concluded, the twin-brothers, as had been agreed,
take arms. Whilst their respective friends exhortingly reminded each
party "that their country's gods, their country and parents, all their
countrymen both at home and in the army, had their eyes then fixed on
their arms, on their hands; naturally brave, and animated by the
exhortations of their friends, they advance into the midst between the
two lines." The two armies sat down before their respective camps, free
rather from present danger than from anxiety: for the sovereign power
was at stake, depending on the valour and fortune of so few.
Accordingly, therefore, eager and anxious, they have their attention
intensely riveted on a spectacle far from pleasing. The signal is given:
and the three youths on each side, as if in battle-array, rush to the
charge with determined fury, bearing in their breasts the spirits of
mighty armies: nor do the one or the other regard their personal danger;
the public dominion or slavery is present to their mind, and the
fortune[33] of their country, which was ever after destined to be such
as they should now establish it. As soon as their arms clashed on the
first encounter, and their burnished swords glittered, great horror
strikes the spectators; and, hope inclining to neither side, their voice
and breath were suspended. Then having engaged hand to hand, when not
only the movements of their bodies, and the rapid brandishings of their
arms and weapons, but wounds also and blood were seen, two of the Romans
fell lifeless, one upon the other, the three Albans being wounded. And
when the Alban army raised a shout of joy at their fall, hope entirely,
anxiety however not yet, deserted the Roman legions, alarmed for the lot
of the one, whom the three Curiatii surrounded. He happened to be
unhurt, so that, though alone he was by no means a match for them all
together, yet he was confident against each singly. In order therefore
to separate their attack, he takes to flight, presuming that they would
pursue him with such swiftness as the wounded state of his body would
suffer each. He had now fled a considerable distance from the place
where they had fought, when, looking behind, he perceives them pursuing
him at great intervals from each other; and that one of them was not far
from him. On him he turned round with great fury. And whilst the Alban
army shouts out to the Curiatii to succour their brother, Horatius,
victorious in having slain his an