When it comes to early ancient Rome the lines between fact and fiction, history and legend are often blurred. Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, the legendary Roman general and statesman, is a perfect example.
His story tells how a once-revered war hero turned traitor and villain and led the Roman Republic’s greatest enemies to its very gates. It’s an entertaining story, full of twists and turns, but to what extent is it true?
Ancient historians certainly believed so, but their modern counterparts are less convinced. To find the real Coriolanus, the man behind the myth, we must take a step back and examine his story with fresh eyes.
By examining his military triumphs, political struggles, and enigmatic persona we can unravel the layers of legend that have enshrouded Coriolanus to, maybe, reveal the truth of this Roman icon.
The Making of a Legend
Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus to give him his full name, comes from a truly ancient part of Ancient Rome’s history. We have extraordinarily little concrete information on him and what we do have is pieced together from various ancient historians who tended to write in isolation, to embellish, and therefore to disagree.
For a start, there’s even disagreement about his name. While most Roman historians, like Livy, called him Gnaeus, the Greek historian Dionysus called him Gaius. This was a habit copied by Plutarch which was then copied by Shakespeare. It’s rarely a good sign for historical accuracy when historians can’t even agree on a figure’s name.
Similarly, little is known about Coriolanus’s early life. We know he was active as a Roman General during the fifth century BC but otherwise his origins are largely unknown. According to Plutarch he was descended from famed Roman patricians such as Censorinus and could trace his lineage back to an early Roman King.
However these claims are hard to back up and illustrious lineages were often spuriously attached to great man. Good at winning battles? You must be descended from the god Mars, etc.
According to Roman tradition, Coriolanus first became famous while serving under the consul Postumus Cominius during the 493 BC raid of a Volscian town, Corioli. The Volscians were an old Italic tribe and historic enemies of Rome who, despite being ultimately defeated, had a habit of giving the Romans a run for their money in the early years of the Republic.
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The siege of Corioli did not go to plan. While Cominius’s forces focused on the siege, Volscian backup arrived from the coastal town of Antium and ambushed the Romans. As this was going on Corioli’s soldiers saw their chance and launched an attack on the Romans, meaning they were being attacked on two fronts.
This is where Coriolanus comes in. He was keeping watch at the time of the attack and quickly raised a small force and led a counterattack against the Corioli men. Not only did he drive them back, but he managed to lead a charge right through the city’s gates, finally breaking the siege.
Once inside the city walls, Coriolanus and his men set fire to the outermost houses bordering the fortified city wall. As the citizens cried for help the Volscian force is said to have become dispirited, losing morale. They were defeated by the Romans and the town was captured. As a reward, Marcius was awarded the cognomen (honorific third name) “Coriolanus”.
Hero to Villain
Coriolanus’s time in the sun didn’t last for long. Two years later, Rome was recovering from a major grain shortage that had heaped misery upon its populace. The shortage ended with grain imports from Sicily, but the Senate had to debate how the grain would be distributed. Who would get it first?
Coriolanus was of the upper classes and had always shown a disdain for commoners. According to ancient sources, he argued that the people shouldn’t receive any grain until the office of Tribune, a product of pro-plebeian political reforms, was abolished. Pretty much no one agreed with him.
The senate felt he was being too harsh and most likely feared upsetting the populace even further. The tribunes on the other hand were outraged and put Coriolanus on trial.
Initially, the Senate attempted to defend Coriolanus and argued for acquittal or at least a merciful sentence. He might have been a snob, but he was a war hero after all. The Tribunes disagreed and after Coriolanus refused to attend his own trial he was convicted and sentenced to exile.
Coriolanus responded to his exile by becoming a turncoat. He fled Rome and ran to the Volscians, who were more than happy to add one of Rome’s most feared generals to their ranks. In fact, they were so happy to have him that upon arriving in Volscian lands he supposedly resided with the Volscian leader, Attius Tullus Aufidius.
Coriolanus and Aufidius then teamed up and persuaded the Volscians to break their recent truce and attack Rome. According to Livy, Aufidis did this by tricking the Senate into insulting the Volsci at the Great Games by expelling them.
The two “friends” then led the Volscian army in attacks against Roman towns, colonies, and allies. They were hugely successful and took back the old Volscian towns of Satricum, Longula, Pollusca, and Corioli as well as expelling Roman colonists from Ciceii. They topped things off by taking several other important towns such as Lavinium, Corbio, and Trebia.
The next step was to lay siege to Rome itself. The Volscian army is said to have camped up at the Cluilian trench, just five miles outside of Rome. The Roman Consuls of the time, Spurius Nautius and Sextus Furius, prepared for war and readied the city’s defenses but the plebeians wanted to sue for peace.
They got their way and after a convening of the Senate, supplicants were twice sent to Coriolanus and Aufidius. Both times the Senate received a negative response, evidently Coriolanus wasn’t the forgiving type. The senate even tried sending priests to plead for peace but to no avail.
Ultimately Coriolanus’s own mother, Veturia, and his wife, Volumnia, were forced to step in alongside his two sons. They visited his camp and begged him to stop his attack, arguing he had proven his point. This seems to have done the trick and Coriolanus ended his siege.
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While Coriolanus ended up an enemy, Rome honored both his mother and wife with a temple dedicated to the goddess Fortuna.
What happened to Coriolanus next is unclear with various sources arguing over what happened next. The most famous version of events states that he retired to Antium. At this point, both the Volsci and Romans saw him as a traitor, and he was put on trial by the Volsci. He was said to have been assassinated before his trial ended.
Man or Myth?
What a story, eh? But did it really happen? There’s a lot of debate as to whether Coriolanus was a real figure, a myth, or something in between. Ancient historians like Livy, Plutarch, and Dionysius clearly believed in him but many modern historians are skeptical.
Why the skepticism? It largely boils down to a lack of reliable contemporary sources. The first accounts of Coriolanus’s life come from the third century BC, two hundred years after he died. Why did it take so long to write of such great events and the life of such a key figure on Rome’s history?
Then there’s the fact that the accounts we do have feature some discrepancies. Coriolanus is said to have been an important figure, but sources can’t agree on his origins, key events in his life, or how he died. That is odd for a figure as important as Coriolanus, he nearly invaded Rome itself after all.
At the same time, it seems unlikely he’s wholly made up. Most modern historians agree that he was likely a real historical figure but that his story was highly embellished as over time fact and legend intertwined. There’s plenty of precedent for this, with many figures from ancient history separating fact from fiction can be challenging, especially the further back one goes.
Unless more contemporary sources crop up (which is unlikely) Coriolanus is likely to remain a bit of an enigma. Real or fake, his story represents the very real dark decades of the early fifth century BC that saw Rome starving and struggling against the Volscians. A reminder that the mighty Romans weren’t always so mighty.
Today his legacy lives on outside the realm of historical discourse. The last (and not the best) of Shakespeare’s “Roman Plays,” Coriolanus, is based on his tale. This in turn inspired multiple other plays, poems, novels, and even motion pictures.
These have portrayed Coriolanus as everything from the traditional tragic hero to an anti-populist and proto-fascist leader. Historians may not be sure if he really existed, but it seems likely his story will continue to be told for generations to come.
Top Image: Coriolanus saved Rome, and then tried to conquer it. Source: Joshua / Adobe Stock.
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