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Coriolanus
''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same years he wrote '' Antony and Cleopatra'', making them the last two tragedies written by him. Coriolanus is the name given to a Roman general after his military feats against the Volscians at Corioli. Following his success he seeks to be consul, but his disdain for the plebeians and the mutual hostility of the tribunes lead to his banishment from Rome. He presents himself to the Volscians, then leads them against Rome. Characters ''Romans'' * Caius Marcius – later surnamed Coriolanus * Menenius Agrippa – Senator of Rome * Cominius – consul and commander-in-chief of the army * Titus Larcius – Roman general * Volumnia – Coriolanus' mother (historically, Veturia) * Virgilia – Coriolanus' wife * Young Martius – Coriolanus' son ...
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Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus
Gnaeus (or Gaius) Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" following his courageous actions during a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was subsequently exiled from Rome, and led troops of Rome's enemy the Volsci to besiege the city. In later ancient times, it was generally accepted by historians that Coriolanus was a real historical individual, and a consensus narrative story of his life appeared, retold by leading historians such as Livy, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. More recent scholarship has cast doubt on the historicity of Coriolanus, with some portraying him as either a wholly legendary figure or at least disputing the accuracy of the conventional story of his life or the timing of the events. According to Plutarch, his ancestors included prominent patricians such as Censorinus and even an early King of Rome. The story is the basis for the tragedy of '' ...
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Gaius Marcius Coriolanus
Gnaeus (or Gaius) Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" following his courageous actions during a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was subsequently exiled from Rome, and led troops of Rome's enemy the Volsci to besiege the city. In later ancient times, it was generally accepted by historians that Coriolanus was a real historical individual, and a consensus narrative story of his life appeared, retold by leading historians such as Livy, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. More recent scholarship has cast doubt on the historicity of Coriolanus, with some portraying him as either a wholly legendary figure or at least disputing the accuracy of the conventional story of his life or the timing of the events. According to Plutarch, his ancestors included prominent patricians such as Censorinus and even an early King of Rome. The story is the basis for the tragedy of '' ...
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Volumnia Pleads With Coriolanus
Volumnia is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Coriolanus'', the mother of Caius Martius Coriolanus. She plays a large role in Coriolanus' life, encouraging him in his military success and urging him to seek political office. When the people of Rome put her son in exile and he joins their military enemies, she manages to persuade him not to besiege Rome and becomes a heroine to the city. Scholars have noted her profound control over her son and her effect on his attitude towards life throughout the play. Rather than offering nourishment, Volumnia constantly urges her son towards aggression. Psychoanalytic literary scholars even suggest that she protects him as if he were her sexual partner, even keeping Coriolanus' own wife away from him. Performance of the role has changed over time as focus shifted from male roles to female roles. During the Romantic Period, she was portrayed as a stately, calm woman. More recently roles have made her much more emotive. Scene 3 als ...
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Volumnia
Volumnia is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Coriolanus'', the mother of Caius Martius Coriolanus. She plays a large role in Coriolanus' life, encouraging him in his military success and urging him to seek political office. When the people of Rome put her son in exile and he joins their military enemies, she manages to persuade him not to besiege Rome and becomes a heroine to the city. Scholars have noted her profound control over her son and her effect on his attitude towards life throughout the play. Rather than offering nourishment, Volumnia constantly urges her son towards aggression. Psychoanalytic literary scholars even suggest that she protects him as if he were her sexual partner, even keeping Coriolanus' own wife away from him. Performance of the role has changed over time as focus shifted from male roles to female roles. During the Romantic Period, she was portrayed as a stately, calm woman. More recently roles have made her much more emotive. Scene 3 als ...
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Virgilia
Virgilia is the wife of Coriolanus in William Shakespeare's play ''Coriolanus'' (1607–1610), in which same play Volumnia is his mother. Origins The life of the legendary figure Caius Marcius Coriolanus has been recorded more than once. In the very influential account most familiar to Shakespeare, Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', Coriolanus' wife's name is ''Virgilia'', or in John Dryden's translation, ''Vergilia''. However, some accounts (Brewer, 1898) say that his wife's name was actually ''Volumnia'', probably following the Roman historian Livy, wherein the wife is called Volumnia and the mother Veturia. Role in the play Virgilia is Coriolanus' wife and the mother of his son. She goes with her mother-in-law and son to the Volsce' camp to sue to Coriolanus not to make war against Rome. She, like Volumnia, is honored for making this peace. It is also through Virgilia that audiences see a new side of the warrior. Critic Unhae Langis argued that " ...
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Virgilia Bewailing The Absence Of Coriolanus, By Thomas Woolner
Virgilia is the wife of Coriolanus in William Shakespeare's play ''Coriolanus (play), Coriolanus'' (1607–1610), in which same play Volumnia (Shakespeare), Volumnia is his mother. Origins The life of the legendary figure Caius Marcius Coriolanus has been recorded more than once. In the very influential account most familiar to Shakespeare, Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', Coriolanus' wife's name is ''Virgilia'', or in John Dryden's translation, ''Vergilia''. However, some accounts (Brewer, 1898) say that his wife's name was actually Volumnia (wife of Coriolanus), ''Volumnia'', probably following the Roman historian Livy, wherein the wife is called Volumnia and the mother Veturia. Role in the play Virgilia is Coriolanus' wife and the mother of his son. She goes with her mother-in-law and son to the Volsce' camp to sue to Coriolanus not to make war against Rome. She, like Volumnia, is honored for making this peace. It is also through Virgilia that aud ...
