CHAPTER IX.

CORIOLANUS AND CINCINNATUS.

B.C. 458.


All the time these struggles were going on between the patricians and
the plebeians at home, there were wars with the neighboring tribes, the
Volscians, the Veians, the Latins, and the Etruscans. Every spring the
fighting men went out, attacked their neighbors, drove off their cattle,
and tried to take some town; then fought a battle, and went home to reap
the harvest, gather the grapes and olives in the autumn, and attend to
public business and vote for the magistrates in the winter. They were
small wars, but famous men fought in them. In a war against the
Volscians, when Cominius was consul, he was besieging a city called
Corioli, when news came that the men of Antium were marching against
him, and in their first attack on the walls the Romans were beaten off,
but a gallant young patrician, descended from the king Ancus Marcius,
Caius Marcius by name, rallied them and led them back with such spirit
that the place was taken before the hostile army came up; then he fought
among the foremost and gained the victory. When he was brought to the
consul's tent covered with wounds, Cominius did all he could to show his
gratitude--set on the young man's head the crown of victory, gave him
the surname of Coriolanus in honor of his exploits, and granted him the
tenth part of the spoil of ten prisoners. Of them, however, Coriolanus
only accepted one, an old friend of the family, whom he set at liberty