Sicinius

“ Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius?
Brutus. He has no equal.
Sicinius. When we were chosen tribunes of the people,—
Brutus. Mark’d you his lip and eyes?
Sicinius.Nay, but his taunts.
Brutus. Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods—
Sicinius. Bemock the modest moon.
(I. i. 256.) A man who gibes at the gods, the moon, and above all the tribunes, is evidently a profane and irreverent fellow who should be got rid of. And perhaps it is anxiety not only for the public good but for their own authority that makes them dread their office may “go sleep,” during his consulship. ”

“ This Coriolanus therefore, being ill content that the Commons should have tribunes, spake in the Senate in this manner: "If the people will have such cheapness in corn as they had in old time, let them render back to the Fathers such rights as they also in old times possessed. Why should I see officers chosen from the multitude, and such a fellow as is this Sicinius bearing rule? Should I endure such disgrace longer than I needs must? If I would not endure King Tarquin, should I now endure King Sicinius? Let him call the Commons, if he will, to the Sacred Hill. ”

“ Enter Brutus and Sicinius with the rabble again.
SICINIUS.
Where is this viper
That would depopulate the city and
Be every man himself?
MENENIUS.
You worthy tribunes—
SICINIUS.
He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
With rigorous hands. He hath resisted law,
And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
Than the severity of the public power
Which he so sets at naught.
FIRST CITIZEN.
He shall well know
The noble tribunes are the people’s mouths,
And we their hands.
ALL PLEBEIANS.
He shall, sure on’t.
MENENIUS.
Sir, sir—
SICINIUS.
Peace! ”

“ This Sicinius the Ten sent on before the army, there being then war with the Sabines, to search out a place for a camp; and with him they sent certain others, bidding them slay him when they should have come to some convenient place. This they did, but not without suffering much loss; for the man fought for his life and defended himself, slaying many of his enemies. Then they that escaped ran into the camp, saying that Sicinius had fallen into an ambuscade, and had died along with certain others of the soldiers. ”

“ The popularity of Sicinius became odious to Appius Claudius, who wished to make himself absolute at Rome, and therefore, to remove him from the capital, he sent him to the army, by which, soon after his arrival, he was attacked and murdered. Of 100 men who were ordered to fall upon him, Sicinius killed 15, and wounded 30; and, according to Dionysius, the surviving number had recourse to artifice to overpower him, by killing him with a shower of stones and darts thrown at a distance, about 405 years before the christian era. For his uncommon courage Sicinius has been called the Roman Achilles. ”

“ Some also they scourged, and some they beheaded. And when they had so put a man to death, they would divide his substance among those that waited upon them to do their pleasure.
Among their misdeeds two were especially notable. There was a certain Sicinius in the host, a man of singular strength and courage, who took it ill that the Ten should thus set themselves above all law, and was wont to say to his comrades that the Commons should depart from the city as they had done in time past, or should at the least make them tribunes to be their champions as of old. ”

“ Brutus, therefore, when the time arrived, openly charged Coriolanus with being a traitor to the people. Upon hearing the word traitor, the rage of the warrior knew no bounds, and he upbraided, in the most vehement terms, both the tribunes, and uttered the bitterest curses on the people. This was what Brutus and Sicinius had aimed at; and therefore, taking advantage of his passionate indiscretion, they called upon the people to bear witness of his contempt, and to join with them in pronouncing his banishment forever from Rome. ”

“ Once more we think of the words of the messenger in Antony and Cleopatra when he fears to report the worst: “The nature of bad news infects the teller”; and of Antony’s reply: “When it concerns the fool and coward.” There is beyond doubt more than a spice of folly and cowardice in the self-important quidnuncs, with their purblind temerity and shifty meanness. We are very glad to hear in the end of Brutus being mishandled by the mob and very sorry that Sicinius goes free: but at least he has had his dose of alarm and mortification, and in the future his influence will be gone; which is well. ”

“ This bidding they were not willing to obey. First they doubted whether they should not slay the Consuls, thinking thus to be free from their oath; but, considering that a man cannot free himself from an oath by such ill-doing, they followed rather the counsel of a certain Sicinius, who bade them depart from Rome as though they would build them a city of their own. So they departed, marching to a certain place that men call the Sacred Hill, that is distant from the city about three miles, and is on the other side of the river Anio. ”

“ Betwixt Rome's great plebeian and this lady.
Tib. Ay, sir, she loved him e'en as he loved her;
But naught was said because they feared the Ten.
Nay, I was wrong! Sicinius and fear
Are alien the one unto the other!
But rather did he bide his time until
These men should be o'erthrown and Rome be freed
From their most hateful laws and government.
One of the multitude. Hark to the boy! He is a demagogue. ”

“ By direction of the senate, Caius Licinius, the prætor, wrote to the consul, Caius Popilius, to order the second legion, which was the oldest then in Liguria, together with four thousand foot and two hundred horse, of the Latin nation, to be in Brundusium on the ides of February, With this fleet, and this army, Cneius Sicinius, being continued a year in command for the purpose, was ordered to take care of the province of Macedon until a new governor should arrive. ”

“ The difference without doubt was this, that the old tribunes were elected by the several tribes (as the phylarchs in the Greek states were by each phyle) ; the new ones, on the contrary, by the whole [Pg 240] commonalty. C. Licinius and L. Albinius are mentioned as the two first tribunes; Sicinius, the general of the Plebes at the secession, is one of the three who were chosen in addition. The plebeians were not able to recover their good right which the Servian constitution had given them; they had to be content with defending themselves against oppression. ”

