Pons Sublicius - Horatius Cocles at The Bridge

Horatius Cocles At The Bridge

The legend of Publius Horatius Cocles at the bridge appears in many classical authors, most notably in Livy.

After the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC, the exile of the royal family and the king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and the establishment of the Roman Republic, Tarquinius sought military aid to regain the throne from the Etruscan king of Clusium, Lars Porsena. Porsena led his army against Rome in 508 BC. The battle went badly for the Romans, and the Etruscan army surged towards the bridge. The Romans initially fell back. However, Horatius, with the assistance of Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius Aquilinus, sought to buy time and halt the attack by defending the opposite end of the bridge while the Roman soldiers broke the bridge.

Already immortal in literature, Horatius' fame was augmented in modern times by Thomas Babington Macaulay's 1842 poem, Horatius, from his Lays of Ancient Rome:

Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may!

I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play.

In yon strait path, a thousand may well be stopped by three:

Now, who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?

Then out spake Spurius Lartius; a Ramnian proud was he:

"Lo, I will stand at thy right hand and keep the bridge with thee."

And out spake strong Herminius; of Titian blood was he:

"I will abide on thy left side, and keep the bridge with thee."

Macaulay lacks nothing at all of Livy’s sentiment and spirit. Finally the bridge came down:

But with a crash like thunder fell every loosened beam,

And, like a dam, the mighty wreck lay right athwart the stream:

And a loud shout of triumph rose from the walls of Rome,

As to the highest turret-tops was splashed the yellow foam.

On the wrong side of the river, Horatius prayed to the Tiber and jumped in:

"Oh Tiber, father Tiber, to whom the Romans pray,

A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, take thou in charge this day!"

So he spake and, speaking, sheathed the good sword by his side,

And, with his harness on his back, plunged headlong in the tide.

He made the swim, of course, was given a land grant and a statue at Rome, which other writers actually saw. Some say that he fought alone and died there, but this is the lesser legend. After the difficulty in breaking the bridge down, it was reconstructed without nails, so that each beam could be removed and replaced at will, by the pontifices. Afterwards the bridge was considered so sacred that no repairs could be made without previous sacrifice conducted by the pontifex maximus.