# 22. What is worthy of Note in the Case of the Three Roman Horatii and of the Three Alban Curiatii

Tullus, king of Rome, and Mettius, king of Alba, made a pact to the effect that whichever of these two sets of three men should win, their people would become lords over the other people. All the Alban Curiatii were killed, and of the Roman Horatii only one survived. Consequently Mettius, the Alban king, together with his people, became subject to the Romans. When the victorious Horatius returned to Rome he met one of his sisters who was married to one of the three Curiatii who had been slain. She was bewailing her husband’s death, so he killed her. For this delinquency Horatius was brought to trial, and after much disputing was set free, not so much on account of his merits as on account of his father’s intercession.

There are three things to be noted here:

(i) that never should one risk the whole of one’s fortune on the success of but a part of one’s forces;

(ii) that in assigning rewards and punishments in a well-ordered city never should blameworthy actions be counterbalanced by deserts;

(iii) that it is never wise to adopt a course if there is reason to doubt, or if there be doubt, whether the other party will observe his engagements. For that one city should become subject to another is a matter of such consequence that it was incredible that any king or any people should have rested content if the issue depend on three of their citizens being vanquished. This is illustrated by the conduct of Mettius, who, when the Romans won, at once admitted his own defeat and promised obedience to Tullus, yet in the first expedition which the Romans undertook against the Veientes, is found contriving how to let them down, like a man who comes to see too late how rash is the course he had adopted.



In regard to this third point enough has been said, so in the next two chapters I shall speak only of the other two points.