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Attius Tullius
Attius Tullius was a well-respected and influential political and military leader of the Volsci in the early fifth century BC: according to Plutarch,Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', xx. 1-3; xxii. 1 who calls him Tullus Aufidius, his home town was Antium. Tullius sheltered the exiled Roman hero Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, then incited a war with Rome, in which he and Coriolanus led the Volscian forces. He appears in William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Coriolanus'' under the name of Tullus Aufidius. Background The alliance between Tullius and Coriolanus had its roots in the first great confrontation between Rome's patrician and plebeian classes. In 494 BC, under the weight of crushing debt, the entire body of the plebeians seceded from Rome and took to the Mons Sacer. The patrician envoys negotiated a settlement to the dispute, first by agreeing to debt relief, and then by creating the new and sacrosanct office of the Tribune of the Plebs, in order to protect the interests of the plebeian ...
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Veturia
Veturia was a Roman matron, the mother of the possibly legendary Roman general Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. According to Plutarch her name was Volumnia. Veturia came from a patrician family and encouraged her son's involvement in Roman politics. According to Roman historians, Coriolanus was expelled from Rome in the early fifth century BC because he demanded the abolition of the office of Tribune of the Plebs in return for distributing state grain to the starving plebeians. He settled with the Volscians, a people hostile to Rome, while formulating his revenge. Coriolanus and the Volscians marched upon Rome and laid siege to the city. The Romans sent envoys to Coriolanus, but to no avail. Then Veturia, together with Coriolanus' wife Volumnia, plus other family members and matrons of Rome, successfully entreated Coriolanus to break off his siege. The precise versions of the entreaties differ. According to Plutarch, when Veturia came to her son's camp, Coriolanus embraced her and b ...
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Corioli
Corioli was a town in ancient times in the territory of the Volsci in central Italy, in Latium adiectum. Etymology Linguist Roger Woodard, based on McCone, suggests the name of the town, ''Corioli'', may derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *''kóryos'', meaning 'army'. Therefore, the town name would mean something akin to 'army camp'. Historical location The town was located south of Rome, north of the Volscian capital Antium. The site is apparently to be sought in the North-Western portion of the district between the sea, the and the Alban Hills; but it cannot be more accurately fixed (the identification with Monte Giove, South of the Valle Aricciana, rests on no sufficient evidence), and even in the time of Pliny it ranked among the lost cities of Latium. Scholarship points that Corioli, along with Polusca and Longula, are mentioned together in ancient sources, yet disappear from the historical record "after the legendary age". In 493 BC a Roman army under the command of ...
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Titus Larcius
Titus Larcius (surnamed Flavus or Rufus; 501–493 BC) was a Roman general and statesman during the early Republic, who served twice as consul and became the first Roman dictator.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. II, p. 175 ("T. Lartius Flavus"). Background The Larcii, whose '' nomen'' is also spelled ''Lartius'' and ''Largius'', were an Etruscan family at Rome during the early years of the Republic. Their nomen is derived from the Etruscan ''praenomen Lars''. Titus' brother, Spurius Larcius, was one of the heroes of the Republic, who defended the wooden bridge over the Tiber at the side of Horatius Cocles and Titus Herminius. He was twice consul, in 506 and 490 BC. Titus also held the consulship twice, in 501 and 498. Career Larcius' first consulship was in 501 BC, the ninth year of the Republic. His colleague was Postumus Cominius Auruncus. During their year of office, there was a disturbance at Rome, which was attributed to the actions of a g ...
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Volsci
The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from Norba and Cora in the north to Antium in the south. Rivals of Rome for several hundred years, their territories were taken over by and assimilated into the growing republic by 300 BCE. Rome's first emperor Augustus was of Volscian descent. Description by the ancient geographers Strabo says that the Volsci formed a sovereign state near the site of Rome. It was placed in the Pomentine plain, between the Latins and the Pontine marshes, which took their name from the plain. Language The Volsci spoke Volscian, a Sabellic Italic language, which was closely related to Oscan and Umbrian, and more distantly to Latin. In the Volscian territory lay the little town of Velitrae (modern Ve ...
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Postumus Cominius Auruncus
Postumus Cominius Auruncus was a two-time consul of the early Roman Republic. In 501 BC, Cominius was consul with Titus Larcius, who Livy says was appointed as the first ''dictator'' of Rome. Other sources indicate the beginnings of hostilities with the Latins and a conspiracy among slaves during their term. As the consuls of 493 BC, Cominius and Spurius Cassius Vecellinus were elected towards the end of the First secessio plebis in 494 BC. They also conducted a census. Cominius achieved a military victory against the Volsci. He initially defeated a force from the town of Antium, then took the towns of Longula (to the north of Antium) and Pollusca. He laid siege to the town of Corioli and despite being attacked by a second force of Volsci from Antium, he achieved victory through the distinguished actions of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, and captured Corioli. In 488, he was among the envoys ''( legati)'', all of consular rank, sent to Coriolanus. A puzzling and textually incom ...
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