The story told by Romans of their forefathers’ resistance to a siege by Etruscan tyrants in 508 bce was repeated over many generations, but historians are divided over whether it actually took place. Yet the legend records one verifiable truth: Rome’s emergence as an independent state.
The Etruscans are known as Italy’s first advanced civilization, famous for their richly decorated tombs and a formidable power in what is now northern and central Italy. For a little more than a century, three Etruscan kings ruled over Rome. Sometime around 509 bce, the citizens of the Latin city rose up and expelled the third and last Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, accusing him of tyranny and corruption and establishing a republic in the place of the former monarchy.
Tarquinius returned the following year, bringing with him an army led by the tyrant Lars Porsena of the Etruscan city-state of Clusium (modern Chiusi, in Tuscany). The Etruscan army took the Romans by surprise, approaching from behind the Janiculum, a hill to the west across the Tiber outside the city walls. Farmers raced for the safety of the Sulpician Bridge—the only crossing point into the city—as the enemy appeared above. No resistance had been prepared, and the capture of Rome seemed a certainty until Horatius Cocles came up with an impulsive plan.
Taking up positions at the far end of the bridge, he and two friends—Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius—stood side by side. In the narrow confines of the bridge, they were able to hold the advancing Etruscans back, while their comrades worked frantically to demolish the bridge behind them. Finally the two friends were forced to retreat, but Horatius held on a few moments longer before leaping into the Tiber and swimming back to safety.
After the battle, Horatius was awarded public honors, including a statue in the city’s principal marketplace, as well as a pension for being disabled by wounds suffered in the battle. His name later became a byword in Britain, especially in the Victorian era, for conspicuous courage. Porsena sent emissaries to Rome in 507 asking that Tarquinius be restored to the throne. When the Senate rejected the request, Porsena signed a treaty of peace and expelled Tarquinius, who made a final attempt to take Rome before seeking asylum in the Greek colony of Cumae, near present-day Naples.
Losses: Unknown.