Horatius Cocles
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In the historical legends of ancient Rome, Horatius Cocles, Latin for "Horatius the one-eyed", was a hero who, on his own, defended the Pons Sublicius, the bridge that led across the Tiber to Rome, against the Etruscans. It is said that there were other men with Horatius at the time, but they either fled in panic at the sight of the enemy or Horatius asked them to leave on his own accord. In some accounts it is stated that there were two men that stayed with Horatius while the others fled. As he defended the bridge, the Romans destroyed it. When they were done, he either: swam to safety on the Roman side (according to Livy), or was drowned in the Tiber (according to Polybius). The legend probably arose on account of a statue of the deformed Vulcan that stood near the Vatican Hill. The story is retold in Horatius from the Lays of Ancient Rome by Lord Macaulay, a poem of great popularity in the late nineteenth century.
