Coriolanus, Gaius Marcius, a legendary general of the Roman republic in the fifth century B C. The story is that he became embittered after the plebeians (the common people) refused to elect him consul. When a supply of grain arrived from Syracuse during a famine, Coriolanus proposed that it be given to the plebeians only if they gave up their tribunes, the magistrates who represented them. The enraged plebeians had him banished and in retaliation he stirred up the enemy Volscians and led their army against his native Rome. His mother, his wife, and other Roman women came to him to plead for the city. Moved by his mother's tears, Coriolanus spared Rome and departed with the Volscians. Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanusis based on the legend.