HORATH, three brothers born at one birth, who were the champions of Rome in the war against Alba Longa. Three Alban brothers, named the Curiatii, likewise born at one birth, were opposed to them. The mothers were also twin sisters, who had been married at the same time, and had given birth to their sons on one day. When the Alban army under their king Cluilius lay encamped some miles from Rome, Tullus Hostilius the Roman king agreed with them that the issue should depend on the combat between the two families. Two of the Horatii were soon slain; the third brother feigned flight, and when the Curiatii who were all wounded pursued him without concert he turned and slew them one by one. Now the sister of the Horatii was engaged to one of the Curiatii, and had made for him a beautiful mantle. When the victor, adorned faith this trophy, was entering Rome in triumph, his sister came to greet him by the Porta Capena; but when the fatal mantle, which he wore as a trophy, showed her that her lover had fallen by her brother’s hand, she invoked a curse on him. Enraged at her reproaches, he slew her on the spot; and the body of her that preferred her lover to her country lay unburied till passers by covered it with stones. Horatius was condemned by duumviri, specially appointed as his judges, to be scourged to death; but his father justified his action, and on appeal the people spared his life, condemning him in penalty to walk with veiled head below the sororium tigillum. Horatius was afterwards sent to destroy Alba Longa and transport all the inhabitants to Rome. Monuments of the tragic tale were shown by the Romans in the time of Livy :—the pila Horatia in the forum, where the victor hung his spoils; the beam under which the brother passed, and which stood across a narrow ...street near the site of the later Flavian Amphitheatre; the sister’s grave outside the gate; the grave of the two Horatii, and those of the three Curiatii where each had fallen; the fossa Cluilia dug by the Albans to defend their camp.
The mythical character of many of these details is evident; and indeed it was even doubtful which of the two sets of brothers belonged to Rome and which to Alba. Under the tale lie historical facts known on other evidence —the close relationship and the final internecine strife between the two cities. Alba, the ancient city on the Alban mount, was the mother of all the Latin cities, and of Rome itself; but the ancient city on the Alban hill had gradually given way to the younger cities in the plain, and was finally destroyed by them, while the inhabitants were transported to Rome and various other Latin cities. With the tale that formed round this fact were connected various monuments on the road that led from the Roman forum to Alba Longa. According to Schwegler, the fossa Cluilia (clueo, to purify) was probably an attempt to drain the country; and the sororium tigillum was perhaps the memorial of the substitution of judicial trial for the older patriarchal jurisdiction in case of murder. Dyer, Kings of Pome, maintains the historical character of the tale.
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