and pressing her right hand with more
than ordinary vehemence, "You have gained a victory," said he, "fortunate
enough for the Romans, but destructive to your son; whom you, though none
else, have defeated." After which, and a little private conference with his
mother and his wife, he sent them back again to Rome, as they desired of him.
The next morning, he broke up his camp, and led the Volscians homeward,
variously affected with what he had done; some of them complaining to him and
condemning his act, others, who were inclined to a peaceful conclusion,
unfavorable to neither. A third party, while much disliking his proceedings,
yet could not look upon Marcius as a treacherous person, but thought it
pardonable in him to be thus shaken and driven to surrender at last, under
such compulsion. None, however, opposed his commands; they all obediently
followed him, though rather from admiration of his virtue, than any regard
they now had to his authority. The Roman people, meantime, more effectually
manifested how much fear and danger they had been in while the war lasted, by
their deportment after they were freed from it. Those that guarded the walls
had no sooner given notice that the Volscians were dislodged and drawn off,
but they set open all their temples in a moment, and began to crown themselves
with garlands and prepare for sacrifice, as they were wont to do upon tidings
brought of any signal victory. But the joy and transport of the whole city was
chiefly remarkable in the honors and marks of affection paid to the women, as
well by the senate as the people in general; every one declaring that they
were, beyond all question, the instruments of the public safety. And the
senate having passed a decree that whatsoever they would ask in the way of any
favor or honor should be allowed and done for them by the magistrates, they
demanded simply that a temple might be erected to Female Fortune, the expense
of which they offered to defray out of their own contributions, if the city
would be at the cost of sacrifices, and other matters pertaining to the due
honor of the gods, out of the common treasury. The senate, much commending
their public spirit, caused the temple to be built and a statue set up in it
at the public charge; they, however, made up a sum among themselves, for a
second image of Fortune, which the Romans say uttered, as it was putting up,
words to this effect, "Blessed of the gods, O women, is your gift."
These words they profess were repeated a second time, expecting our
belief for what seems pretty nearly an impossibility. It may be possible
enough, that statues may seem to sweat, and to run with tears, and to stand
with certain dewy drops of a sanguine color; for timber and stones are
frequently known to contract a kind of scurf and rottenness productive of
moisture; and various tints may form on the surfaces, both from within and
from the action of the air outside; and by these signs it is not absurd to
imagine that the deity may forewarn us. It may happen, also, that images and
statues may sometimes make a noise not unlike that of a moan or groan, through
a rupture or violent internal separation of the parts; but that an articulate
voice and such express words, and language so clear and exact and elaborate,
should proceed from inanimate things, is, in my judgment, a thing utterly out
of possibility. For it was never known that either the soul of man, or the
deity himself, uttered vocal sounds and language, alone, without an organized
body and members fitted for speech. But where history seems in a manner to
force our assent by the concurrence of numerous and credible witnesses, we are
to conclude that an impression distinct from sensation affects the imaginative
part of our nature, and then carries away the judgment, so as to believe it to
be a sensation: just as in sleep we fancy we see and hear, without really
doing either. Persons, however, whose strong feelings of reverence to the
deity, and tenderness for religion, will not allow them to deny or invalidate
any thing of this kind, have certainly a strong argument for their faith, in
the wonderful and transcendent character of the divine power; which admits no
manner of comparison with ours, either in its nature or its action, the modes
or the strength of its operations. It is no contradiction to reason that it
should do things that we cannot do, and effect what for us is impracticable:
differing from us in all respects, in its acts yet more than in other points
we may well believe it to be unlike us and remote from us. Knowledge of divine
things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.
When Marcius came back to Antium, Tullus, who thoroughly hated and
greatly feared him, proceeded at once to contrive how he might immediately
despatch him; as, if he escaped now, he was never likely to give him such
another advantage. Having, therefore, got together and suborned several
partisans against him, he required Marcius to resign his charge, and give the
Volscians an account of his administration. He, apprehending the danger of a
private condition, while Tullus held the office of general and exercised the
greatest power among his fellow - citizens, made answer, that he was ready to
lay down his commission, whenever those from whose common authority he had
received it, should think fit to recall it, and that in the mean time he was
ready to give the Antiates satisfaction, as to all particulars of his conduct,
if they were desirous of it.
An assembly was called, and popular speakers, as had been concerted, came
forward to exasperate and incense the multitude; but when Marcius stood up to
answer, the more unruly and tumultuous part of the people became quiet on a
sudden, and out of reverence allowed him to speak without the least
disturbance; while all the better people, and such as were satisfied with a
peace, made it evident by their whole behavior, that they would give him a
favorable hearing, and judge and pronounce according to equity.
Tullus, therefore, began to dread the issue of the defence he was going
to make for himself; for he was an admirable speaker, and the former services
he had done the Volscians had procured and still preserved for him greater
kindness than could be outweighed by any blame for his late conduct. Indeed,
the very accusation itself was a proof and testimony of the greatness of his
merits, since people could never have complained or thought themselves
wronged, because Rome was not brought into their power, but that by his means
they had come so near to taking it. For these reasons, the conspirators judged
it prudent not to make any further delays, nor to test the general feeling;
but the boldest of their faction, crying out that they ought not to listen to
a traitor, nor allow him still to retain office and play the tyrant among
them, fell upon Marcius in a body, and slew him there, none of those that were
present offering to defend him. But it quickly appeared that the action was in
no - wise approved by the majority of the Volscians, who hurried out of their
several cities to show respect to his corpse; to which they gave honorable
interment, adorning his sepulchre with arms and trophies, as the monument of a
noble hero and a famous general. When the Romans heard tidings of his death,
they gave no other signification either of honor or of anger towards him, but
simply granted the request of the women, that they might put themselves into
mourning and bewail him for ten months, as the usage was upon the loss of a
father or a son or a brother; that being the period fixed for the longest
lamentation by the laws of Numa Pompilius, as is more amply told in the
account of him.
Marcius was no sooner deceased, but the Volscians felt the need of his
assistance. They quarrelled first with the Aequians, their confederates and
their friends, about the appointment of the general of their joint forces, and
carried their dispute to the length of bloodshed and slaughter; and were then
defeated by the Romans in a pitched battle, where not only Tullus lost his
life, but the principal flower of their whole army was cut in pieces; so that
they were forced to submit and accept of peace upon very dishonorable terms,
becoming subjects of Rome, and pledging themselves to submission.
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