When Brennus the Gaul broke through the gates of Rome, Marcus Furius Camillus was far away in exile.
After Marcus Furius Camillus successfully besieged the Etruscan cities of Veii in 396 BC and Falerii a year later, he returned to Rome in grand style, expecting popular adoration. But he overdid the spectacle, and rivals used the grumbling to contrive his banishment for corruption. He settled in Ardea on the coast, and he was still there in 390 BC when he learnt that Rome was under imminent threat.
Marcus Furius Camillus knew he must make the Falisci submit to Rome, but the method one man proposed was more than he could stomach.
In 396 BC, Marcus Furius Camillus captured Veii, the southernmost city of Etruria and only nine miles north of Rome. The following year he captured Falerii, chief city of the Falisci (also in Tuscany) after a siege that had lasted ten years. The Falisci did not take kindly to Roman rule, and Camillus was tasked with securing their obedience — but he would not do it at just any price.
Roman statesman Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus was thrust out the City for his hardline politics, but he did not stay away for long.
The story of Gnaeus Marcius Corolianus tells of a Roman nobleman forced to choose between his own life and the wishes of his family. How much of it is legend remains a matter of debate, though historians seem satisfied that the background (it is set in the late 490s BC) is plausible enough. At any rate, William Shakespeare found the tale sufficiently appealing to turn it into a play, in about 1607-8.