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Historical Elements in the Story of Coriolanus1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. T. Salmon
Affiliation:
British School at Rome

Extract

One of the most recent writers on the early history of Rome has shown that the framework of the traditional story is perhaps to be trusted, even though there are many details, inconsistent and self-contradictory, which are obviously to be rejected. In view of this fact, it might be worth while to reconsider the Coriolanus story, the prevailing opinion concerning which is that vouchsafed by Mommsen many years ago: ‘die Erzählung ist ein spät, in die Annalen eingefügtes, darum in alien Stücken denselben ungleichartiges und widersprechendes Einschiebsel.’ The reasons for arriving at such an opinion are sufficiently obvious to warrant their receiving but the barest recital. First, it is incredible that the Volsci would either choose a renegade Roman to be their general, or, even if they did, allow him at the last minute to rob them of the fruits of victory. Secondly, inconsistencies in the version of the story which we possess induce us to suspect its historicity; for example, Dionysius of Syracuse is made to send corn to the starving Romans'—yet Dionysius lived some hundred years later; a youthful Coriolanus is represented as having considerable influence in the senate—yet in those early days the senate was essentially a gathering of venerable men; the Roman populace learns immediately the gist of Coriolanus' remarks in the senate—yet senate meetings were held in secret; Volsci are allowed to attend the ‘ludi’ and to meet at the Spring of Ferentina—yet in the fifth century none but Latini could do this; the Roman Marcius is given an honorific cognomen, Coriolanus, because of his behaviour at the capture of Corioli—yet such cognomina were not granted until the third century or even later and even then only to the general and not to the subordinate; the plebs is represented as wielding great power in the assembly1—yet we know that in the fifth century it did nothing of the kind.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1930

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References

Page 96 note 2 Last, H. M. in Camb. Anc. Hist. VII., 1928Google Scholar.

Page 96 note 3 Mommsen, , Rōm. Forsch. II., 113 sqGoogle Scholar.; cf. too Ihne 1. 134: ‘every feature of the story is unhistorical,’ and p. 137: ‘there is nothing historical in the legend.’

Page 96 note 4 Dionys. Hal. 7–20, cf. Livy 2. 34. 7; Dionys. elsewhere (7.1) detects the anachronism and substitues the name of Gelo, and in this he is followed by Plutarch. The story of starving Romans is an anticipation of the events of 433, 411 (Livy 4, 25 and 4. 52 where Dionys. of Syracuse apparently is meant, cf. Schwegler 11., p. 367).

Page 96 note 5 Livy 2. 34. 8; Dionys. 7. 21. For C.'s youthfulness, Livy 2. 33. 6. This difficulty was felt and so we find attempts to make C. a, man of consular standing—he is said to be a; candidate for consulship—Dionys. 7. 21, cf. Plut., c. 13; App., fr. 2. [Aurel. Viet.] 19 says he was consul. Livy 2. 34. 10 apparently makes Cor. older—he is represented as full grown at the time Tarquin was in Rome—but this is at variance with our other sources.

Page 96 note 6 Livy 2. 34 says plebs were informed by the tribunes, but at this time tribunes could not enter the senate, Val. Max. 2. 2. 7. Dionys. 7. 26 says C. spoke so loud his voice carried to the plebs without!

Page 96 note 7 Livy 2. 36.

Page 96 note 8 Livy 2. 38. 1; Dionys. 8. 4.

Page 96 note 9 First historical instance is that of Aemilius, L. surnamed Privernas (Fast. Triumph. 329)Google Scholar, but this is not the form we should expect. Privernas should mean a native of Privernum, cf. how Juvenal (8. 237, 245) applies the word Arpinas to Marius and Cicero. Livy 30. 45. 6 says that Scipio in 201 was surnamed Africanus, and this was the first instance of such an honorific cognomen—and perhaps Livy is right. The fact that such titles were only given to commanders-in-chief also helps to explain the attempt to make Cor. of consular standing, cf. n. 5 supra.

