Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
deportment, and with his overbearing, haughty, and imperious temper.
Education and study, and the favors of the muses, confer no greater
benefit on those that seek them, than these humanizing and civilizing
lessons, which teach our natural qualities to submit to the limitations
prescribed by reason, and to avoid the wildness of extremes.
Those were times at Rome in which that kind of worth was most esteemed
which displayed itself in military achievements; one evidence of which
we find in the Latin word for virtue, which is properly equivalent to
manly courage. As if valor and all virtue had been the same thing, they
used as the common term the name of the particular excellence. But
Marcius, having a more passionate inclination than any of that age for
feats of war, began at once, from his very childhood, to handle arms;
and feeling that adventitious implements and artificial arms would
effect little, and be of small use to such as have not their native and
natural weapons well fixed and prepared for service, he so exercised and
inured his body to all sorts of activity and encounter, that, besides
the lightness of a racer, he had a weight in close seizures and
wrestlings with an enemy, from which it was hard for any to disengage
himself; so that his competitors at home in displays of bravery, loath
to own themselves inferior in that respect, were wont to ascribe their
deficiencies to his strength of body, which they said no resistance and
no fatigue could exhaust.
The first time he went out to the wars, being yet a stripling, was when
Tarquinius Superbus, who had been king of Rome and was afterwards
expelled, after many unsuccessful attempts, now entered upon his last
effort, and proceeded to hazard all as it were upon a single throw. A
great number of the Latins and other people of Italy joined their
forces, and were marching with him toward the city, to procure his
restoration; not, however, so much out of a desire to serve and
oblige Tarquin, as to gratify their own fear and envy at the increase of
the Roman greatness, which they were anxious to check and reduce. The
armies met and engaged in a decisive battle, in the vicissitudes of
which, Marcius, while fighting bravely in the dictator's presence, saw a
Roman soldier struck down at a little distance, and immediately stepped
in and stood before him, and slew his assailant. The general, after
having gained the victory, crowned him for this act, one of the first,
with a garland of oaken branches; it being the Roman custom thus to
adorn those who had saved the life of a citizen; whether that the law
intended some special honor to the oak, in memory of the Arcadians, a
people the oracle had made famous by the name of acorn-eaters; or
whether the reason of it was because they might easily, and in all
places where they fought, have plenty of oak for that purpose; or,
finally, whether the oaken wreath, being sacred to Jupiter, the guardian
of the city, might, therefore, be thought a propel ornament for one who
preserved a citizen. And the oak, in truth, is the tree which bears the
most and the prettiest fruit of any that grow wild, and is the strongest
of all that are under cultivation; its acorns were the principal diet of
the first mortals, and the honey found in it gave them drink. I may
say, too, it furnished fowl and other creatures as dainties, in
producing mistletoe for birdlime to ensnare them. In this battle,
meantime, it is stated that Castor and Pollux appeared, and, immediately
after the battle, were seen at Rome just by the fountain where their
temple now stands, with their horses foaming with sweat, and told the
news of the victory to the people in the Forum. The fifteenth of July,
being the day of this conquest, became consequently a solemn holiday
sacred to the Twin Brothers.
It may be observed in general, that when young men arrive early at fame
and repute, if they are of a nature but slightly touched with emulation,
this early attainment is apt to extinguish their thirst and satiate
their small appetite; whereas the first distinctions of more solid and
weighty characters do but stimulate and quicken them and take them away,
like a wind, in the pursuit of honor; they look upon these marks and
testimonies to their virtue not as a recompense received for what they
have already done, but as a pledge given by themselves of what they will
perform hereafter, ashamed now to forsake or underlive the credit they
have won, or, rather, not to exceed and obscure all that is gone before
by the luster of their following actions. Marcius, having a spirit of
this noble make, was ambitious always to surpass himself, and did
nothing, how extraordinary soever, but he thought he was bound to outdo
it at the next occasion; and ever desiring to give continual fresh
instances of his prowess he added one exploit to another, and heaped up
trophies upon trophies, so as to make it a matter of contest also among
his commanders, the later still vying with the earlier, which should
pay him the greatest honor and speak highest in his commendation. Of
all the numerous wars and conflicts in those days, there was not one
from which he returned without laurels and rewards. And, whereas others
made glory the end of their daring, the end of his glory was his
mother's gladness; the delight she took to hear him praised and to see
him crowned, and her weeping for joy in his embraces, rendered him, in
his own thoughts, the most honored and most happy person in the world.
