Volume 35, Number 21 & 22 · January 19, 1989
Coriolanus Without Rome
By Garry Wills
Coriolanus
by William Shakespeare, directed by Steven Berkoff
The Public Theater, New York City
The gressus of a well-born Roman male must have been one of the great sights of antiquity. Those destined for public life were trained to a macho swagger not tolerated in their inferiors. Cicero said this walk should borrow more from the wrestler's moves than from the dancer's.[1] And Peter Brown has shown that a demonstrative virility was still required in the second century of the Common Era.[2] Movies about the Roman Empire often give us senators mincing about in togas. Actually, Rome's leaders—roving the city with their gangs of clients and armed dependents—probably carried themselves more like 'home boys' on MTV. A man who forswore such an entourage, like Cato of Utica, was more than once cudgeled in public and was constantly threatened with violence. Gravitas meant something more like throwing your weight around than like having a steady ballast.
Review, 2249 words
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