Coriolanus/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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.