in front of which Horatius displayed his valour. It was first erected,
A.U.C. 114, by Ancus Martius. By appointment of the oracle it was
built only of timber fastened with wooden pins; "for the Romans
considered it as an execrable impiety to demolish the wooden bridge,
which, we are told, was built without iron, and put together with pins
of wood only, by the direction of some oracle. The stone bridge was
built many ages after, when Æmilius was quæstor. Some, however, inform
us that the wooden bridge was not constructed in the time of Numa,
having the last hand put to it by Ancus Martius" (Plutarch, in
"Numa").
"Rome was in great danger of being taken, when Horatius Cocles, and
with him two others of the first rank--Herminius and Spurius
Lartius--stopped them at the bridge.... This man [Horatius], standing
at the head of the bridge, defended it against the enemy till the
Romans broke it down behind him. Then he plunged into the Tiber, armed
as he was, and swam to the other side, but was wounded in the hip with
a Tuscan spear" (Plutarch, in "Publicola"). Livy (ii. 10) gives his
prayer before plunging in: "Holy father Tiber, I beseech thee to
receive these arms, and this thy soldier, into thy propitious stream."
And
"Still is the story told
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old."
Near this spot Clœlia swam across the Tiber on horseback, when
escaping from Lars Porsena.
"While Cocles kept the bridge and stemmed the flood,
The captive maids there tempt the raging tide,
'Scaped from their chains, with Clœlia for their guide."--VIRGIL.
_Returning from the bridge, turn to the right. On our left is_