Lays of Ancient Rome - 19

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXXVII

Aunus from green Tifernum,
       
Lord of the Hill of Vines;
And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves
       
Sicken in Ilva's mines;
And Picus, long to Clusium
       
Vassal in peace and war,
Who led to fight his Umbrian powers
From that gray crag where, girt with towers,
The fortress of Nequinum lowers
       
O'er the pale waves of Nar.

XXXVIII

Stout Lartius hurled down Aunus
       
Into the stream beneath;
Herminius struck at Seius,
       
And clove him to the teeth;
At Picus brave Horatius
       
Darted one fiery thrust;
And the proud Umbrian's gilded arms
       
Clashed in the bloody dust.

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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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