great flood in the Greek legends (see page I-164) and from him all later men were considered to be descended.
... in Galen. ..
But now the three women enter-Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria-with news that Marcius is returning in victory. They have letters and there is one for Menenius.
The voluble old man is so elated at the news, and especially at the grand tale that there is a letter for him, that he throws his cap in the air and declares it is the best medicine he could have. He says:
The most sovereign prescription
in Galen is but empiricutic [quackish],
and, to this preservative,
of no better report than a horse-drench.
- Act II, scene i, lines 119-21
This is an even more amusing anachronism than the reference to Cato. Galen was a Greek physician who practiced in Rome and whose books, throughout the Middle Ages and into early modern times, were considered the last word in medical theory and practice. The only trouble is that he was at the height of his career about a.d. 180, nearly seven centuries after the time of Menenius.
... the repulse of Tarquin.. .
Menenius and Volumnia now engage in a grisly counting of wounds and scars on Marcius' body. Volumnia says:
He received in the repulse
of Tarquin seven hurts i'th'body.
- Act II, scene i, lines 154-55
After the eviction of Tarquin (see page I-211), the ex-King made several attempts to regain power, first with the aid of the Etruscans and then with the aid of other Latin cities. He was defeated at each attempt, the final battle coming at Lake Regillus in 496 b.c., only two years before the date of the opening scene of Coriolanus.
I warrant him consul
Coriolanus himself comes now, and his new title is announced to the entire city. He kneels first of all to his mother, and only after her reminder does he address his wife. The city is wild over him and it is clear he can receive whatever honor or office it can bestow on him. Volumnia states, with satisfaction, what is in many minds:
Only
There's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but
Our Rome will cast upon thee.
- Act II, scene i, lines 206-8
It is the consulship itself obviously, and Volumnia, as usual, continues to guide her son toward the heights.
The two tribunes are also aware of the waiting consulship, and they are worried. Sicinius says:
On the sudden,
I warrant him consul.
- Act II, scene i, lines 227-28
From their standpoint, nothing could be worse. Coriolanus' reactionary beliefs are well known. He would have killed the plebeians rather than compromise with them in the matter of tribunes. As a willful and determined consul, he might cancel that compromise. As Brutus says:
Then our office may,
During his power, go sleep.
- Act II, scene i, lines 228-29
Their only hope is that Coriolanus, through his own pride, will ruin his own chances.
At sixteen years
We move swiftly to the Capitol, the seat of the government, where the people are gathered to elect the new consuls, of whom Coriolanus is odds-on favorite to be one.
However, to achieve the goal, Coriolanus must get the vote of the people, and the way in which this was done was to flatter and cajole them, very much as in our own time. In early Roman times, it was customary for a candidate for the consulate to dress humbly, speak softly, and show the scars won in battle. He did so in an unadorned white toga (hence our word "candidate," from the Latin word for "dressed in white").
The routine begins with the equivalent of a nominating speech from Cominius, the then-consul, and it sounds very much (allowing for changes in times and manners) like a nominating speech one might make today. Cominius begins:
At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome,
he fought Beyond the mark of others.
- Act II, scene ii, lines 88-90
If we allow Tarquin's earliest battle to regain Rome to have been in 509 b.c. and if Coriolanus was sixteen then, we can say he was born in 525 b.c. and was thirty-two years old at the taking of Corioli. If the reference is to one of Tarquin's later attempts, then Coriolanus was younger than thirty-two.
Be taken from the people
The eloquent summary by Cominius of a career of heroic battling wins over the patricians and Menenius says it remains only to speak to the people. Coriolanus demurs rather churlishly, and the tribunes, seeing their chance, at once demand that the candidate live up to the letter of the custom.