It is less excusable that they should neglect the danger of a new attack from the Volsces, for though Cominius, as we saw, makes a similar error, he does so when Marcius is still on the side of the Romans. Menenius’ exclamation, when the invasion actually takes place and when the news of it is first brought to Rome, describes a situation, the possibility or probability of which every public man should have anticipated.
’Tis Aufidius,
Who, hearing of our Marcius’ banishment,
Thrusts forth his horns again into the world:
Which were inshell’d when Marcius stood for Rome,
And durst not once peep out.
(IV. vi. 42.)
This, though of course an understatement, for in point of fact Aufidius did not wait for Marcius’ banishment, is at any rate the least that was to be expected. But the tribunes, with a sanguine and criminal shortsightedness that suggests a distinguished pair of British politicians in our own day, refuse to admit as conceivable a fact the likelihood of which the circumstances of the case and recent experience avouch.
Brutus.It cannot be
The Volsces dare break with us.