Page 97 note 1 To arraign a person before the assembly of the plebs was impossible before 471 (Publilian Law)—Livy 2. 56; Dionys. 9. 41; Diod. n. 68. According to tradition plebiscita had no validity prior to 339—Livy 8. 12. 15.

Page 97 note 2 Soltau, W., die Anfänge der röm. Gesch., 1909, p. 108 sqGoogle Scholar. says whole story is Homeric, and Cor. is counterpart to Achilles.

Page 97 note 3 Plut, . Cor. 22Google Scholar, and cf. Dionys. 8. 1.

Page 97 note 4 Cicero's, story (Brut. 10, 42)Google Scholar of Coriolanus, suicide is also taken from the history of Themistocles.

Page 97 note 5 Dionys. 7. 64. 6.

Page 97 note 6 Ibid., and cf. J. J. Müller in Philologus 34, 1876, p. 109.

Page 97 note 7 Camb. Anc. Hist. VII., p. 498.

Page 97 note 8 De Sanctis II., p. 112, n. 2: ‘Pais, in his analysis of the Coriolanus legend, appears to diverge further from the truth than does the legend itself.’

Page 97 note 9 The Volscians revered his memory and composed songs about it (Dionys. 8. 63), which implies he was a Volscian. Again, Fabius Pictor (apud Livy 2. 40. 10) says the Volsci did not kill him on his return, as assuredly they would have done had he been a Roman who had betrayed them.

Page 97 note 10 Livy 3. 15. 5: ‘exsules seruique.’

Page 97 note 11 Livy 2. 33.

Page 97 note 12 Dionys. 8. 22 tries to overcome this difficulty by saying there was a truce.

Page 98 note 1 Dionys. 5. 61: perhaps Corioli is represented as Volscian owing to confusion with the nearby town of Cora (Cori), which at one time possibly was Volscian.

Page 98 note 2 Livy 2. 33.

Page 98 note 3 Livy 2. 21.

Page 98 note 4 Livy 2. 31. 4; 2. 34. 6; Dionys. 7. 12; 7. 42.

Page 98 note 5 Livy 2. 34; Dionys. 7. 13.

Page 98 note 6 Livy 2. 33. 9 admits as much.

Page 98 note 7 Livy 4. 7. 10, and cf. Dionys. 11. 62.

Page 98 note 8 Beloch, , Röm.Gesch., 1926, p. 147Google Scholar; De Sanctis II. 115, on the other hand, thinks the Foedus Ardeatinum an invention of Licinius Macer.

Page 98 note 9 Livy 3. 71—our only source of knowledge as to the situation of Corioli; it had disappeared by the time of the Elder Pliny (H.N. 3. 69.)

Page 98 note 10 Livy 2. 33. 9.

Page 98 note 11 This, as it seems to the present writer, is sufficient to explain the sudden prominence of an unknown town. De Sanctis II. 112 thinks, on the other hand, that Corioli plays an important r61e in the story, because it was at Corioli that the ‘legend’ of Coriolanus took its rise. Pais III., p. 137, even goes so far as to suggest that Marcius Coriolanus should have some connexion with the god Mars. Schwegler II. 363 and Ihne I. 134 suggest the name of the city was invented to explain the name of the hero.

Page 98 note 12 Livy 7. 17. 6; 7. 22. 7; 10. 8. 8.

Page 98 note 13 Another suggestion is that Coriolanus means the founder rather than the conqueror of Corioli, De Sanctis II. 113.

Page 98 note 14 It is Gaius according to Dionys. 6. 92; Plut, . Cor. 1Google Scholar. Gnaius according to Dio Cass., fr. 18; Val. Max. V. 4. 1; Aul. Gell. 17. 21. 11; Florus 1. 11. 9; [Aur. Viet.] c. 19. The MSS. of Livy 2. 33. 5, 2. 35. 1, give both. This vague ness concerning the name is an additional argument for refusing to believe he was a Roman, cf. p.97 n. 9 supra.

