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HORATIUS COCLES

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 692 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HORATIUS COCLES , a legendary See also:

hero of See also:ancient See also:Rome. With two companions he defended the Sublician See also:bridge against Lars See also:Porsena and the whole See also:army of the Etruscans, while the See also:Romans cut down the bridge behind. Then Horatius threw himself into the See also:Tiber and swam in safety to the See also:shore. A statue was erected in his See also:honour in the See also:temple of See also:Vulcan, and he received as much See also:land as he could plough See also:round in a single See also:day. According to another version, Horatius alone defended the bridge, and was drowned in the Tiber. There is an obvious resemblance between the See also:legend of Horatius Cocles and that of the See also:Horatii and Curiatii. In both cases three Romans come forward as the champions of Rome at a See also:critical moment of her fortunes, and only one successfully holds his ground. In the one See also:case, the locality is the land frontier, in the other, the boundary stream of See also:Roman territory. E. Pais finds the origin of the See also:story in the See also:worship of Vulcan, and identifies Cocles (the " one-eyed ") with one of the See also:Cyclopes, who in See also:mythology were connected with See also:Hephaestus, and later with Vulcan. He concludes that the supposed statue of Cocles was really that of Vulcan, who, as one of the most ancient Roman divinities and, in fact, the protecting deity of the See also:state, would naturally be confounded with the hero who saved it by holding the bridge against the invaders. He suggests that the legend arose from some religious ceremony, possibly the practice of throwing the stuffed figures called See also:Argei into the Tiber from the Pons Sublicius on the ides of May.

The conspicuous See also:

part played in Roman See also:history by members of the Horatian See also:family, who were connected with the worship of See also:Jupiter Vulcanus, will explain the attribution of the name Horatius to Vulcan-Cocles. See See also:Livy ii. to; See also:Dion. Halic. v. 23-25; See also:Polybius vi. 55; See also:Plutarch, Poplicola, 16. For a critical examination of the legend, see See also:Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, bk. xxi. 18; W. Ihne, History of Rome, i.; E. Pais, Storia di See also:Roma, i. ch. 4 (1898), and Ancient Legends of Roman History (Eng. trans., 1906).

End of Article: HORATIUS COCLES

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