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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

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. 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 These discrepancies are easily explained. the poet shared in the general discontent with Our own literature, indeed, will furnish an which the proceedings of Camillus, after the exact parallel to what may have taken place taking of Veii, were regarded. voi igor treasu at Rome. It is highly probable that the me- The penultimate syllable of the name Porsemory of the war of Porsena was preserved by na has been shortened in spite of the authority compositions much resembling the two ballads of Niebuhr, who pronounces, without assignwhich stand first in the Reliques of Ancient Eng-ing any ground for his opinion, that Martial lish Poetry. In both those ballads the English, was guilty of a decided blunder in the line, commanded by the Percy, fight with the Scots, "Hand spectare manum Porsena non potuit » commanded by the Douglas. In one of the ballads, the Douglas is killed by a nameless It is not easy to understand how any modern English archer, and the Percy by a Scottish scholar, whatever his attainments may be,— spearman in the other, the Percy slays the and those of Niebuhr were undoubtedly imDouglas in single combat, and is himself made mense, can venture to pronounce that Marprisoner. In the former, Sir Hugh Montgomery tial did not know the quantity of a word which is shot through the heart by a Northumbrian he must have uttered and heard uttered a bowman: in the latter, he is taken, and ex-hundred times before he left school. Niebuhr changed for the Percy. Yet both the ballads seems also to have forgotten that Martial has relate to the same event, and that an event fellow culprits to keep him in countenance. Horace has committed the same decided blunwhich 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:

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"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:

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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 that there were in the following poem.

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"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?”
130.1

Then out spake Spurius Lartius,
A Ramnian proud was he:
"Lo, I will stand on 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."

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.

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HORATIUS.

T

Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old.

34.

Now, while the Three were tightening
Their harness on their backs,
The Consul was the foremost man
To take in hand an axe;

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And thrice and four times tugged amain,

Ere he wrenched out the steel.
"And see," he cried "the welcome,

Fair guests, that waits you here!
What noble Lucumo comes next
To taste our Roman cheer ?"
48.

But at his haughty challenge
A sullen murmur ran,

Mingled of wrath, and shame, and dread,
Along that glittering van.

There lacked not men of prowess,
Nor men of lordly race;

For all Etruria's noblest
Were round the fatal place.

49.

But all Etruria's noblest

Felt their hearts sink to see On the earth the bloody corpses, In the path the dauntless Three: And, from the ghastly entrance

!

Where those bold Romans stood,
All shrank, like boys who unaware,
Ranging the woods to start a hare,
Come to the mouth of the dark lair
Where, growling low, a fierce old bear
Lies amidst bones and blood.
VD 50.1

Was none who would be foremost
To lead such dire attack;
But those behind cried "Forward!"
And those before cried "Back!"
And backward now and forward
Wavers the deep array;
And on the tossing sea of steel,
To and fro the standards reel;
And the victorious trumpet-peak
Dies fitfully away.

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