Horatius whose sons are depicted in The Oath of the Horatii is also the subject of a very popular poem from Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Babington Macaulay . He is a legendary Roman hero who along with a duo of companions held the Etruscan army at bay while the Roman army destroyed the Sublician Bridge. With the connecting westward road to Rome gone Horatius swam the Tiber River and ariived safley home. Rome rewarded his heroism by giving him as much land as he could plow in a day.

To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of his Gods ...

-- Horatius --