le, which he distributed freely, keeping none for himself.

But though he was so free of hand, Coriolanus was a proud, shy man, who
would not make friends with the plebeians, and whom the tribunes hated
as much as he despised them. He was elected consul, and the tribunes
refused to permit him to become one; and when a shipload of wheat
arrived from Sicily, there was a fierce quarrel as to how it should be
distributed. The tribunes impeached him before the people for
withholding it from them, and by the vote of a large number of citizens
he was banished from Roman lands. His anger was great, but quiet. He
went without a word away from the Forum to his house, where he took
leave of his mother Veturia, his wife Volumnia, and his little children,
and then went and placed himself by the hearth of Tullus the Volscian
chief, in whose army he meant to fight to revenge himself upon his
countrymen.

Together they advanced upon the Roman territory, and after ravaging the
country threatened to besiege Rome. Men of rank came out and entreated
him to give up this wicked and cruel vengeance, and to have pity on his
friends and native city; but he answered that the Volscians were now his
nation, and nothing would move him. At last, however, all the women of
Rome came forth, headed by his mother Veturia and his wife Volumnia,
each with a little child, and Veturia entreated and commanded her son in
the most touching manner to change his purpose and cease to ruin his
country, begging him, if he meant to destroy Rome, to begin by slaying
her. She threw herself at his feet as she spoke, and his hard spirit
gave way.

"Ah! mother, what is it you do?" he cried as he lifted her up. "Thou
hast saved Rome, but lost thy son."

[Illustration: ROMAN CAMP]

And so it proved, for when he had broken up his camp and returned to the
Volscian territory till the senate should recall him as they proceeded,
Tullus, angry and disappointed, stirred up a tumult, and he was killed
by the people before he could be sent for to Rome. A temple to "Women's
Good Speed" was raised on the spot where Veturia knelt to him.

Another very proud patrician family was the Quinctian. The father,
Lucius Quinctius, was called Cincinnatus, from his long flowing curls of
hair. He was the ablest man among the Romans, but stern and grave, and
his eldest son Kaeso was charged by the tribunes with a murder and fled
the country. Soon after there was a great inroad of the AEqui an