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He went without a word away from the Forum to his house, where he took leave of his mother Veturia, his wife Volumnia, and his little children, and then went and placed himself by the hearth of Tullus the Volscian chief, in whose army he meant to fight to revenge himself upon his countrymen.
Then one of his acquaintances, who recognised Veturia, distinguished from all the others by her sadness, standing between her daughter-in-law and grand-children, says, "Unless my eyes deceive me, your mother, children, and wife, are approaching."
After them came the priests, bearing the emblems of their office; nor did these prevail more than the ambassadors. Then a great company of the women came to Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and to Volumnia, that was his wife. But whether they did this by consent of the rulers, or by prompting of their own fear, cannot be affirmed for certain.
A temple to "Women's Good Speed" was raised on the spot where Veturia knelt to him. Another very proud patrician family was the Quinctian. The father, Lucius Quinctius, was called Cincinnatus, from his long flowing curls of hair. He was the ablest man among the Romans, but stern and grave, and his eldest son Kæso was charged by the tribunes with a murder and fled the country.
They certainly carried their point that Veturia, a lady advanced in years, and Volumnia, leading her two sons by Marcius, should go into the camp of the enemy, and that women should defend by entreaties and tears a city which men were unable to defend by arms.
At the first, indeed, he was not minded to yield to their tears that which he had steadfastly refused to the ambassadors. But afterwards, when a certain one of his friends, seeing Veturia stand together with her daughter-inlaw and grandsons, said, "Unless my eyes deceive me, thy mother and wife and children are here."
For he admitted them at once as soon as he learned they were there, and granted them a conversation, the course of which was as follows. While the rest wept without speaking Veturia began: "Why are you surprised, my child? Why are you startled?
Anyhow, they succeeded in inducing Veturia, a woman advanced in years, and Volumnia with her two sons by Marcius, to go into the camp of the enemy, and in prevailing upon women to defend the city by entreaties and tears, since men were unable to defend it by arms.
But the women, Volumnia the wife of Coriolanus and Veturia his mother, gathering a company of the other most eminent ladies visited him in camp and took his children with them; and they caused him to end the war not only without requiring the submission of the country, but without even demanding restoration from exile.
At last, however, all the women of Rome came forth, headed by his mother Veturia and his wife Volumnia, each with a little child, and Veturia entreated and commanded her son in the most touching manner to change his purpose and cease to ruin his country, begging him, if he meant to destroy Rome, to begin by slaying her. She threw herself at his feet as she spoke, and his hard spirit gave way.
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