“ Cnaeus Sicinius, who before quitting office had been sent to the fleet and army at Brundisium, had landed 5000 infantry and 300 cavalry in Epirus and was now encamped at Nymphaeum in the Apollonian district. From there he sent tribunes with 2000 men to occupy the forts of the Dassaretii and the Illyrians, as the people themselves were asking for troops to hold them so that they might be more secure against any attack from their Macedonian neighbours. ”

“ IV. ii. 16. mankind. Sicinius uses the word in the invidious sense in which it was applied to women: virago-like. Volumnia in the next line takes it as meaning 'human' in contrast with the 'foxship' of Sicinius. ”

“ SICINIUS.
He loved his mother dearly.
MENENIUS.
So did he me; and he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corslet with his eye, talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in. ”

“ For in history, nothing is more pleasing than a correct and elegant brevity of expression. With your leave, however, it is high time to return to those Orators who have quitted the stage of life. C. Sicinius then, who was a grandson of the Censor Q. Pompey, by one of his daughters, died after his advancement to the Quaestorship. He was a Speaker of some merit and reputation, which he derived from the system of Hermagoras; who, though he furnished but little assistance for acquiring an ornamental style, gave many useful precepts to expedite and improve the invention of an Orator. ”

“ They are
rising, they are rising.
All. In, in, in, in! ⁠252 Exeunt.
Scene Six
[Rome. A Public Place]
Enter the two Tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus.
Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him;
His remedies are tame i' the present peace
And quietness o' the people, which before
Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends ⁠4
Blush that the world goes well, who rather had,
Though they themselves did suffer by 't, behold
Dissentious numbers pestering streets, than see
Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going ⁠8
About their functions friendly. ”

“ This is perhaps the supreme instance of their headstrong, testy and inconsiderate violence, for, as we shall see, it embitters the wavering Marcius and drives him to alliance with the foe. But the same violence has abundantly appeared before. The rest do all in their power to appease the tumult and procure a hearing for Sicinius, he uses the opportunity to add fuel to the fire and deserves Menenius’ rebuke:
This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
(III. i. 197.) When Brutus proceeds in the same way, Cominius interrupts:
That is the way to lay the city flat ”

“ Enter Sicinius and Brutus.
Behold! these are the tribunes of the people,
The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them;
For they do prank them in authority
Against all noble sufferance.
Sic. ⁠Pass no further. ⁠24
Cor. Ha! what is that?
Bru. It will be dangerous to go on: no further.
Cor. What makes this change?
Men. ⁠The matter? ⁠27
Com. Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common?
Bru. Cominius, no.
Cor. ⁠Have I had children's voices?
Senat. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place.
Bru. The people are incens'd against him. ”

“ Be taken from the people.
Bru. [Aside to Sicinius.] Mark you that?
Cor. To brag unto them, thus I did, and thus; ⁠152
Show them the unaching scars which I should hide,
As if I had receiv'd them for the hire
Of their breath only!
Men. ⁠Do not stand upon 't.
We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, ⁠156
Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul
Wish we all joy and honour.
Sen. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!
Flourish Cornets, Then exeunt.
Mane [n] t Sicinius and Brutus.
Bru. You see how he intends to use the people. ⁠160
Sic. May they perceive 's intent! ”

“ Nations do not often have to wait long for a cause for fighting, if they want to find one.
A war broke out with the Sabines and the Æquians at the same time, and armies were sent against them both, commanded by friends of the plebeians. Lucius Sicinius Dentatus, one of the bravest, was sent out at the head of one army with some traitors, who, under orders from the decemvirs, murdered him in a lonely place. The other commander was Lucius Virginius, who will be known as long as literature lasts as father of the beautiful but unfortunate Virginia. ”

“ The plebeians whom Valerius had led forth were still under arms, still bound by their military oath, and Appius, with the violent patricians, refused to disband them. The army, therefore, having lost Valerius, their proper general chose two of themselves, L. Junius Brutus and L. Sicinius Bellutus by name, and under their command they marched northward and occupied the hill which commands the junction of the Tiber and the Anio. Here, at a distance of about two miles from Rome, they determined to settle and form a new city, leaving Rome to the patricians and their clients. ”

“ Indeed, I would be consul.
SIXTH CITIZEN.
He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man’s voice.
SEVENTH CITIZEN.
Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him joy, and make him good friend to the people!
ALL THREE CITIZENS.
Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul.
[Exeunt citizens.]
CORIOLANUS.
Worthy voices!
Enter Menenius with Brutus and Sicinius.
MENENIUS.
You have stood your limitation, and the Tribunes
Endue you with the people’s voice. Remains
That in th’ official marks invested, you
Anon do meet the Senate. ”

“ And who is ignorant what great crowds of them assembled at the door of the Marcelli, the most ancient patrons of Sicily? what crowds of them thronged to Cnaeus Pompeius, the consul elect, and to the rest of the men connected with the province? And such a thing never yet took place in the instance of any one, as for a man to be openly accused by those people over whose property and families he had supreme dominion and power. So great was the effect of his injuries, that men preferred to suffer anything, rather than not to bewail themselves and complain of his wickedness and injuries. ”

“ And this fleet ended the war. Every man in it was alive with enthusiasm, ready to die for Rome. The Consul Lutatius Catulus, who was put in command of it, utterly defeated the Carthaginian navy in a great battle off the Aegatian Islands (241) . In Sicily Hamilcar could do nothing; no supplies could reach him. With bitterness in his heart he had to make a peace which gave Sicily to Rome. The real heroes are the Roman people who, whether in the armies or the navies or at home, never yielded or lost courage in spite of defeat and disaster but held on to the end. They won the victory. ”