HORATIO AT AMERICA’S BRIDGE
Once upon a time in days of long ago when kids in school were actually educated, they all knew the story of Horatio at the Bridge.
Winston Churchill committed all 600 lines of Macaulay’s famous poem about it to memory as a young boy, a story of epic heroism that inspired him all his life.
Horatio, or Publius Horatius, was a soldier in the fledgling Roman Army in 508 BC when the small weak city-state rebelled against rule by the Etruscans. His nickname was “Cocles,” meaning one-eyed as he had lost an eye in a previous battle. A huge Etruscan army attacked, slaughtering the Roman army, the remnants of which fled across the narrow Pons Sublicius bridge over the Tiber River and through the gates to the city.
As the Etruscans stormed over the bridge to sack and destroy Rome, one man stood in their way and defied them. Horatio yelled back at his fellow Romans to cut down the bridge behind him while he fought and killed the Etruscans before him.
Do you hear America’s Horatio calling out to you?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,
“Hew 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?”