Page 99 note 1 In one summer campaign either eleven (Livy 2. 39) or sixteen (Dionys. 8.14 sq.) towns are said to have been taken. Dionys. indeed says seven of them fell in thirty days!

Page 99 note 2 For example, in 487 Velitrae, and not the area further north, is still the main seat of the Volscian War (Dionys. 8. 67).

Page 99 note 3 Röm. Forsch. II. 113 sq.

Page 99 note 4 Apud Livy 2. 40. 10; Dio Cassius, fr. 33, knew Pictor's version; and Zonaras 7. 16 gives the same account.

Page 99 note 5 Cicero, , Brut. 10. 42Google Scholar; cf. Laelius 12. 42, and ad Att. 9. 10. 3.

Page 99 note 6 Dionys. 8. 59.

Page 99 note 7 Plutarch, of course, derives almost exclusively from Dionysius, Peter, H., Die Quellen Plut. in den Biogr. der Röm., Halle, 1865, p. 7 sqGoogle Scholar.

Page 99 note 8 Dionys. 7. 64. Coriolanus' trial is possibly copied from that of Quinctius Kaeso (Soltau, op. cit.). Dionysius' elaboration of the Coriolanus story may be judged from the fact that he devotes to it not only the whole of Book 7, but most of Book 8 (chs. 1–62).

Page 99 note 9 Livy 2. 39; Dionys. 8. 14 sq.

Page 100 note 1 See Schwegler II., p. 371: in Livy the consuls for 490 and 489 are not given, having had to make room for the Coriolanus episode.

Page 100 note 2 Niebuhr II. 110; Schwegler II. 380.

Page 100 note 3 Cf. words of MrLast, (C.A.H. VII., p. 498)Google Scholar quoted earlier.

Page 100 note 4 For the situation of the temple see Val. Max. 1. 8. 4; Festus, p. 315 L.

Page 100 note 5 Livy 2. 40. 12; Val. Max., op. cit., and 5. 2. 1; Plut., c. 37; Festus, p. 301 L.; Serv. ad Aen. 4. 19; Dionys. 8. 55; 7. 1, etc.—he even says that the first priestess of this temple was the leader of the matronly band that visited Coriolanus, a certain Valeria. Is Valerius Antias responsible for this detail?

Page 100 note 6 Livy 2. 39. 5; Dionys. 8. 22. Dionys. says that Coriolanus made two advances on Rome, and on the second occasion his encampment was thirty stades—i.e. about four miles—from the city (8. 36). This second camp is obviously inserted to bring the story into relation with the temple of Fortuna Muliebris—even Plutarch, who follows Dionys. so closely, refuses to accept this item. In the original story the Cluilian ditch was the scene of the encampment, cf. Schwegler II. 382.

Page 100 note 7 Op. cit., p. 499.

Page 100 note 8 Ibid.

Page 100 note 9 De Sanctis II. 114.

Page 100 note 10 Livy 2. 33. 4 sq.; Dionys. 6. 95; Festus, p. 170 L.; Cicero pro Balb. 23.53.

Page 100 note 11 Livy 2. 41. 1; Dionys. 9. 68.

Page 100 note 12 12 Cf. Täubler, E., Imp. Rom. I., p. 277Google Scholar; vid. Seeck, O., Rh. Mus. 37, 1882, p. 1 sqGoogle Scholar., for a discussion of these and other early treaties.

Page 100 note 13 Cf. inter alias, Ihne, I. 129Google Scholar; Homo, , Prim. Italy (, E. T.), 1925, p. 145, etcGoogle Scholar.

Page 100 note 14 II. 304.

Page 101 note 1 Livy 2. 40.

Page 101 note 2 Schwegler II. 333 (1856); Ihne I. 130 (1868).