The Life of Publicola
The Birth of the Republic
1. Valerius and the Fall of the Kings
Such was Solon. We now compare him with Publicola, the surname that the Roman people later gave Publius Valerius as a mark of honor. Valerius was believed to be descended from the ancient Valerius who did more than anyone else to unite the Romans and Sabines as one people instead of leaving them enemies. He persuaded their kings to meet and settled their differences.
With such a lineage, Valerius distinguished himself by eloquence and wealth while Rome was still a kingdom. He always used his eloquence honestly and boldly in the cause of justice, while his wealth allowed him to give generous and kindly help to the poor and needy. It was therefore clear that if Rome became a democracy, he would immediately be one of its leading men.
Tarquinius Superbus had not acquired his power honorably, but by violating divine and human laws. Nor did he rule like a king, but like an insolent and arrogant tyrant. The people hated him, resented his oppression, and found an occasion for revolt in the fate of Lucretia, who killed herself after she had been raped. When Lucius Brutus undertook the revolution, he approached Valerius first and, with his most zealous assistance, drove out the kings.
As long as the people seemed likely to elect one man as their leader in place of the king, Valerius accepted that Brutus should hold the office, since Brutus had led the way to freedom. But the very name of monarchy was hateful to the people. They thought it would be less oppressive to submit to divided authority, so they proposed and demanded the election of two men to the highest office.
Valerius hoped that he would be chosen alongside Brutus and serve as consul with him, but he was disappointed. Against Brutus’s wishes, Tarquinius Collatinus, Lucretia’s husband, was elected as his colleague instead of Valerius. Collatinus was no more excellent a man than Valerius, but the influential citizens were afraid of the kings, who were still making many efforts outside Rome and trying to calm resentment within the city. They therefore wanted as their commander the most openly committed enemy of the royal family, believing he would make no concessions to them.
2. Valerius Proves His Loyalty
Valerius was offended that people doubted his desire to do everything he could for his country merely because the tyrants had done him no personal injury. He withdrew from the senate, gave up his work as an advocate, and abandoned public life entirely.
This caused anxious discussion among the people. They feared that, in his anger, he might join the royal exiles and overthrow the city’s newly established order, which was already in danger. Brutus also suspected certain other men and asked the senators to bind themselves by a sacrificial oath. When he appointed a day for the ceremony, Valerius came cheerfully into the forum and was the first to swear that he would make no submission or concession to the Tarquins, but would fight with all his strength in defense of freedom. This pleased the senate and encouraged the consuls.
His actions soon confirmed his oath. Envoys came from Tarquin with letters intended to seduce the people and with plausible words that they thought most likely to corrupt the multitude. Their message came from a king who appeared to have humbled himself and to be asking only moderate terms. The consuls thought the envoys should be brought before an assembly of the people, but Valerius would not allow it. He firmly opposed giving poor men, who regarded war as a heavier burden than tyranny, opportunities and excuses for another revolution.
3. The Tarquins’ Conspiracy
After this, other envoys arrived. They announced that Tarquin had given up his throne and ceased making war on the city, but that he demanded the return of the money and property belonging to himself, his friends, and his relatives so they could support themselves in exile.
Many were inclined to grant this favor, and Collatinus in particular argued for it. Brutus, however, was harsh and unyielding. He rushed into the forum and denounced his colleague as a traitor for wanting to give the means of waging war and maintaining tyranny to men whom it would be a terrible mistake to grant even the bare necessities of life in exile.
When an assembly of the citizens was held, the first speaker was Caius Minucius, a private citizen. He urged Brutus and advised the Romans to make sure the treasures fought on their side against the tyrants, rather than on the tyrants’ side against them. Nevertheless, the Romans decided that since they possessed the liberty for which they were fighting, they would not sacrifice peace for wealth. Instead, they would cast out the wealth along with the tyrants.
The wealth itself was naturally of very little importance to Tarquin. His demand for it was both a test of the people’s attitude and a means of encouraging treachery among them. The envoys busied themselves with this purpose, using the property merely as an excuse to remain in the city. They said that they were selling part of it, reserving part, and sending part away.
