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their representatives. He flees before the trial which would ruin him and his family socially and financially, and seeks the alliance with the Volsci described above. His military campaign against Rome is successful and his forces are approaching the walls of the city until the appeal of the Roman women, including his patrician mother and his wife. When he orders his troops to withdraw, he is killed by them.
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307:(known as Virgilia in Shakespeare's play) and his two sons, together with the matrons of Rome, went out to the Volscian camp and implored Coriolanus to cease his attack on Rome. Coriolanus was overcome by their pleas, and moved the Volscian camp back from the city, ending the siege. Rome honoured the service of these women by the erection of a temple dedicated to
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and attacked the Romans, and at the same time the soldiers of
Corioli launched a sally. Marcius held watch at the time of the Volscian attack. He quickly gathered a small force of Roman soldiers to fight against the Volscians who had sallied forth from Corioli. Not only did he repel the enemy, but he
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father. His attitudes toward the changes occurring in Rome during his lifetime are reflective of what has been described. He achieves
Senatorial status thanks to his military valour and connections. When he calls for the abolition of the office of tribune, he becomes a target of the plebeians and
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The senate thought
Coriolanus' proposal was too harsh. The populace were incensed at Coriolanus' proposal, and the tribunes put him on trial. The senators argued for the acquittal of Coriolanus, or at the least a merciful sentence. Coriolanus refused to attend on the day of his trial, and he was
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also charged through the town gates and then began setting fire to some of the houses bordering the town wall. The citizens of
Corioli cried out, and the whole Volscian force was dispirited and was defeated by the Romans. The town was captured, and Marcius gained the cognomen Coriolanus.
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Some modern scholars question parts of the story of
Coriolanus. It is notable that accounts of Coriolanus' life are first found in works from the third century BC, some two hundred years after Coriolanus' life, and there are few authoritative historical records prior to
83:. More recent scholarship has cast doubt on the historicity of Coriolanus, with some portraying him as either a wholly legendary figure or at least disputing the accuracy of the conventional story of his life or the timing of the events.
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Coriolanus and
Aufidius then persuaded the Volscians to break their truce with Rome and raise an army to invade. Livy recounts that Aufidius tricked the Roman senate into expelling the Volsci from Rome during the celebration of the
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In later ancient times, it was generally accepted by historians that
Coriolanus was a real historical individual, and a consensus narrative story of his life appeared, retold by leading historians such as
391:. Whether or not Coriolanus himself is a historical figure, the saga preserves a genuine popular memory of the dark, unhappy decades of the early 5th century BC when the Volscians overran
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uses
Coriolanus as an example of violating Law no. 4: "Always Say Less Than Necessary", citing his constant insulting of the plebeians as the reason for his exile.
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In 491 BC, two years after
Coriolanus' victory over the Volscians, Rome was recovering from a grain shortage. A significant quantity of grain was imported from
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is the last of his "Roman plays". Its portrayal of the hero has led to a long tradition of political interpretation of
Coriolanus as an anti-populist, or even
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Coriolanus and Aufidius led the Volscian army against Roman towns, colonies and allies. Roman colonists were expelled from
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According to Plutarch, his ancestors included prominent patricians such as Censorinus and even an early King of Rome.
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and then Shakespeare. Ogilvie suggests Dionysius may have followed a separate tradition originated from the annalist
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Plutarch's account of his defection tells that Coriolanus donned a disguise and entered the home of Aufidius as a
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Coriolanus fled to the Volsci in exile. He was received and treated kindly, and resided with the Volscian leader
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of the Volscian town of Corioli. While the Romans were focused on the siege, another Volscian force arrived from
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Full text of 19th-century English translation by Aubrey Stewart and George Long (multiple formats for download)
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portrayed him in the context of German romantic ideas of the tragic hero. Beethoven's 1807
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Coriolanus came to fame as a young man serving in the army of the consul
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who was a contemporary of Coriolanus. During Themistocles'
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is a 1963 Italian film based on the legend of Coriolanus.
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The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects
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wrote a sequence of poems in 1931 entitled "Coriolan".
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was written for a production of the von Collin play.
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881:The American Cyclopædia
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127:The Story of the Romans
1301:Ancient Roman generals
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1192:Agis
1185:and
1176:and
1167:and
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1140:and
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1122:and
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1111:Numa
1104:and
1095:and
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1077:and
1075:Dion
1068:and
1059:and
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1034:Otho
1028:and
1015:life
1008:and
999:and
835:play
740:2:40
730:Livy
716:2:39
706:Livy
680:Livy
669:2.35
659:Livy
645:2.34
635:Livy
624:2.33
614:Livy
583:2019
494:Roma
292:and
250:and
140:Livy
134:Name
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109:by
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