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Encyclopedia Britannica

HORATIUS COCLES

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

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HIG-HOR

HORATIUS COCLES , a legendary hero of ancient Rome. With two companions he defended the Sublician

bridge

BRIDGE

against Lars

Porsena

PORSENA (or PORSENNA), LARS

and the whole army of the Etruscans, while the Romans cut down the

bridge

BRIDGE

behind. Then Horatius threw himself into the Tiber and swam in safety to the shore. A statue was erected in his honour in the temple of

Vulcan

VULCAN (Volcanos)

, and he received as much land as he could plough round in a single day. According to another version, Horatius alone defended the bridge, and was drowned in the Tiber.
There is an obvious resemblance between the legend of Horatius Cocles and that of the Horatii and Curiatii. In both cases three Romans come forward as the champions of Rome at a

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

moment of her fortunes, and only one successfully holds his ground. In the one case, the locality is the land frontier, in the other, the boundary stream of Roman territory. E. Pais finds the origin of the story in the

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

Vulcan

VULCAN (Volcanos)

, and identifies Cocles (the " one-eyed ") with one of the

Cyclopes

CYCLOPES (KUKXW9rer, the round-eyed, plural of Cyclops)

, who in mythology were connected with

Hephaestus

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 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 Argei into the Tiber from the Pons Sublicius on the ides of May. The conspicuous

part

PART

played in Roman history by members of the Horatian family, who were connected with the

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of Jupiter Vulcanus, will explain the attribution of the name Horatius to Vulcan-Cocles.
See Livy ii. to;

Dion

DION

. Halic. v. 23-25;

Polybius

POLYBIUS (c. 204–122 B.C.)

vi. 55; Plutarch, Poplicola, 16. For a

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

examination of the legend, see Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, bk. xxi. 18; W. Ihne, History of Rome, i.; E. Pais, Storia di Roma, i. ch. 4 (1898), and Ancient Legends of Roman History (Eng. trans., 1906).

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