Epaminondas is similarly said to have acknowledged his feeling, that it
was the greatest felicity of his whole life that his father and mother
survived to hear of his successful generalship and his victory at
Leuctra. And he had the advantage, indeed, to have both his parents
partake with him, and enjoy the pleasure of his good fortune. But
Marcius, believing himself bound to pay his mother Volumnia all that
gratitude and duty which would have belonged to his father, had he also
been alive, could never satiate himself in his tenderness and respect to
her. He took a wife, also, at her request and wish, and continued, even
after he had children, to live still with his mother, without parting
families.
The repute of his integrity and courage had, by this time, gained him a
considerable influence and authority in Rome, when the senate, favoring
the wealthier citizens, began to be at variance with the common people,
who made sad complaints of the rigorous and inhuman usage they received
from the money-lenders. For as many as were behind with them, and had
any sort of property, they stripped of all they had, by the way of
pledges and sales; and such as through former exactions were reduced
already to extreme indigence, and had nothing more to be deprived of,
these they led away in person and put their bodies under constraint,
notwithstanding the scars and wounds that they could show in attestation
of their public services in numerous campaigns; the last of which had
been against the Sabines, which they undertook upon a promise made by
their rich creditors that they would treat them with more gentleness for
the future, Marcus Valerius, the consul, having, by order from the
senate, engaged also for the performance of it. But when, after they
had fought courageously and beaten the enemy, there was, nevertheless,
no moderation or forbearance used, and the senate also professed to
remember nothing of that agreement, and sat without testifying the least
concern to see them dragged away like slaves and their goods seized upon
as formerly, there began now to be open disorders and dangerous meetings
in the city; and the enemy, also, aware of the popular confusion,
invaded and laid waste the country. And when the consuls now gave
notice, that all who were of an age to bear arms should make their
personal appearance, but found no one regard the summons, the members of
the government, then coming to consult what course should be taken,
were themselves again divided in opinion: some thought it most
advisable to comply a little in favor of the poor, by relaxing their
overstrained rights, and mitigating the extreme rigor of the law, while
others withstood this proposal; Marcius in particular, with more
vehemence than the rest, alleging that the business of money on either
side was not the main thing in question, urged that this disorderly
proceeding was but the first insolent step towards open revolt against
the laws, which it would become the wisdom of the government to check at
the earliest moment.
There had been frequent assemblies of the whole senate, within a small
compass of time, about this difficulty, but without any certain issue;
the poor commonalty, therefore, perceiving there was likely to be no
redress of their grievances, on a sudden collected in a body, and,
encouraging each other in their resolution, forsook the city with one
accord and seizing the hill which is now called the Holy Mount, sat down
by the river Anio, without committing any sort of violence or seditious
outrage, but merely exclaiming, as they went along, that they had this
long time past been, in fact, expelled and excluded from the city by the
cruelty of the rich; that Italy would everywhere afford them the benefit
of air and water and a place of burial, which was all they could expect
in the city, unless it were, perhaps, the privilege of being wounded and
killed in time of war for the defense of their creditors. The senate,
apprehending the consequences, sent the most moderate and popular men of
their own order to treat with them.
Menenius Agrippa, their chief spokesman, after much entreaty to the
people, and much plain speaking on behalf of the senate, concluded, at
length, with the celebrated fable. "It once happened," he said, "that
all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they
accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while
the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labor to supply
and minister to its appetites. The stomach, however, merely ridiculed
the silliness of the members, who appeared not to be aware that the
stomach certainly does receive the general nourishment, but only to
return it again, and redistribute it amongst the rest. Such is the
case," he said, "ye citizens, between you and the senate. The counsels
and plans that are there duly digested, convey and secure to all of you,
your proper benefit and support."
A reconciliation ensued, the senate acceding to the request of the
people for the annual election of five protectors for those in need of
succor, the same that are now called the tribunes of the people; and the
first two they pitched upon were Junius Brutus and Sicinnius Vellutus,
their leaders in the secession.
The city being thus united, the commons stood presently to their arms,
and followed their commanders to the war with great alacrity. As for
Marcius, though he was not a little vexed himself to see the populace
prevail so far and gain ground of the senators, and might observe many
other patricians have the same dislike of the late concessions, he yet
besought them not to yield at least to the common people in the zeal and
forwardness they now allowed for their country's service, but to prove
that they were superior to them, not so much in power and riches as in
merit and worth.
The Romans were now at war with the Volscian nation, whose principal
city was Corioli; when, therefore, Cominius the consul had invested this
important place, the rest of the Volscians, fearing it would be taken,
mustered up whatever force they could from all parts, to relieve it,
designing to give the Romans battle before the city, and so attack them
on both sides. Cominius, to avoid this inconvenience, divided his army,