…But the Consul’s brow was sad,
and the Consul’s speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall,
and darkly at the foe.
“Their van will be upon us,
before the bridge goes down;
And if they once might win the bridge,
what hope to save the town?”
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods.”
Haul down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?…
On this day in 1859 Thomas Babington Macauley died. He is considered primarily responsible for introducing Western education to India during the Raj. Amongst other works he wrote poems about heroic episodes in Roman history. The above is one of the most quoted excerpts from the Lays of Ancient Rome, published in 1842, about Horatius Cocles who defended the Sublicius bridge against Etruscan advance.
