had come in, men
not counted as citizens, but men whose happiness and comfort depended on
the way the State treated them. These people, the 'plebs' as they were
called, were despised by many patricians. They looked upon them not as
Romans, but as creatures who could be made into soldiers when the city
needed soldiers, but at other times should keep quiet.

The faults and virtues of the patricians--and nearly all the heroes of
Roman story belong to patrician families--are well shown in the life of
Caius Marcius, called Coriolanus in honour of his victory outside the
town of Corioli.

_The Capture of Corioli_

One of the leading men in the camp was C. Marcius, who afterwards
received the name of Coriolanus, a youth of equal vigour in
counsel and in action. The Roman army was besieging Corioli and,
occupied with its people shut up behind their walls, had no fear
of attack from without, when the Volscian troops from Antium swept
down upon it, and at the same time the enemy sallied out of the
town. Marcius happened to be on duty, and with some picked troops
not only repelled the sally, but fearlessly rushed in through the
open gate and, after slaughtering the enemy in the neighbourhood,
chanced to come across some lighted brands and flung them on to
the buildings that adjoined the wall. Then the cries of the
townsmen, mingled with the shrieks of women and children that
quickly arose, as usual, when the alarm was given, encouraged the
Romans and dismayed the Volscians, inasmuch as they found that the
city which they had come to help was in the hands of the enemy.
Thus the Volscians from Antium were routed and Corioli was taken.

Livy, ii. 33. 5-9.

Caius Marcius belonged to one of the oldest and proudest families in the
Republic. A member of this family had been one of the Seven Kings. His
father died when Caius was but a boy and he was left in the charge of
his mother Volumnia. Volumnia was a woman of noble character and fine
mind. Her house was admirably ordered: everything in it was beautiful
and yet simple. She brought up her son well: he excelled in all manly
exercises, was of a courage that nothing could shake, scorned idleness,
luxury, and wealth: believed that the one life for a Roman was a life of
service to the death. But Volumnia did not succeed, as a father might
have done, in curbing the faults of the lad's character. Caius grew up
headstrong, obstinate, and excessiv