For it is not easy for a man either to be strong at all points or to possess excellence in the arts both of war and of peace at the same time. Those who are physically strong are, as a rule, weak-minded, and success that has come in unstinted measure generally does not flourish equally well everywhere. This explains why, after having once been exalted by the citizens to the foremost rank, he was not long afterward exiled by them, and how it was that after making the city of the Volsci a slave to his country he with the aid of that people brought his own land in turn into the very extreme of danger.
The same man wished to be made praetor, and B.C. 491 upon failing to secure the office became angry at the populace ; because of this and also because of his displeasure at the great influence of the tribunes he
Zonaras 7, 16.
he had routed. For the time he was thus exalted, B.C. 491 but not long afterward he was anxious to be made praetor and failed, and therefore became angry with the populace and evinced displeasure toward the
Tzetzes, Chil. 6, 542-50.
the city, which we have already said was called Coriolanum,received,in addition to his former names, Marcus and Gnaeus, the title of Coriolanus, from his victory. But — such is the treatment that jealousy accords to benefactors — ^after a little in the course of their reflections they fined the man. And he, grievously smarting with most just wrath, left his wife, his mother, and his country, and went to the Corioli,[1] who received him. And they arrayed themselves against the Romans.
- ↑ See note on p. 135.
