HORATII

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 692 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HIG-HOR

HORATII and CURIATII, in Roman legend, two sets of three

brothers

BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

born at one

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

on the same daythe former Roman, the latter Albanthe mothers being twin sisters. During the war between Rome and Alba Longa it was agreed that the issue should depend on a combat between the two families. Two of the Horatii were soon slain; the third brother feigned flight, and when the Curiatii, who were all wounded, pursued him without concert he slew them one by one. When he entered Rome in

triumph

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

, his

sister

SISTER

recognized a cloak which he was wearing as a

trophy

TROPHY (Gr. Tpo7rauov, from TpE7rw, put to flight; Lat. tropaeum)

as one she had herself made for her lover, one of the Curiatii. She thereupon invoked a curse upon her brother, who slew her on the spot. Horatius was condemned to be scourged to death, but on his appealing to the people his

life

LIFE

was spared (Livy i. 25, 26;

Dion

DION

. Halic. iii. 13-22). Monuments of the tragic story were shown by the Romans in the time of Livy (the altar of Janus Curiatius near the sororium tigillum, the "

sister

SISTER

's beam," or yoke under which Horatius had to pass; and the altar of Juno Sororia). The legend was probably invented to account for the origin of the provocatio (right of appeal to the people), while at the same time it points to the close connexion and final struggle for supremacy between the older city on the

mountain

MOUNTAIN (0. Fr. montaigne; popular Lat. montanea, an adjectival form from the classical
mons
- MONS (Flemish Bergen)
, montis, whence Eng. " mount," a form usually used along with the name of an individual mountain, e.g. Mt Everest)
MOUNTAIN, THE (La Montagne)

and the younger city on the plain. Their relationship and origin from three tribes are symbolically represented by the twin sisters and the two sets of three

brothers

BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

.
For a

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

examination of the story, see Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, bk. xii. ii. 14; Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Credibility of Early Roman History, ch. xi. 15; W. Ihne, Hist. of Rome, i.; E. Pais, Storia di Roma, i. ch. 3 (1898), and Ancient Legends of Roman History (Eng. trans., 1906), where the story is connected with the ceremonies performed in honour of Jupiter Tigillus and Juno Sororia; C. Pascal, Fatti e legende di Roma antica (Florence, 1903); 0. Gilbert. Geschichte and Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum (1883-1885).

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