Horatii and Curiatii

According to ancient Roman legend, the Horatii and Curiatii fought to the death to decide the future of Italy during the reign of Tullus Hostilius. The Horatii were three sibling warriors, sons of Publius Horatius the Elder. The Curiatii were their Alban counterparts. In Livy's account, Publius Horatius the Younger was the sole survivor of the battle, and he murdered his own sister for mourning the death of a beloved Curiatius. Quotes thumb|Begone to your betrothed, with your ill-timed love, since you have forgot your brothers, both the dead and the living, and forgot your country! So perish every Roman woman who mourns a foe! Princeps Horatius ibat trigemina spolia prae se gerens; cui soror virgo, quae desponsa uni ex Curiatiis fuerat, obvia ante portam Capenam fuit; cognitoque super umeros fratris paludamento sponsi, quod ipsa confecerat, solvit crines et flebiliter nomine sponsum mortuum appellat. Movet feroci iuveni animum conploratio sororis in victoria sua tantoque gaudio publico. Stricto itaque gladio simul verbis increpans transfigit puellam. "Abi hinc cum immaturo amore ad sponsum" inquit, "oblita fratrum mortuorum vivique, oblita patriae. Sic eat quaecumque Romana lugebit hostem." In the van of the Romans came Horatius, displaying his triple spoils. As he drew near the Porta Capena he was met by his unwedded sister, who had been promised in marriage to one of the Curiatii. When she recognized on her brother's shoulders the military cloak of her betrothed, which she herself had woven, she loosed her hair and, weeping, called on her dead lover's name. It enraged the fiery youth to hear his sister's lamentations in the hour of his own victory and the nation's great rejoicing. And so, drawing his sword and at the same time angrily upbraiding her, he ran her through the body. "Begone" he cried, "to your betrothed, with your ill-timed love, since you have forgot your brothers, both the dead and the living, and forgot your country! So perish every Roman woman who mourns a foe!" Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, bk. 1, ch. 1, sec. 26 (tr. B. O. Foster, 1919) External links