HORATIUS. THERE can be little doubt that among those parts of early Roman history which had a poetical origin was the legend of Horatius Cocles. We have several versions of the story, and these versions differ from each other in points of no small importance. Polybius, there is reason to believe, heard the tale recited over the remains of some Consul or Prætor descended from the old Horatian patricians; for he evidently introduces it as a specimen of the narratives with which the Romans were in the habit of embellishing their funeral oratory. It is remarkable that, according to his description, Horatius defended the bridge alone, and perished in the waters. According to the chronicles which Livy and Dionysius followed, Horatius had two companions, swam safe to shore, and was loaded with honours and rewards. two old Roman lays about the defence of the bridge; and that, while the story which Livy has transmitted to us was preferred by the multitude, the other, which ascribed the whole glory to Horatius alone, may have been the favourite with the Horatian house. The following ballad is supposed to have been made about a hundred and twenty years after the war which it celebrates, and just be fore the taking of Rome by the Gauls. The author seems to have been an honest citizen, proud of the military glory of his country, sick of the disputes of factions, and much given to pining after good old times which had never really existed. The allusion, however, to the partial manner in which the public lands were allotted could proceed only from a plebeian; and the allusion to the fraudulent sale of spoils marks the date of the poem, and shows that the poet shared in the general discontent with which the proceedings of Camillus, after the taking of Veii, were regarded. These discrepancies are easily explained. Our own literature, indeed, will furnish an exact parallel to what may have taken place at Rome. It is highly probable that the memory of the war of Porsena was preserved by Compositions much resembling the two ballads which stand first in the Reliques of Ancient Enghsh Poetry. In both those ballads the English, commanded by the Percy fight with the Scots, commanded by the Douglas. In one of the ballads, the Douglas is killed by a nameless English archer, and the Percy by a Scottish spearman in the other, the Percy slays the Douglas in single combat, and is himself made prisoner. In the former, Sir Hugh Montgomery is shot through the heart by a Northumbrian bowman: in the latter, he is taken, and exchanged for the Percy. Yet both the ballads relate to the same event, and that an event which probably took place within the memory of persons who were alive when both the bal-der; for he gives us, as a pure iambic line, lads were made. One of the minstrels says: The penultimate syllable of the name Porsena has been shortened in spite of the authority of Niebuhr, who pronounces, without assign ing any ground for his opinion, that Martial was guilty of a decided blunder in the line, "Hanc spectare manum Porsena non potuit." It is not easy to understand how any modern scholar, whatever his attainments may be,and those of Niebuhr were undoubtedly im mense,-can venture to pronounce that Martial did not know the quantity of a word which he must have uttered and heard uttered a hundred times before he left school. Niebuhr seems also to have forgotten that Martial has fellow culprits to keep him in countenance. Horace has committed the same decided blun "Minacis aut Etrusca Porsenæ manus." Silius Italicus has repeatedly offended in the same way, as when he says, "Cernitur effugiens ardentem Porsena dextram ;" and again, "Clusinum vulgus, cum, Porsena magne, jubebas." The other poet sums up the event in the fol- A modern writer may be content to err in such owing lines: company. Niebuhr's supposition that each of the three defenders of the bridge was the representative of one of the three patrician tribes is both ingenious and probable, and has been adopted It is by no means unlikely ha there were in the following poem. HORATIUS. A LAY MADE ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCLX. 1. LARS PORSENA of Clusium By the Nine Gods he swore That the great house of Tarquin Should suffer wrong no more. By the Nine Gods he swore it, And named a trysting day, And bade his messengers ride forth, East and west and south and north, To summon his array. 