in one of his friends, seeing Veturia stand together with her
daughter-inlaw and grandsons, said, "Unless my eyes deceive me, thy
mother and wife and children are here." Coriolanus, being greatly
troubled, leapt from his seat and would have embraced his mother. But
she, turning from supplication to anger, cried, "I would fain know,
before I receive thy embrace, whether I see a son or an enemy before me,
whether I am thy mother or a prisoner. Has long life been given me for
this, that I should see thee first an exile and afterwards an enemy?
Couldst thou bear to lay waste this land which gave thee birth and
nurture? Didst thou not think to thyself, seeing Rome, 'Within those
walls are my home, my mother, my wife, my children'? As for me I cannot
suffer more than I have already endured; nor doth there yet remain to me
a long space of life or of misery. But consider these thy children. If
thou art steadfast to work thy will, they must either die before their
time or grow old in bondage."

[Illustration: Coriolanus before his mother 162]

When she had ended these words, his wife and his children embraced him;
and at the same time the whole company of women set up a great wailing.
Thus was the purpose of Coriolanus against his country changed, and,
breaking up his camp, he led his army away. Some say that the Volscians
slew him for wrath that he let slip this occasion against Rome; but
others relate that he lived to old age, being wont to say, "There is no
man so unhappy as he that is old and also an exile."

CHAPTER VIII. ~~ THE STORY OF THE FABII.

Of the chief houses in Rome there was none greater than the house of
the Fabii; nor in this house any man of more valour and renown than a
certain Kaeso. Good service had he done, more particularly against the
Etrurians, and thrice was he chosen consul. Now the third time that he
was so chosen he was urgent with the Fathers that they divide the land
that had been taken from the enemy as fairly as might be among the
Commons. For the tribunes of the Commons were wont, year after year, to
demand such division, and the counsel of Kaeso was that the nobles should
be beforehand with them, giving them this boon of their own accord.
"Verily," he said, "it is well that they should have the land who
have won it by their own toil and by the shedding of their blood."
Nevertheless this counsel pleased not the nobles. "This Kaeso," they
said, "was wise, but too great glory has turned