Lays of Ancient Rome - 9

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XVII

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.

XVIII

I wis, in all the Senate,
        There was no heart so bold,
But sore it ached, and fast it beat,
        When that ill news was told.
Forthwith up rose the Consul,
        Up rose the Fathers all;
In haste they girded up their gowns,
        And hied them to the wall.

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Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.

More About This Book

This poem celebrates one of the great heroic legends of history. Horatius saves Rome from the Etruscan invaders in 642 BC. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.

Illustration: Horatio at the Bridge from the first edition.

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