Editing Horatius Cocles (section)

== Later uses of the theme ==
{{Wikisource|Lays of Ancient Rome/Horatius|Macaulay's Horatius}}
[[File:BnF Français 273-274 Tite-Live de Versailles, fol. 49, Horatius Coclès défendant Rome.jpg|thumb|upright|15th-century miniature]]

The story of the redoubtable Horatius at the Bridge began to be depicted in art during the Renaissance, but was never an especially popular theme. It tended to be shown by artists who favored recondite classical stories, and appear in the minor arts, such as [[plaquette]]s and [[maiolica]].

[[Napoleon]], after the battle of [[Klausen, South Tyrol|Klausen]], nicknamed General [[Thomas-Alexandre Dumas]] "The Horatius Cocles of Tyrol" for his solo defense of a bridge over the [[Eisack|River Eisack]].

The story of "Horatius at the Bridge" is retold in verse in the poem "[[s:Horatius|Horatius]]" in ''[[Lays of Ancient Rome]]'' by [[Thomas Babington Macaulay]], which enjoyed great popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.<ref>Thomas Babington Macaulay, "[https://www.thoughtco.com/horatius-at-the-bridge-4070724 Horatius at the Bridge]" (N.S. Gill, ed.); accessed 2019.04.09.</ref>  The details of the poem often vary from the traditional tale by poetic license.  [[Winston Churchill]] wrote that while he "stagnated in the lowest form" at [[Harrow School|Harrow]], he gained a prize open to the whole school by reciting the whole "twelve hundred lines" of "Horatius".{{efn-lr|"Horatius" is not quite 600 lines; perhaps Churchill was referring to another of the ''Lays'' as well; if so probably "The Armada".}}<ref>Winston Churchill, ''My Early Life'', chapter 2.</ref> A biographical film about Churchill, ''[[Into the Storm (2009 film)|Into the Storm]]'' (2009), begins with the much older Churchill reciting from "Horatius": "And how can man die better, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods."  Later in the film, the same verses feature prominently in a nostalgic and morose address Churchill delivers to his war cabinet.  Churchill also recites from "Horatius" in a scene from the biographical film [[Darkest Hour (film)|''Darkest Hour'']], and these lines occur in numerous works of fiction.

"[[A Nation Once Again]]" was a popular Irish rebel song, written in the early to mid-1840s by Thomas Osborne Davis (1814–1845) in furtherance of Irish nationalism. First published in ''The Nation'' on 13 July 1844 (two years after Macaulay's ''Horatius''), the first verse refers to the heroism of "ancient freemen, For Greece and Rome who bravely stood, three hundred men and three men", references the three hundred Spartans at [[Thermopylae]], and the three defenders at the Pons Sublicius.

Horatius figures prominently in [[Jessie Pope]]'s 1915 poem "The Longest Odds" about the exploits of a [[wikt:Highlander|highlander]] who single-handedly clears an entire German trench before being killed. His actions are likewise compared to both the Spartans and the Roman defenders.

The story of Horatius is echoed in a poem about Sven Dufva, "[[The Tales of Ensign Stål]]," recounting the story of a simple-minded but honest and dutiful soldier in the [[Finnish War]] who heroically holds back an attack by Russian forces at a bridge by himself, but dies in the effort.

In the 2013 film ''[[Oblivion (2013 film)|Oblivion]]'', the protagonist paraphrases Macaulay's "Horatius", and quotes many parts of the poem before confronting an overwhelming enemy.