Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
preventing intestine broils by employment abroad, and in the hope, that
when rich as well as poor, plebeians and patricians, should be mingled
again in the same army and the same camp, and engage in one common
service for the public, it would mutually dispose them to reconciliation
and friendship.
But Sicinnius and Brutus, the popular orators, interposed, crying out,
that the consuls disguised the most cruel and barbarous action in the
world under that mild and plausible name of a colony, and were simply
precipitating so many poor citizens into a mere pit of destruction,
bidding them settle down in a country where the air was charged with
disease, and the ground covered with dead bodies, and expose themselves
to the evil influence of a strange and angered deity. And then, as if
it would not satisfy their hatred to destroy some by hunger, and offer
others to the mercy of a plague, they must proceed to involve them also
in a needless war of their own making, that no calamity might be
wanting to complete the punishment of the citizens for refusing to
submit to that of slavery to the rich.
By such addresses, the people were so possessed, that none of them would
appear upon the consular summons to be enlisted for the war; and they
showed entire aversion to the proposal for a new plantation; so that the
senate was at a loss what to say or do. But Marcius, who began now to
bear himself higher and to feel confidence in his past actions,
conscious, too, of the admiration of the best and greatest men of Rome,
openly took the lead in opposing the favorers of the people. The colony
was dispatched to Velitrae, those that were chosen by lot being
compelled to depart upon high penalties; and when they obstinately
persisted in refusing to enroll themselves for the Volscian service, he
mustered up his own clients, and as many others as could be wrought upon
by persuasion, and with these made an inroad into the territories of the
Antiates, where, finding a considerable quantity of corn, and collecting
much booty, both of cattle and prisoners, he reserved nothing for
himself in private, but returned safe to Rome, while those that ventured
out with him were seen laden with pillage, and driving their prey before
them. This sight filled those that had stayed at home with regret for
their perverseness, with envy at their fortunate fellow-citizens, and
with feelings of dislike to Marcius, and hostility to his growing
reputation and power, which might probably be used against the popular
interest.
Not long after he stood for the consulship; when, however, the people
began to relent and incline to favor him, being sensible what a shame it
would be to repulse and affront a man of his birth and merit, after he
had done them so many signal services. It was usual for those who stood
for offices among them to solicit and address themselves personally to
the citizens, presenting themselves in the forum with the toga on alone,
and no tunic under it; either to promote their supplications by the
humility of their dress, or that such as had received wounds might more
readily display those marks of their fortitude. Certainly, it was not
out of suspicion of bribery and corruption that they required all such
petitioners for their favor to appear ungirt and open, without any close
garment; as it was much later, and many ages after this, that buying and
selling crept in at their elections, and money became an ingredient in
the public suffrages; proceeding thence to attempt their tribunals, and
even attack their camps, till, by hiring the valiant, and enslaving iron
to silver, it grew master of the state, and turned their commonwealth
into a monarchy. For it was well and truly said that the first
destroyer of the liberties of a people is he who first gave them
bounties and largesses. At Rome the mischief seems to have stolen
secretly in, and by little and little, not being at once discerned and
taken notice of. It is not certainly known who the man was that did
there first either bribe the citizens, or corrupt the courts; whereas,
in Athens, Anytus, the son of Anthemion, is said to have been the first
that gave money to the judges, when on his trial, toward the latter end
of the Peloponnesian war, for letting the fort of Pylos fall into the
hands of the enemy; in a period while the pure and golden race of men
were still in possession of the Roman forum.
Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was showing the scars
and gashes that were still visible on his body, from the many conflicts
in which he had signalized himself during a service of seventeen years
together they were, so to say, put out of countenance at this display of
merit, and told one another that they ought in common modesty to create
him consul. But when the day of election was now come, and Marcius
appeared in the forum, with a pompous train of senators attending him;
and the patricians all manifested greater concern, and seemed to be
exerting greater efforts, than they had ever done before on the like
occasion, the commons then fell off again from the kindness they had
conceived for him, and in the place of their late benevolence, began to
feel something of indignation and envy; passions assisted by the fear
they entertained, that if a man of such aristocratic temper, and so
influential among the patricians, should be invested with the power
which that office would give him, he might employ it to deprive the
people of all that liberty which was yet left them. In conclusion, they
rejected Marcius. Two other names were announced, to the great
mortification of the senators, who felt as if the indignity reflected
rather upon themselves than on Marcius. He, for his part, could not
bear the affront with any patience. He had always indulged his temper,
and had regarded the proud and contentious element of human nature as a
sort of nobleness and magnanimity; reason and discipline had not imbued
him with that solidity and equanimity which enters so largely into the
virtues of the statesman. He had never learned how essential it is for
any one who undertakes public business, and desires to deal with
mankind, to avoid above all things that self-will, which, as Plato says,
belongs to the family of solitude; and to pursue, above all things, that
capacity so generally ridiculed, of submission to ill treatment.
