CORIOLANUS, Cmus (Or CNEIUS) MARCIUS7 a Roman patrician, said in the legend to have belonged to the 5th Veturia (or, as Plutarch calls her, Volumnia), Coriolanus developed into the foremost warrior of his time, and it was from his prowess at the siege of Comb, when he took the town single-handed, that he received his cognomen. But his hatred of the plebs lost him the consulship, and when he ventured to advise that the people, who were suffering from a dearth of corn, should not be relieved from the supplies obtained from Sicily unless they would consent to the abolition of their tribunes, he was condemned to banishment. Obtaining the command of the Volscian army, he advanced against his native city. In vain the first men of Rome prayed for moderate terms. He would agree to nothing less than the restoration to the Volscians of all their land, and their admiSsion among the Roman citizens. At last his mother, his wife, Volumnia, and his children, accompanied by a company of Roman matrons of the highest birth, came to the Volscian camp, and by their tears and entreaties prevailed. He led back the Volscian army, and, according to one account, paid with his life the penalty of his tenderness. Niebuhr has shown that several important parts of the legend are probably historical.