THE THREE HORATII

                During its early years, Rome conquered cities around it.  The wars were bloody.  To avoid more bloodshed, an agreement was made with the next foe.  It was agreed that instead of sending their armies to do battle, they would pick their three best warriors and the trios would fight to determine which city won the war.  The losing city would be conquered.  Rome chose the three Horatius brothers.  The two trios met in a field midway between the cities and dueled.  Things did not go well for the Horatii.  Two of them were killed, leaving only one.  The three enemy ganged up on him.  He was uninjured, but the other three were all wounded.  One had a cut on his arm, another had a bad stomach wound, and the third had a deep gash on his leg.  Given the situation, Horatius considered his odds and turned and ran away.  The three foes were astonished by this act of cowardice, but realized all they had to do was catch and kill this chicken in order to win the war for their city.  As they chased him, gaps opened up between them.  The man with the arm wound ran faster than the guy with the stomach wound, who ran faster than the man crippled by the leg wound.   As he ran, Horatius kept glancing back and when the gaps had opened up sufficiently, he turned to face the man with the arm wound.  They dueled and the Roman won.  He then faced the just-arriving stomach-wound soldier and defeated him.  He then waited for the limping foe to arrive and easily killed him, thus winning the war. There is a famous post script.   Horatius returned to Rome a hero with the crowd acclaiming him.  However, he was greeted in the middle of the road by his bawling sister.  She happened to be engaged to one of the men he had killed.  “Why did you do it?!”  He pulled out his sword and killed her saying:  “Thus be it to anyone who mourns for Rome’s enemies.”  That was a common bedtime story in Ancient Rome.