Horatius Cocles

Publius Horatius Cocles was an officer in the army of the ancient Roman Republic who famously defended the Pons Sublicius from the invading army of Lars Porsena, king of Clusium in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and Clusium.

In 509 BC, the army of Clusium marched on Rome and attacked the city. Concentrating his forces on the Etruscan side of the Tiber, Porsena assaulted the Janiculum and took it from the terrified Roman recruits with all its stores. An Etruscan garrison was detailed to hold it. Porsena's army made for the Pons Sublicius, but found there a Roman line of battle across the bend of the river. Porsena drew up a line of battle opposite it, apparently without hindrance, relying on numerical superiority to cow the Romans. The Tarquins commanded the Etruscan left wing facing the troops of Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius. Octavius Mamilius took the Etruscan right commanding rebel Latins, facing Marcus Valerius Volusus and Titus Lucretius Tricipitinus. Porsena commanded the Etruscan center, facing the two consuls.

The two lines closed. After a "considerable time", Valerius and Lucretius having been carried wounded off the field in full view of the troops, the army was struck by a panic and ran for the bridge. The enemy effected a slaughter at first among the troops milling around at the entrance to the bridge but then began to mingle with them in hope of crossing.

Perceiving the danger, three officers (of noble rank) stood shoulder-to-shoulder to allow their own troops to pass and block the passage of the enemy: Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius Aquilinus, commanders of the right wing (equivalent to colonels or lieutenant generals), and Publius Horatius, a more junior officer of unspecified rank. He was a patrician, and the nephew of consul Marcus Horatius Pulvillus and had lost an eye in a previous battle (hence his agnomen "Cocles"). He was also said to have been a descendant of one of the Horatii who had fought the Curiatii of Alba Longa. Livy defines his station in the defense as "on guard at the bridge when he saw the Janiculum taken by a sudden assault and the enemy rushing down from it to the river ...." The three defenders of the bridge withstood sword and missile attacks until the troops had all crossed.

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