2.40
Then the matrons went in
a body to Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and
Volumnia his wife. Whether this was in consequence
of a decree of the senate, or simply the prompting
of womanly fear, I am unable to ascertain, but at
all events they succeeded in inducing the aged
Veturia to go with Volumnia and her two little sons
to the enemies' camp. As men were powerless to
protect the City by their arms, the women sought to
do so by their tears and prayers. On their arrival
at the camp a message was sent to Coriolanus that a
large body of women were present. He had remained
unmoved by the majesty of the State in the persons
of its ambassadors, and by the appeal made to his
eyes and mind in the persons of its priests; he was
still more obdurate to the tears of the women. Then
one of his friends, who had recognised Veturia,
standing between her daughter-in-law and her
grandsons, and conspicuous amongst them all in the
greatness of her grief, said to him, "Unless my eyes
deceive me, your mother and wife and children are
here." Coriolanus, almost like one demented, sprung
from his seat to embrace his mother. She, changing
her tone from entreaty to anger, said, "Before I
admit your embrace suffer me to know whether it is
to an enemy or a son that I have come, whether it is
as your prisoner or as your mother that I am in your
camp. Has a long life and an unhappy old age brought
me to this, that I have to see you an exile and from
that an enemy? Had you the heart to ravage this
land, which has borne and nourished you? However
hostile and menacing the spirit in which you came,
did not your anger subside as you entered its
borders? Did you not say to yourself when your eye
rested on Rome, 'Within those walls are my home, my
household gods, my mother, my wife, my children?'
Must it then be that, had I remained childless, no
attack would have been made on Rome; had I never had
a son, I should have ended my days a free woman in a
free country? But there is nothing which I can
suffer now that will not bring more disgrace to you
than wretchedness to me; whatever unhappiness awaits
me it will not be for long. Look to these, whom, if
you persist in your present course, an untimely
death awaits, or a long life of bondage." When she
ceased, his wife and children embraced him, and all
the women wept and bewailed their own and their
country's fate. At last his resolution gave way. He
embraced his family and dismissed them, and moved
his camp away from the City. After withdrawing his
legions from the Roman territory, he is said to have
fallen a victim to the resentment which his action
aroused, but as to the time and circumstances of his
death the traditions vary. I find in Fabius, who is
by far the oldest authority, that he lived to be an
old man; he relates a saying of his, which he often
uttered in his later years, that it is not till a
man is old that he feels the full misery of exile.
The Roman husbands did not grudge their wives the
glory they had won, so completely were their lives
free from the spirit of detraction and envy. A
temple was built and dedicated to Fortuna Muliebris,
to serve as a memorial of their deed. Subsequently
the combined forces of the Volscians and Aequi
re-entered the Roman territory. The Aequi, however,
refused any longer to accept the generalship of
Attius Tullius, a quarrel arose as to which nation
should furnish the commander of the combined army,
and this resulted in a bloody battle. Here the good
fortune of Rome destroyed the two armies of her
enemies in a conflict no less ruinous than
obstinate. The new consuls were T. Sicinius and C.
Aquilius. To Sicinius was assigned the campaign
against the Volscians, to Aquilius that against the
Hernici, for they also were in arms. In that year
the Hernici were subjugated, the campaign against
the Volscians ended indecisively.