At last they succeeded in corrupting two of Rome’s noble families: the Aquillii, who had three senators, and the Vitellii, who had two. All these men were nephews of the consul Collatinus on their mother’s side. The Vitellii were also related to Brutus in another way. Brutus had married their sister, and she had borne him several sons.
The Vitellii won over two of these sons, who had reached manhood and were their close relatives and companions. They persuaded the young men to join a plot to betray the city, ally themselves with the great family of the Tarquins and share their royal hopes, and free themselves from their father’s supposed stupidity and cruelty. By cruelty, they meant their father’s relentless treatment of criminals. As for his stupidity, Brutus had apparently pretended to be foolish for a long time to protect himself from the tyrants’ cruel designs. The surname Brutus, which had been given to him because of this pretense, remained with him afterward.
4. Vindicius Discovers the Plot
After the young men had been persuaded and had met with the Aquillii, the conspirators decided to swear a great and terrible oath. They would pour a libation of a slain man’s blood and touch his entrails. For this purpose, they gathered at the house of the Aquillii.
The room in which the ceremony was to take place was naturally dark and somewhat deserted. Without their knowledge, a slave named Vindicius had hidden there. He had not done so deliberately or because he suspected what was about to happen. He merely happened to be in the room. When the conspirators hurried in anxiously, he was afraid they would see him, so he hid behind a chest. From there, he saw what they did and heard what they resolved.
They decided to kill the consuls. After writing letters to Tarquin explaining their plan, they gave the letters to his envoys, who were staying as guests of the Aquillii and were present at the conspiracy.
When their business was finished, the conspirators departed, and Vindicius secretly slipped out of the house. He did not know what use to make of what had happened and was completely at a loss. It was a dreadful thing, as it truly was, to accuse the sons of Brutus before their father or the nephews of Collatinus before their uncle on such abominable charges. Yet he also believed that no private Roman citizen could be trusted with secrets of such importance.
Still, the last thing he could do was remain silent. Driven by what he knew, he somehow made his way to Valerius, drawn especially by the man’s friendly and kindly manner. Valerius was easily accessible to everyone in need. His house was always open, and he never refused to hear or help a person of humble position.
5. Valerius Seizes the Letters
Vindicius came to Valerius and told him the entire story in the presence only of Valerius’s brother Marcus and his wife. Valerius was struck with alarm and fear. He would not let Vindicius leave, but shut him in a room and appointed his own wife to guard the door.
He then ordered his brother to surround the royal residence, seize the letters if possible, and take the servants into custody. Valerius himself went to the house of the Aquillii with the many clients and friends who were always around him and with a large company of retainers.
The Aquillii were not at home, so, to everyone’s surprise, Valerius forced open the door. He found the letters lying in the quarters where the envoys were staying. Meanwhile, the Aquillii hurried back, began fighting at the door, and tried to take the letters away. Valerius and his party resisted them, threw their togas around their opponents’ necks, and struggled fiercely with them. At last they succeeded in driving the Aquillii through the streets into the forum.
Marcus had equal success at the royal residence. He seized other letters that were to be carried away with the baggage, captured as many of the king’s men as he could, and dragged them to the forum.
6. Brutus Judges His Sons
When the consuls had quieted the disturbance, Valerius ordered Vindicius to be brought from his house. The accusation was made, the letters were read aloud, and the accused men had no courage to reply.
Most of the people remained silent from grief. A few, wishing to show kindness to Brutus, proposed exile as the punishment. The tears of Collatinus and the silence of Valerius also encouraged hopes of exile rather than death. But Brutus called each of his sons by name and said, “Come, Titus. Come, Tiberius. Why don’t you defend yourselves against this accusation?”
They did not answer, though he asked them three times. He then turned to the lictors and said, “The rest is now your duty.”
