During the secession of the commons, Spurius Cassius and Postumus
Cominius entered on the consulship. During their consulate, a treaty
was concluded with the Latin states. To ratify this, one of the
consuls remained at Rome: the other, who was sent to take command
in the Volscian war, routed and put to flight the Volscians of
Antium,[38] and pursuing them till they had been driven into the town
of Longula, took possession of the walls. Next he took Polusca, also
a city of the Volscians: he then attacked Corioli [39] with great
violence. There was at that time in the camp, among the young nobles,
Gnaeus Marcius, a youth distinguished both for intelligence and
courage, who was afterward surnamed Coriolanus. While the Roman army
was besieging Corioli, devoting all its attention to the townspeople,
who were kept, shut up within the walls, and there was no apprehension
of attack threatening from without, the Volscian legions, setting out
from Antium, suddenly attacked them, and the enemy sallied forth at
the same time from the town. Marcius at that time happened to be on
guard. He, with a chosen body of men, not only beat back the attack
of those who had sallied forth, but boldly rushed in through the
open gate, and, having cut down all who were in the part of the city
nearest to it, and hastily seized some blazing torches, threw them
into the houses adjoining the wall. Upon this, the shouts of the
townsmen, mingled with the wailings of the women and children
occasioned at first by fright, as is usually the case, both increased
the courage of the Romans, and naturally dispirited the Volscians
who had come to bring help, seeing that the city was taken. Thus the
Volscians of Antium were defeated, and the town of Corioli was taken.
And so much did Marcius by his valour eclipse the reputation of the
consul, that, had not the treaty concluded with the Latins by Spurius
Cassius alone, in consequence of the absence of his colleagues, and
which was engraved on a brazen column, served as a memorial of it, it
would have been forgotten that Postumus Cominius had conducted the war
with the Volscians. In the same year died Agrippa Menenius, a man all
his life equally a favourite with senators and commons, endeared still
more to the commons after the secession. This man, the mediator and
impartial promoter of harmony among his countrymen, the ambassador of
the senators to the commons, the man who brought back the commons to
the city, did not leave enough to bury him publicly. The people buried
him by the contribution of a sextans [40] per man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account