Summary and Commentary

Summary

The play opens with a food riot in Rome, which achieves some modest governmental reform. The patrician Menenius seeks to pacify the rioters, but another, Martius, favours violent confrontation. However, allowing the plebs to have government representation in the shape of five Tribunes lowers the temperature somewhat; and the vestigial violence is diverted to an outside enemy, the Volsces. Martius’s eagerness for combat and the chance of glory is endorsed by his mother, Volumnia, though his wife has misgivings. But his marvellous exploits against the Volsces and their general, Aufidius, include the capture of an important city, Corioli. In recognition he is granted the name Coriolanus.