Coriolanus/Trivia

• Ancient Rome: Coriolanus may be a Roman legend (or semi-legend), but the characters that Shakespeare calls Menenius Agrippa, Cominius, Titus Lartius, Sicinius Vellutus, Junius Brutus and Tullus Aufidius were all real people in Roman history. They aren't all called by the correct names, but we know their identities, just the same.
• Banned in France: In the 1930's, Coriolanus's military elitism and contempt for democracy resonated with French fascists, to the point the beleaguered French government outright banned performances of it.
• Canis Latinicus: In the 2011 film, there's a scene where Caius Martius (the eponymous Coriolanus) is telling his troops, "Make you a sword of me." In the background is grafitti reading,"Non illegitimi carborundum"--Dog Latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Shakespeare based much of the play on the works of Plutarch, who reported the story of Coriolanus as the biography of a real person. Recent scholars, however, believe that Coriolanus was either legendary or a blend of two different stories/events.

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