The lictors immediately seized the young men, tore off their togas, tied their hands behind their backs, and scourged their bodies with rods. The others could not bear to watch. It is said, however, that their father neither turned his eyes away nor allowed pity to soften the stern anger visible on his face. He watched the dreadful punishment of his sons until the lictors threw them to the ground and cut off their heads with the axe. Then he rose and departed, leaving the judgment of the other culprits to his colleague.
Brutus had done a deed that is difficult either to praise or to condemn adequately. Either the greatness of his virtue made his spirit incapable of suffering, or the greatness of his suffering made it insensible to pain. In neither case was his action trivial or natural to a human being. It was either godlike or brutal.
Still, it is right that our judgment should agree with the man’s reputation rather than allow his virtue to be discredited through weakness in the judge. The Romans believe that Romulus’s work in building the city was not as great as Brutus’s work in founding and establishing its form of government.
7. Collatinus Resigns
After Brutus left the forum, all who remained were overcome for a long time by alarm, horror, and silence as they reflected on what had happened. But the weakness and hesitation of Collatinus soon gave the Aquillii new courage. They demanded time to prepare their defense and asked that Vindicius be handed over to them, since he was their slave and should not be in the hands of their accusers.
Collatinus was willing to grant the request and was about to dismiss the assembly on those terms. Valerius, however, could not surrender the slave, who had mingled with the crowd around him, and he would not allow the people to release the traitors and withdraw. At last, he seized the Aquillii and summoned Brutus back. He cried aloud that Collatinus was acting shamefully. Collatinus had forced his colleague to kill his own sons, yet now thought he should spare his country’s betrayers and enemies for the sake of their wives.
The consul became angry and ordered Vindicius to be taken away. The lictors pushed through the crowd, seized the man, and beat those who tried to rescue him. Valerius and his friends came forward to defend Vindicius, while the people shouted for Brutus to return.
Brutus turned back and came before them. When the crowd had become silent, he said that he himself had been sufficient judge for his sons, but he would leave the fate of the other traitors to the votes of the free citizens. Anyone who wished could speak and try to persuade the people. By then, however, no speech was needed. A vote was taken, the men were unanimously condemned, and they were beheaded.
Collatinus, it seems, was already viewed with some suspicion because of his relationship to the royal family. The second of his names was also hateful to the people, who detested the sound of Tarquin. After these recent events, he saw that he had become completely unacceptable. He therefore resigned his office and secretly withdrew from the city.
A new election was held, and Valerius was triumphantly declared consul, receiving a worthy reward for his zeal. He thought Vindicius should share in this reward, so he had a decree passed that made Vindicius the first freedman to become a Roman citizen and entitled him to vote in whichever curia he chose to join. Other freedmen received the right to vote much later from Appius, who granted it to win popularity. From Vindicius, as they say, a complete act of manumission is still called vindicta.
8. The Sacred Island in the Tiber
After this, the property of the royal family was given to the Romans to plunder, and the royal house and palace were razed to the ground. But the most pleasant part of the Field of Mars, which had belonged to Tarquin, was dedicated to the god Mars.
It happened that the field had just been harvested, and the grain still lay on the ground. Since the field had been consecrated, the Romans thought it wrong to thresh the grain or use it in any way. With one accord, they carried the sheaves to the river and threw them in. They likewise threw in the trees that had been cut, leaving the place entirely untilled and barren for the god of war.
The great quantity of material piled together was not carried very far by the current. The pieces in front stopped and accumulated in the shallows. Those that followed could not pass, but struck against them and became inseparably entangled. The action of the stream made the mass increasingly firm and solid. The river brought down large quantities of mud, which increased the mass’s size and cohesion. The current did not strike it violently, but gently pressed and molded everything together.
Because of its size and position, the mass continued to grow and became large enough to receive most of what the river carried down. It is now a sacred island opposite the city, containing temples of the gods and covered walkways. In the Latin language, it is called “Inter duos pontes,” meaning “Between the Two Bridges.”
