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Rome: Horatii and Curiatii, around 670 BC
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Posted by Webmaster on September 21 2004, 04:49 PM
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At the start of the reign of Tullus Ostilius the Romans were at war with the Albani, the people who lived in Alba Longa, around 12 miles southeast from Rome. They were fighting for the dominion of one over the other. The armies were drawn in battle formation, when Alba's dictator, Mettius Fufetius, asked to talk with the Roman king. He said to him that the Etrusci were too powerful, and that both, the winner and the loser, were surely going to be attacked after this battle. Then he said that it was better to find another way to decide who was the most powerful. By chance in both armies there were triplets, similar in age and strength. They were the Horatii and the Curiatii, the first Romans, the other Albani. The commanders of the two armies decided that the side of the winners of the duel would be the winning side.
The duel started, and the armies were full of anxiety. A yell of joy came from Alba's army, because two of the Horatii fell dead. The three Curiatii were all partly wounded, whereas the Horatius were still unscathed. To separate them, he pretended to run away, and after a while, when the others were separated, he turned around and attacked the first with vehemence. He killed him, he did the same with the second. After that, the third, exhausted from his wound and the effort, arrived, and was easily killed. The Romans were filled up with joy.
Returning home, the Horatius was the first of the army. Suddenly he saw his sister, who was the fiancée of one of the Curiatii, come towards him. When she saw the cloak she had woven for her man, she understood he had been killed, and so she started crying calling the name of her dead fiancé. Her brother, full of indignation because his sister was crying for his victory, killed her and said: "Go with your fiancé, you that forgot your dead brothers and the one alive. So will die every Roman woman who cries for an enemy."
For this horrible murder the Horatius was sentenced to death, but he appealed to the people, and after the trial he was acquitted.
But in Alba the people weren't happy, for the decision of the dictator to put their fate in the hands of only three people, and so he changed his mind, and, trying to again gain his people's faith, decided to betray the Romans. He convinced the Fidenatis (the people of Fidenae) and the Veientis (from Veii) to declare war on Rome.
The battle took place near the Anien River. The Veientis prepared themselves on the left part of the plain, in front of the Romans, and the Fidenatis took place on the other side, in front of the Albani, who were pretending to fight with the Romans. At the start of the battle, the Albani left the plain going northeast, where there was a hill. They wanted to see who was the winner. Tullus, suspecting something, shouted to his troops that he ordered the Albani to attack Fidenae, giving them great enthusiasm. On the other side, the Fidenatis, hearing the words of the king, ran away to protect their city, and so, attacked from behind, were defeated. The Romans, after this first engagement, attacked and drove back the Veientis. Some fled into the river, but the others were all defeated. After the victory, the Alban army returned to the plain, and made a unified camp with the Romans.
The next morning the Romans captured all the other soldiers, and brought them to the king. He said that he hadn't ordered the Albani to go away the day before, and that they decided it without his permission. But he also said that they were not guilty, because they followed their dictator, and only he was guilty, because he broke the alliance and brought them to war. So Mettius Fufetius was captured and executed, and the two towns of Rome and Alba joined, because the king ordered the Albani to move to Rome.
Federico Odorizzi
From: Titus Livius (Ab Urbe condita; I, 23-26) |
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