Lays of Ancient Rome - 20

Horatius at the Bridge
by Thomas B. Macaulay

XXXIX

Then Ocnus of Falerii
       
Rushed on the Roman Three;
And Lausulus of Urgo,
       
The rover of the sea;
And Aruns of Volsinium,
       
Who slew the great wild boar,
The great wild boar that had his den
Amidst the reeds of Cosa's fen,
And wasted fields, and slaughtered men,
       
Along Albinia's shore.

XL

Herminius smote down Aruns:
       
Lartius laid Ocnus low:
Right to the heart of Lausulus
       
Horatius sent a blow.
"Lie there," he cried, "fell pirate!
       
No more, aghast and pale,
From Ostia's walls the crowd shall mark
The track of thy destroying bark.
No more Campania's hinds shall fly
To woods and caverns when they spy
       
Thy thrice accursed sail."

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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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