2. East and west and south and north The messengers ride fast, And tower and town and cottage Have heard the trumpet's blast. Shame on the false Etruscan Who lingers in his home, When Porsena of Clusium Is on the march for Rome. 3. The horsemen and the footmen Are pouring in amain From many a stately market-place, Which, hid by beech and pine, Like an eagle's nest hangs on the crest Of purple Apennine; 4. From lordly Volaterræ, Where scowls the far-famed hold Piled by the hands of giants For god-like kings of old; 5. From the proud mart of Pisa, 6. Tall are the oaks whose acorns Drop in dark Auser's rill; Fat are the stags that champ the boughs Of the Ciminian hill; Beyond all streams Clitumnus Is to the herdsman dear; Best of all pools the fowler loves 7. But now no stroke of woodman Is heard by Auser's rill, No hunter tracks the stag's green path Up the Ciminian hill; Unwatched along Clitumnus 8. The harvests of Arretium This year old men shall reap; This year young boys in Umbro Shall plunge the struggling sheep; And in the vats of Luna, This year, the must shall foam Round the white feet of laughing girls Whose sires have marched to Rome 9. There be thirty chosen prophets, Both morn and evening stand: Have turned the verses o'er, Traced from the right on linen white By mighty seers of yore. 10. And with one voice the Thirty Have their glad answer given: "Go forth, go forth, Lars Porsena Go forth, beloved of Heaven; Go, and return in glory To Clusium's royal dome, And hang round Nurscia's altars The golden shields of Rome." 11. And now hath every city Sent up her tale of men: The foot are fourscore thousand, The horse are thousands ten. Before the gates of Sutrium Is met the great array, A proud man was Lars Porsena Upon the trysting day. 12. For all the Etruscan armies Prince of the Latian name. 13. But by the yellow Tiber The throng stopped up the ways; A fearful sight it was to see 14. For aged folk on crutches, And women great with child, And mothers sobbing over babes That clung to them and smiled, And sick men borne in litters High on the necks of slaves, And troops of sun-burned husbandmen With reaping-hooks and staves, 15. And droves of mules and asses Laden with skins of wine, And endless flocks of goats and sheep, That creaked beneath their weight Of corn-sacks and of household goods, Choked every oaring gate. 16. Now, from the rock Tarpeian, The line of blazing villages They sat all night and day, For every hour some horseman came With tidings of dismay. 17. To eastward and to westward Have spread the Tuscan bands; Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecote, In Crustumerium stands. Verbenna down to Ostia Hath wasted all the plain; Astur hath stormed Janiculum, And the stout guards are slain. 18. I wis, in all the Senate, There was no heart so bold, In haste they girded up their gowns, 19. They held a council standing Short time was there, ye well may guess, Out spoke the Consul roundly: "The bridge must straight go down; For, since Janiculum is lost, Naught else can gave the town." 20. Just then a scout came flying, All wild with haste and fear: "To arms! to arms! Sir Consul; Lars Porsena is here." On the low hills to westward The Consul fixed his eye, And saw the swarthy storm of dust Bise fast along the sky. 21. And nearer fast and nearer Doth the red whirlwind come; And louder still and still more loud, From underneath that rolling cloud, Is heard the trumpet's war-note proud, The trampling and the hum. And plainly and more plainly Now through the gloom appears, Far to left and far to right, In broken gleams of dark-blue light, The long array of helmets bright, The long array of spears. 22. And plainly and more plainly, Of twelve fair cities shine; 23. And plainly and more plainly Now might the burghers know, There Cilnius of Arretium On his fleet roan was seen; And Astur of the fourfold shield, Girt with the brand none else may wield Tolumnius with the belt of gold, And dark Verbenna from the hold By reedy Thrasymene. 21. Fast by the royal standard, And by the left false Sextus, That wrought the deed of shame. 25. But when the face of Sextus Was seen among the foes, A yell that rent the firmament From all the town arose. On the house-tops was no woman But spate towards him and hissed, No child but screamed out curses, And shook its little fist. 26. But the Consul's brow was sad, Before the bridge goes down; 27. Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the gate: "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods, 28. "And for the tender mother Who feed the eternal flame, "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. Then out spake Spurius Lartius, 31. "Horatius," quoth the Consul, "As thou sayest, so let it be." And straight against that great array Forth went the dauntless Three. For Romans in Rome's quarrel Spared neither land nor gold, Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, In the brave days of old. 32. Then none was for a party; Then all were for the state; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great: Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold: The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old. 33. Now Roman is to Roman More hateful than a foe, And the Tribunes beard the high, And the Fathers grind the low. As we wax hot in faction, In battle we wax cold; Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old. 34. Now, while the Three were tightening |