Some, however, say this did not happen when Tarquin’s field was consecrated, but later, when Tarquinia dedicated another field next to it. Tarquinia was a sacred virgin, one of the Vestals, and received great honors for this act. Among them was the privilege that her testimony alone among women should be accepted. The people also voted to permit her to marry, but she did not make use of that permission. This is how the event happened, according to the story.
9. The Battle Against the Etruscans
Tarquin, despairing of regaining his throne by treachery, was eagerly welcomed by the Etruscans, who set out with a great army to restore him. The consuls led the Romans out to meet them and arranged their forces in certain sacred precincts. One was called the Arsian grove, and the other the Aesuvian meadow.
When the battle began, Aruns, the son of Tarquin, encountered the Roman consul Brutus. Their meeting was not accidental. Both were driven by hatred and anger, Brutus to attack a tyrant and enemy of his country, and Aruns to avenge himself on the man responsible for his exile. They spurred their horses into combat. Since they fought with fury rather than judgment, they showed no concern for their own lives and killed each other.
The battle, which had begun so dreadfully, ended no less disastrously. After inflicting and suffering equal losses, the two armies were separated by a storm.
Valerius was left uncertain about the battle’s outcome. He saw that his soldiers were as discouraged by their own losses as they were encouraged by the losses they had inflicted on the enemy. The slaughter on the two sides was so equal and difficult to distinguish that each army was more convinced of defeat by the sight of its own dead than it could be convinced of victory by guessing at the enemy’s losses.
When a night such as must follow such a battle had fallen and both camps were quiet, they say that the grove shook and a loud voice came from it, declaring that the Etruscans had lost one man more in the battle than the Romans. The voice clearly came from some god. The Romans were immediately inspired by it and raised loud, courageous shouts. The Etruscans panicked, abandoned their camp in confusion, and were mostly scattered.
A little fewer than five thousand Etruscans remained. The Romans attacked them, took them prisoner, and plundered their camp. When the dead on both sides were counted, the enemy’s dead numbered eleven thousand three hundred, while the Roman dead numbered one fewer.
It is said that this battle was fought on the last day of February. Valerius celebrated a triumph for it and became the first consul to enter the city in a four-horse chariot. The procession presented an imposing and magnificent spectacle. It was not hateful or offensive to those watching, as some say. Otherwise, it would not have continued for countless years with such eagerness and rivalry.
The people were also pleased by the honors Valerius paid to his colleague during the funeral ceremonies. He delivered a funeral oration in Brutus’s honor. The Romans admired it so much, and it won such favor, that from then on, when their great and good men died, the most distinguished citizens delivered speeches praising them. Valerius’s funeral oration is said to have occurred earlier than any such speech among the Greeks, unless the orator Anaximenes is right in saying that the custom began with Solon.
10. How Valerius Became Publicola
One thing about Valerius particularly displeased and offended the people. Brutus, whom they regarded as the father of their liberties, had refused to rule alone and had chosen a colleague more than once. “But this Valerius,” they said, “is gathering all power into his own hands. He is not the rightful successor to Brutus’s consulship, but the successor to Tarquin’s tyranny. Why should he praise Brutus in words while imitating Tarquin in his actions? He comes down to the forum alone, escorted by all the rods and axes together, from a house no less magnificent than the royal house he destroyed.”
Valerius was in fact living in a splendid house on the place called the Velia. It stood high above the forum and overlooked everything that happened there. Steep and difficult approaches surrounded it, so when he descended from it, he presented a lofty spectacle, and the splendor of his procession was worthy of a king.
Valerius then showed how valuable it is for men in power and high office to have ears open to frankness and truth instead of flattery. His friends spared him no detail when they told him that the people thought he was overstepping his proper limits. He did not become stubborn or angry. Instead, he quickly assembled a large body of workmen and, while it was still night, tore down the house and leveled it to the ground.
In the morning, the Romans saw what had happened and came flocking together. The man’s greatness of spirit moved them to love and admiration. Yet they were distressed for the house and mourned its stately beauty as if it had been a living being unjustly destroyed by envy. They were also distressed for their leader, who was now staying in other people’s homes like a homeless man.
