on. He greeted
him kindly and offered him a home, saying to himself, "Caius, our worst
foe, is now our friend and a foe to Rome; we will make war against that
proud city, and by his aid will conquer it."

But the Volscians were not eager for war. They were afraid of the
Romans, who had so often defeated them, and Attius sought in vain to
stir them to hostility. Failing to rouse them by eloquence, he practised
craft. There was a great festival at Rome, to which had come the people
of various cities, among them many of the Volscians. Attius now went
privately to the Roman consuls and bade them beware of the Volscians,
lest they should stir up a riot and make trouble in the city, hinting
that mischief was intended. In consequence of this warning proclamation
was made that every Volscian should leave Rome before the setting of the
sun.

This produced the effect which Attius had hoped. He met the Volscians on
their way home, and found them fired with indignation against Rome. He
pretended similar indignation. "You have been made a show of before all
the nations," he cried. "You and your wives and children have been
basely insulted. They have made war on us while their guests; if you are
men you will make them rue this deed."

His words inflamed his countrymen. The story of the insult spread widely
through the country, all the tribes of the Volscians took up the
quarrel, and a great army was raised and set in march towards Rome, with
Attius and Coriolanus at its head.

The Volscian force was greater than the Romans were prepared to meet,
and the army marched victoriously onward, taking city after city, and
finally encamping within five miles of Rome. When the Volscians entered
Roman territory they laid waste, by order of Coriolanus, the lands of
the commons, but spared those of the nobles, the exiled patrician
deeming the former his foes and the latter his friends. The approach of
this powerful army threw the Romans into dismay. They had been assailed
so suddenly that they had made no preparations for defence, and the city
seemed to lie at the mercy of its foes. The women ran to the temples to
pray for the favor of the gods. The people demanded that the senate
should send deputies to the invading army to treat for peace. The
senate, apparently no less frightened than the people, obeyed, sending
five leading Patricians to the Volscian camp.

These deputies were haughtily received by Coriolanus, who offered them
the follo