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Notes | Coriolanus, Chapter 22: He goes to the Volscians in Antium[491 BC] | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
There was a man of Antium, called Tullus Aufidius, who, for his wealth and bravery and the splendor of his family, had the respect and privilege of a king among the Volscians, but whom Marcius knew to have a particular hostility to himself, above all other Romans. Frequent menaces and challenges had passed in battle between them, and those exchanges of defiance to which their hot and eager emulation is apt to prompt young soldiers had added private animosity to their national feelings of opposition. Yet for all this, considering Tullus to have a certain generosity of temper, and knowing that no Volscian, so much as he, desired an occasion to requite upon the Romans the evils they had done, he did what much confirms the saying, that Hard and unequal is with wrath the strife, Which makes us buy its pleasure with our life. [Note 1] Putting on such a dress as would make him appear to any whom he might meet most unlike what he really was, thus, like Ulysses, -- The town he entered of his mortal foes. [Note 2] Note 1: Heraclitus Event: Exile of Coriolanus |