Valerius was welcomed into the houses of his friends until the people gave him a site and built him a house. It was more modest than the one in which he had lived before and stood where the temple called Vica Pota now stands.
Valerius wished to make not only himself, but also the government, agreeable and responsive to the people instead of frightening to them. He removed the axes from the lictors’ bundles of rods. When he entered the assembly, he had the rods themselves inclined and lowered before the people, emphasizing the majesty of the democracy. The consuls observe this custom to the present day.
Before the people realized it, Valerius had increased his true influence over them by as much as he appeared to have reduced his official authority. He had not gained this result by humiliating himself, as they thought, but by using moderation to check and remove their envy. The people therefore submitted to him gladly and bore his yoke willingly. They called him Publicola, a name meaning people-cherisher. This name prevailed over all his earlier names, and it is the name I shall use for him throughout the rest of this Life.
11. Publicola’s Laws
Publicola permitted anyone who wished to enter the contest and seek the consulship. Before his colleague took office, however, he did not know who that colleague would be and feared opposition arising from jealousy or ignorance. He therefore used his sole authority to enact his best and most important measures.
First, he restored the senate, whose numbers had been greatly reduced. Some senators had long before been put to death by Tarquin, and others had recently fallen in the battle against the Etruscans. Those whom Publicola enrolled in the senate numbered, they say, one hundred sixty-four.
He then enacted several laws. One law particularly strengthened the position of the common people by allowing a defendant to appeal from the consuls’ judgment to the people. A second made it a capital offense to assume a public office that the people had not granted. A third law came to the aid of the poor by removing taxes from the citizens, so that everyone engaged more eagerly in manufacturing and trade.
A law against disobedience to the consuls was considered no less favorable to the people. It served the interests of the many rather than those of the powerful, for the fine it imposed was worth only five oxen and two sheep. At that time, a sheep was worth ten obols and an ox one hundred. The Romans did not yet use much coined money, but their wealth consisted chiefly of flocks and herds.
For this reason, they still call their property peculium, from pecus, meaning cattle. Their oldest coins are stamped with the image of an ox, a sheep, or a hog. They even gave their sons surnames such as Suillius, Bubulcus, Caprarius, and Porcius. The last two come from capra and porcus, their words for goat and pig.
12. Laws Against Tyranny and for the Treasury
Although Publicola showed himself a popular and moderate lawgiver in these matters, he imposed a severe penalty for an immoderate offense. He enacted a law allowing anyone who sought to make himself a tyrant to be killed without trial. The killer would be free from bloodguilt if he produced evidence of the crime.
A person attempting so great an enterprise cannot escape all notice, but he might escape notice long enough to become too powerful to be brought to trial. Indeed, the success of his crime would itself prevent such a trial. Publicola therefore gave anyone capable of doing so the right to act before the culprit could place himself beyond judgment.
Publicola also received praise for his law concerning the public treasury. When the citizens needed to contribute from their property to provide the means for carrying on the war, he was unwilling either to administer the money himself or to allow his friends to do so. Nor would he allow public funds to be brought into any private house.
He therefore made the temple of Saturn the treasury, as it remains to this day, and gave the people the right to appoint two young men as quaestors, or treasurers. The first men appointed were Publius Veturius and Marcus Minucius. Large sums of money were collected, for one hundred thirty thousand names appeared on the assessment lists, with orphans and widows excused from contributing.
After regulating this matter, Publicola arranged for Lucretius, the father of Lucretia, to be appointed as his colleague in the consulship. Because Lucretius was the elder man, Publicola yielded precedence to him and entrusted him with the so-called fasces, the bundles of rods and axes that marked senior authority. This privilege of seniority has continued from that day to the present.
Lucretius died a few days later. In a new election, Marcus Horatius was chosen consul and shared the office with Publicola for the remainder of the year.
