by Thomas B. Macaulay
So Aulus spake, and turned him
Again to that fierce strife;
And Caius Cossus mounted,
And rode for death and life.
Loud clanged beneath his horse-hoofs
The helmets of the dead,
And many a curdling pool of blood
Splashed him heel to head.
So came he far to southward,
Where fought the Roman host,
Against the banners of the marsh
And banners of the coast.
Like corn before the sickle
The stout Laninians fell,
Beneath the edge of the true sword
That kept the bridge so well.
XXIV
"Herminius! Aulus greets thee;
He bids thee come with speed,
To help our central battle,
For sore is there our need;
There wars the youngest Tarquin,
And there the Crest of Flame,
The Tusculan Mamilius,
Prince of the Latian name.
Valerius hath fallen fighting
In front of our array;
And Aulus of the seventy fields
Alone upholds the day."
Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from the great Arab book Thousand and One Nights.
This poem celebrates a desperate battle the early Romans had with their immediate neighbors. The Romans won only after the gods intervened. Scottish poet Macaulay published this in 1842.
Illustration: Photo of site of the battle. Lake was drained in the 4th. century B.C. Photo by Luiclemens at en.wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0.
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