Marcius, straightforward and direct, and possessed with the idea that to
vanquish and overbear all apposition is the true part of bravery, and
never imagining that it was the weakness and womanishness of his nature
that broke out, so to say, in these ulcerations of anger, retired, full
of fury and bitterness against the people. The young patricians, too,
all that were proudest and most conscious of their noble birth, had
always been devoted to his interest, and, adhering to him now, with a
fidelity that did him no good, aggravated his resentment with the
expression of their indignation and condolence. He had been their
captain, and their willing instructor in the arts of war, when out upon
expeditions, and their model in that true emulation and love of
excellence which makes men extol, without envy or jealousy, each other's
brave achievements.
In the midst of these distempers, a large quantity of corn reached Rome,
a great part bought up in Italy, but an equal amount sent as a present
from Syracuse, from Gelo, then reigning there. Many began now to hope
well of their affairs, supposing the city, by this means, would be
delivered at once, both of its want and discord. A council, therefore,
being presently held, the people came flocking about the senate-house,
eagerly awaiting the issue of that deliberation, expecting that the
market prices would now be less cruel, and that what had come as a gift
would be distributed as such. There were some within who so advised the
senate; but Marcius, standing up, sharply inveighed against those who
spoke in favor of the multitude, calling them flatterers of the rabble
traitors to the nobility, and alleging, that, by such gratifications,
they did but cherish those ill seeds of boldness and petulance that had
been sown among the people, to their own prejudice, which they should
have done well to observe and stifle at their first appearance, and not
have suffered the plebeians to grow so strong, by granting them
magistrates of such authority as the tribunes. They were, indeed, even
now formidable to the state, since everything they desired was granted
them; no constraint was put on their will; they refused obedience to the
consuls, and, overthrowing all law and magistracy, gave the title of
magistrate to their private factious leaders. "When things are come to
such a pass, for us to sit here and decree largesses and bounties for
them, like those Greeks where the populace is supreme and absolute, what
would it be else," said he, "but to take their disobedience into pay,
and maintain it for the common ruin of us all? They certainly cannot
look upon these liberalities as a reward of public service, which they
know they have so often deserted; nor yet of those secessions, by which
they openly renounced their country; much less of the calumnies and
slanders they have been always so ready to entertain against the senate;
but will rather conclude that a bounty which seems to have no other
visible cause or reason, must needs be the effect of our fear and
flattery; and will, therefore, set no limit to their disobedience, nor
ever cease from disturbances and sedition. Concession is mere madness;
if we have any wisdom and resolution at all, we shall, on the contrary,
never rest till we have recovered from them that tribunician power they
have extorted from us; as being a plain subversion of the consulship,
and a perpetual ground of separation in our city, that is no longer one,
as heretofore, but has in this received such a wound and rupture, as is
never likely to close and unite again, or suffer us to be of one mind,
and to give over inflaming our distempers, and being a torment to each
other."
Marcius, with much more to this purpose, succeeded, to an extraordinary
degree, in inspiring the younger men with the same furious sentiments,
and had almost all the wealthy on his side, who cried him up as the only
person their city had, superior alike to force and flattery; some of the
older men, however, opposed him, suspecting the consequences. As,
indeed, there came no good of it; for the tribunes, who were present,
perceiving how the proposal of Marcius took, ran out into the crowd with
exclamations, calling on the plebeians to stand together, and come in to
their assistance. The assembly met, and soon became tumultuous. The
sum of what Marcius had spoken, having been reported to the people,
excited them to such fury, that they were ready to break in upon the
senate. The tribunes prevented this, by laying all the blame on
Coriolanus, whom, therefore, they cited by their messengers to come
before them, and defend himself. And when he contemptuously repulsed
the officers who brought him the summons, they came themselves, with the
Aediles, or overseers of the market, proposing to carry him away by
force, and, accordingly, began to lay hold on his person. The
patricians, however, coming to his rescue, not only thrust off the
tribunes, but also beat the Aediles, that were their seconds in the
quarrel; night, approaching, put an end to the contest. But, as soon as
it was day, the consuls, observing the people to be highly exasperated,
and that they ran from all quarters and gathered in the forum, were
afraid for the whole city, so that, convening the senate afresh, they
desired them to advise how they might best compose and pacify the
incensed multitude by equitable language and indulgent decrees; since,