War and Public Service
13. The Chariot of Veii
While Tarquin was stirring up another war against the Romans in Etruria, a remarkable omen is said to have occurred.
When Tarquin was still king and had nearly completed the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, he commissioned Etruscan craftsmen from Veii to place a terra-cotta chariot on its roof. He did this either because of an oracle or simply because it pleased him. Soon afterward, he was driven from the throne.
The Etruscans modeled the chariot and put it into a furnace to be fired. But the clay did not contract and shrink in the fire, as it usually does when its moisture evaporates. Instead, it expanded and swelled, becoming so large, strong, and hard that it could be removed only with difficulty, even after the roof of the furnace had been taken off and its walls torn down.
The seers therefore regarded this as a divine sign of prosperity and power for whoever possessed the chariot, and the people of Veii decided not to surrender it. When the Romans asked for it, they were told that it belonged to the Tarquins, not to those who had expelled them.
A few days later, chariot races were held at Veii. The usual exciting spectacles took place. But when the victorious charioteer, wearing his garland, was quietly driving his chariot out of the racetrack, his horses suddenly became frightened for no apparent reason. Whether by divine direction or mere chance, they raced at full speed toward Rome, carrying the charioteer with them. He tried in vain to rein them in or calm them with his voice. They swept him helplessly along until they reached the Capitol, where they threw him out at the gate now called Ratumena.
The people of Veii were astonished and terrified by this event, and they allowed the craftsmen to deliver the chariot.
14. The Consecration of the Capitol
The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus had been vowed by an earlier Tarquin, the son of Demaratus, when he was at war with the Sabines. It was actually built by Tarquinius Superbus, who was either the son or the grandson of the man who had vowed it. But he did not manage to consecrate it, for he was driven out before it was entirely finished.
Once the temple had been completed and furnished with all its proper ornaments, Publicola wished to consecrate it. This aroused the jealousy of many nobles. They could more easily accept his other honors, to which he had a rightful claim as a lawgiver and military commander. But they thought he should not receive this honor, since it was more suitable for others. They therefore encouraged and urged Horatius to claim the privilege of consecrating the temple.
When Publicola was necessarily absent on military service, they secured a vote authorizing Horatius to perform the consecration and escorted him to the Capitol. They believed they could not have achieved their purpose if Publicola had been in the city. Some, however, say that the assignments were made by lot, against Publicola’s wishes, with Publicola chosen for the military expedition and Horatius for the consecration.
What happened at the ceremony may allow us to infer the true state of affairs between them. It was the Ides of September, a day that nearly coincides with the full moon of the Attic month Metageitnion. All the people had assembled on the Capitol, and silence had been proclaimed. After performing the other ceremonies, Horatius took hold of the temple door, as custom required, and began pronouncing the customary words of consecration.
At that moment Marcus, Publicola’s brother, who had long been standing by the door and waiting for his opportunity, said, “Consul, your son has died of sickness in the camp.”
Everyone who heard this was distressed. But Horatius was not disturbed at all. He merely replied, “Then cast out the dead wherever you please, for I will not take mourning upon myself,” and completed the consecration.
The announcement was false. Marcus had hoped that his lie would deter Horatius from performing his duty. The man’s composure was therefore remarkable, whether he immediately recognized the deception or believed the report but refused to let it overcome him.
15. The Four Temples of Jupiter
A similar fortune seems to have attended the dedication of the second temple. The first, as I have said, was built by Tarquin but consecrated by Horatius. It was destroyed by fire during the civil wars.
The second temple was built by Sulla, but after Sulla’s death Catulus was entrusted with its consecration. This temple was also destroyed during the troubled times of Vitellius.
Vespasian began and completely finished the third temple, with the good fortune that attended him in all his undertakings. He lived to see it completed but did not live to see it destroyed soon afterward. By dying before his work was destroyed, he was just that much more fortunate than Sulla, who died before his was consecrated. After Vespasian’s death, the Capitol was burned.
