May 3, 2000 Livy (5) The Roman History by Titus Livius with the Entire Supplement of John Freinsheim, Volume 1; London: James Bettenham, 1744. Excerpts from Book 1, Chapters 23, 24, and 25. (Punctuation modernized) As both armies stood in *battalia*, the chiefs, with a few nobles, advanced into the middle between them. At this conference, the Alban dictator expressed himself thus: "Methinks I have heard our king Cluilius alledge, as causes of the present war, injuries done us by the Romans and goods not restored according to treaties when they were demanded; neither do I doubt, O Tullus, but you will urge the same things; yet were we to speak truth instead of using specious arguments, the true motive which prompts two nearly allied and neighboring nations to take up arms is an ambition of sovereignty, whether justly or unjustly I say not; let the first aggressor answer for that." "The Albans have chosen me general for carrying it on. I would only have you, Tullus, consider how closely we both, but you more particularly, are hemmed in by the powerful state of Hetruria. But as you are nearer to it, you must be more sensible of the common danger. Its strength by land is considerable, and very mighty by sea. Be assured, that as soon as you shall give the signal for battle, our two armies will be an agreeable fight to them, who will fall both on the conquerors and the conquered, wearied and spent with fighting against each other." "Therefore, in the name of the Gods, seeing we are not contented with certain liberty but will run the risk of either sovereignty or slavery, let us agree on some expedient whereby it may be determined which shall reign over the other without great mischief to or shedding much blood of either nation" Tullus, though naturally inclined to war and elated with the hope of victory, was not averse to the proposal. After deliberation on both sides, a method to decide the contest was agreed to, and fortune pointed out the proper persons. 24. It happened that there were in each of the two armies three brothers born at one birth, of equal age and strength. It is very certain that they were called Horatii and Curiatii; nor is there any action among the ancients either more celebrated or better known; yet however distinctly the other circumstances of this story are related, a doubt remains concerning their names: to which nation the Horatii and to which the Curiatii belonged. Authors are divided about it, yet I find the greater number agree that the Horatii were on the Roman side. My inclination leads me to follow them. The kings dealt with the three brothers to decide the fate of their country in combat, assuring them that the sovereignty over both nations should be theirs whose side should get the victory. They readily consented, and the time and place were appointed. But before they engaged, a treaty between the Romans and the Albans was agreed to upon this condition: "That that nation whose champions should come off conquerors in the combat should peaceably reign over the other." Different treaties are made on different terms, but they are all concluded in the same general method. This is the most ancient treaty recorded in history, which was ratified in the following form: a *Fecialis* asked king Tullus thus, "Do you command me, O king, to conclude a treaty with the *pater patratus* of the Alban people?" After the king gave him orders, he said, "I demand of thee, O king, vervain." To which the king replied, "Bring some that is pure." The *Fecialis* brought some pure grass from the altar, and again asked the king, "Do you, O king, appoint me the royal ambassador of the Romans? Do you assign me equipage and a retinue?" The king answered, "What can be done without detriment to my right or to that of the Roman people, I do." The Fecialis was M. Valerius, who appointed Sp. Fusius *pater patratus*, touching his head and hair with vervain. The office of *pater patratus* is to administer the oath, that is, to ratify the treaty, which he repeats in a long form of words too tedious to be recited. After setting forth the conditions, he says, "O Jupiter, hear, O *pater patratus* of the Alban people, and ye Alban people hear. The Romans will not first break those articles which have been, from first to last read out of waxed tables without deceit and this day fully understood. If they by publick authority or fraud shall first violate them, do thou, O Jupiter, in that day so strike the Romans as I this instant strike this hog, and let thy stroke be proportionably heavier as thou art more mighty and powerful." Having done this, he struck the hog dead with a flint stone. The Albans took the oaths and ratified the treaty in form by their dictator and priests. 25. The treaty being concluded, the twin brothers, as had been agreed, took their arms. Each side encouraged their own champions by putting them in mind, "that the Gods of their country, their country and parents, all their fellow-citizens, both at home and in the army, under the greatest anxiety had their whole dependance on their weapons and hands." They, naturally bold and animated by these exhortations of their countrymen, advanced into the middle between the two armies, which stood before their several camps rather out of danger for the present than free from solicitude, for empire was at stake and depended on the bravery and fate of so few. Therefore, being distracted between hope and fear, their attention was at that instant entirely fixed upon the disagreeble scene. The signal was given, and the champions, three of a side, animated with the courage of great armies, engaged with all the fury of mighty hosts. It was not their own particular danger, but public sovereignty or slavery, that presented themselves to each of their minds; and the thoughts that they were to decide the future fate of their country. But when at the first encounter the spectators heard the clashing of their arms and saw the glittering of their burnished swords, they were seized with great horror, and as neither side had greater ground of hope than the other, it was with difficulty they could either speak or breathe. But on their coming to grapple hand to hand, when not only the motions of their bodies and the brandishings of their dangerous weapons and arms but the very wounds and blood were seen, the three Albans were wounded and two of the Romans fell and expired the one above the other. At whose fall, while the Alban army shouted for joy, the Roman legions, though they had lost all hopes of victory, were yet under great concern for their surviving champion, whom the three Curiatii surrounded. As good luck would have it, he was not wounded, and though not able to fight all the three at once, was yet an overmatch for them singly. Therefore, in order to separate them, he retreated, being convinced that they would pursue him at such distances as their bodies, differently galled with wounds, would permit them. He had already run a good way from the place they had fought in when, looking back, he perceived them following him at a great distance from one another. Observing one not far from him, he turned short on him with great fury. And while the Alban army called out to the Curiatii to assist their brother, the victorious Horatius, having killed the first, was running to encounter the second. Then the Romans, with such shouts as are commonly made on success after despairing of victory, encouraged their champion, who made all possible haste to finish the combat. And before the third, who was not far off, could come up, he dispatched the second. And now there remained but one champion on each side to decide the quarrel, but their strength and hopes were very unequal. A body free from wounds and a double victory encouraged Horatius boldly to encounter his antagonist, while he, dragging after him a body weakened with loss of blood, fatigued with running, and dispirited with the sight of his two brothers slain before his eyes, presented himself an easy prey to his victorious enemy. It could not be called a fight. The Roman, in triumph, said, "I have sacrificed two persons to the *manes* of my brothers; the third I will sacrifice to the decision of this war, and that the people of Rome may obtain the sovereignty over the people of Alba." And as he tottered under the weight of his arms, Horatius struck him on the throat, and stript him as he lay dead. The Romans, triumphing on account of the victory, received Horatius with hearty gratulations, and their joy was the greater because they had almost despaired of success. Then they set about burying their dead, but with very different hearts, for the one side was become sovereigns and the other subjects of a foreign state.