Lays of Ancient Rome - 12

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXIII

And plainly and more plainly
       
Now might the burghers know,
By port and vest, by horse and crest,
       
Each warlike Lucumo.
There Cilnius of Arretium
       
On his fleet roan was seen;
And Astur of the four-fold shield,
Girt with the brand none else may wield,
Tolumnius with the belt of gold,
And dark Verbenna from the hold
       
By reedy Thrasymene.

XXIV

Fast by the royal standard,
       
O'erlooking all the war,
Lars Porsena of Clusium
       
Sat in his ivory car.
By the right wheel rode Mamilius,
       
Prince of the Latian name;
And by the left false Sextus,
       
That wrought the deed of shame.

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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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