In "Coriolanus"� Why Does Caius Marcius Call The People Of Rome "Fragments"�?

At the start of this play, the citizens of Rome are close to rebellion. Food is short due to bad harvests and bad management, and the people believe that the Senate is not distributing the supplies properly. There is a demonstration, which threatens to become a riot. A wise senator, Menenius Agrippa, tries to calm them, but his friend Caius Marcius (later Coriolanus) scorns diplomacy. A high-bred patrician, he addresses the ordinary people with open contempts, calling them, among other things, "fragments." This insult is a reference to the body politic. In Shakespeare's time there was a widespread idea that the state could be compared to the human body, an organism which could only function if all the parts worked together – the king being the head. In rebelling against their natural leaders, the Romans are upsetting the natural order – and as mere fragments, they could never be capable of managing their own affairs. With this insult, Marcius demonstrates the arrogance that is finally to prove his undoing.