The fourth temple, which now stands on the same site as the others, was both completed and consecrated by Domitian. Tarquin is said to have spent forty thousand pounds of silver on the foundations of his temple. But the greatest fortune now attributed to any private citizen in Rome would not pay for the gilding alone of the present temple; that gilding cost more than twelve thousand talents.
Its pillars are made of Pentelic marble, and their thickness was once beautifully proportioned to their length, for we saw them at Athens. But when they were recut and scraped at Rome, they gained less in polish than they lost in symmetry and beauty. They now look too slender and thin.
Yet if anyone who marvels at the costliness of the Capitol had seen a single colonnade in Domitian’s palace, or one of his basilicas, baths, or suites for his concubines, he would have been moved to address Domitian as Epicharmus addresses the spendthrift:
> “’Tis not beneficent thou art; thou art diseased; > thy mania is to give,”
He would have said, “You are not pious or nobly ambitious. You are diseased, and your mania is to build. Like the famous Midas, you want everything you touch to become gold and stone.”
So much for this subject.
16. Porsena and Horatius Cocles
To return to Tarquin, after the great battle in which his son was killed in single combat with Brutus, he fled for refuge to Clusium. There he became a suppliant of Lars Porsena, the most powerful king in Italy, who was also thought to be a man of worth and noble ambition. Porsena promised Tarquin aid and support.
First, he sent orders to Rome that the people should receive Tarquin as their king. When the Romans refused, he declared war on them, announced the time and place of his attack, and marched there with a great army.
Although absent, Publicola was chosen consul for the second time, with Titus Lucretius as his colleague. When Publicola returned to Rome, his first desire was to surpass Porsena in greatness of spirit. Although his opponent was already nearby, he built the city of Sigliuria. After fortifying it at great expense, he sent a colony of seven hundred men there, showing that he felt no anxiety or fear about the war.
Porsena, however, launched a fierce assault on its walls and drove out the garrison. The fugitives fled toward Rome, with the pursuing enemy almost following them into the city. Publicola promptly rushed out to help them in front of the gate. He joined battle with the enemy beside the river and held his ground against their superior numbers until he was gravely wounded and carried bodily from the fight.
His colleague Lucretius suffered the same fate. The Romans were overcome with fear and fled toward the city for safety. As the enemy forced their way onto the wooden bridge, Rome was in danger of being taken by assault.
Horatius Cocles was the first to defend the bridge against them, with Herminius and Lartius, two of the city’s most distinguished men, beside him. Horatius had received the surname Cocles because he had lost one eye in the wars. Some, however, say that his nose was flat and sunken, with nothing to separate his eyes, and that his eyebrows met. For this reason, the people meant to call him Cyclops, but through a slip of the tongue Cocles became the generally accepted name.
Cocles stood at the head of the bridge and held the enemy back until his companions had cut the bridge in two behind him. Then, still wearing all his armor, he plunged into the river and swam to the opposite bank, despite being wounded in the buttocks by an Etruscan spear.
In admiration of his courage, Publicola proposed that every Roman immediately contribute to him as much food as that person consumed in one day. Afterward, Horatius was also given as much land as he could encircle with a plow in one day. In addition, the Romans set up a bronze statue of him in the temple of Vulcan, consoling him with honor for the lameness caused by his wound.
17. The Courage of Mucius
While Porsena was closely besieging the city, famine afflicted the Romans, and another Etruscan army independently invaded their territory. Publicola, who was now consul for the third time, believed that Porsena should be met with quiet and watchful resistance from within the city. But he marched out against the other Etruscan army, engaged it in battle, routed it, and killed five thousand of its soldiers.
The story of Mucius has been told often and in various ways, but I must relate the version that seems most credible to me.
Mucius was endowed with every virtue, but he excelled especially in war. Planning to kill Porsena, he slipped into the king’s camp wearing Etruscan clothing and speaking like an Etruscan. He walked around the tribunal where the king sat among several others. Because he could not identify Porsena with certainty and was afraid to ask who he was, Mucius drew his sword and killed the man in the group whom he thought most likely to be the king.
