The New Student's Reference Work/Horatius

Hora′tius. Horatius Cocles was a Roman hero, descended from the Horatii who defeated the Curiatii of Alba Longa in Rome's early struggle with that city. Horatius with Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius held the entrance to the bridge over the Tiber against the attack of the army of the Etrurian king Lars Porsena, while their countrymen hewed down the bridge in their rear. Lartius and Herminius crossed on the bridge to the Roman side just before it collapsed; Horatius, finding himself alone with the hostile army in front and the foaming Tiber behind him, bravely plunged into the swift-flowing river, though clad in full armor, and swam safely to the opposite bank, greatly to the rejoicing of his fellow countrymen, Horatius has been widely popularized as a hero by Macaulay's poem in the Lays of Ancient Rome.