68 CORIOLANUS.

the citizens, or corrupt the courts ; whereas, in Athens, An^'tus, the son of Anthemion, is said to have been the first that gave money to the judges, when on his trial, toward the latter end of the Peloponnesian war, for letting the fort of Pylos fall into the hands of the enemy ; in a period while the pure and golden race of men were still in pos- session of the Eoman forum. Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was, showing the scars and gashes that were still visible on his body, from the many conflicts in which he had signal- ized himself during a service of seventeen years together, they were, so to say, put out of countenance at this dis- play of merit, and told one another that the}' ought in common modesty to create him consul. But when the day of election was now come, and Marcius appeai'ed in the forum, with a pompous train of senators attending him, and the patricians all manifested greater concern, and seemed to be exerting greater efforts, than they had ever done before on the like occasion, the commons then fell off again from the kindness they had conceived for him, and in the place of their late benevolence, began to feel something of indignation and envy ; passions assisted by the fear they entertained, that if a man of such aris- tocratic temper, and so influential among the patricians, should be invested with the power which that office would give him, he might employ it to deprive the peo- ple of all that liberty which was yet left them. In con- clusion, they rejected Marcius. Two other names were announced, to the great mortification of the senators, who felt as if the indignity reflected rather upon themselves than on Marcius. He, for his part, could not bear the aflEi'ont with any patience. He had always indulged his temper, and had regarded the proud and contentious ele- ment of human nature as a sort of nobleness and mag- nanimity ; i"eason and discipline had not imbued him with