Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans

A highly political play, Coriolanus concerns a military hero of ancient Rome who attempts to shift from his career as a general to become a candidate for public office -- a disastrous move that leads to his collaborating with the enemy and heading an attack on Rome. Despite his battlefield confidence and accomplishments, Coriolanus proves psychologically ill-suited as a candidate for the office of consul and makes an easy scapegoat for the restless citizenry and his political opponents. The last of Shakespeare s tragedies, Coriolanus was written in approximately 1608 and derived from Plutarch s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.