2.10
On the appearance of the
enemy the country people fled into the City as best
they could. The weak places in the defences were
occupied by military posts; elsewhere the walls and
the Tiber were deemed sufficient protection. The
enemy would have forced their way over the Sublician
bridge had it not been for one man, Horatius Cocles.
The good fortune of Rome provided him as her bulwark
on that memorable day. He happened to be on guard at
the bridge when he saw the Janiculum taken by a
sudden assault and the enemy rushing down from it to
the river, whilst his own men, a panic-struck mob,
were deserting their posts and throwing away their
arms. He reproached them one after another for their
cowardice, tried to stop them, appealed to them in
heaven's name to stand, declared that it was in vain
for them to seek safety in flight whilst leaving the
bridge open behind them, there would very soon be
more of the enemy on the Palatine and the Capitol
than there were on the Janiculum. So he shouted to
them to break down the bridge by sword or fire, or
by whatever means they could, he would meet the
enemies' attack so far as one man could keep them at
bay. He advanced to the head of the bridge. Amongst
the fugitives, whose backs alone were visible to the
enemy, he was conspicuous as he fronted them armed
for fight at close quarters. The enemy were
astounded at his preternatural courage. Two men were
kept by a sense of shame from deserting him -Sp.
Lartius and T. Herminius -both of them men of high
birth and renowned courage. With them he sustained
the first tempestuous shock and wild confused onset,
for a brief interval. Then, whilst only a small
portion of the bridge remained and those who were
cutting it down called upon them to retire, he
insisted upon these, too, retreating. Looking round
with eyes dark with menace upon the Etruscan chiefs,
he challenged them to single combat, and reproached
them all with being the slaves of tyrant kings, and
whilst unmindful of their own liberty coming to
attack that of others. For some time they hesitated,
each looking round upon the others to begin. At
length shame roused them to action, and raising a
shout they hurled their javelins from all sides on
their solitary foe. He caught them on his
outstretched shield, and with unshaken resolution
kept his place on the bridge with firmly planted
foot. They were just attempting to dislodge him by a
charge when the crash of the broken bridge and the
shout which the Romans raised at seeing the work
completed stayed the attack by filling them with
sudden panic. Then Cocles said, "Tiberinus, holy
father, I pray thee to receive into thy propitious
stream these arms and this thy warrior." So, fully
armed, he leaped into the Tiber, and though many
missiles fell over him he swam across in safety to
his friends: an act of daring more famous than
credible with posterity. The State showed its
gratitude for such courage; his statue was set up in
the Comitium, and as much land given to him as he
could drive the plough round in one day. Besides
this public honour, the citizens individually showed
their feeling; for, in spite of the great scarcity,
each, in proportion to his means, sacrificed what he
could from his own store as a gift to Cocles.