Horatius

Horatius (Horatius Cocles) (hōrā'shus, hu–) [key], legendary Roman hero. With two companions he held Lars Porsena's Etruscan army at bay while the Romans cut down the Sublician Bridge (connecting Rome with the road westward) behind them. Horatius swam the Tiber River to safety and received as much land as he could plow around in a day. Horatius is the subject of the most popular poem in Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome (1842).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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