Publicola

When Porsena saw the maidens thus brought back, he asked for the one who had begun the enterprise and encouraged the rest in it. And when he heard Cloelia named as the one, he looked upon her with a gracious and beaming countenance, and ordering one of the royal horses to be brought, all fittingly caparisoned, he made her a present of it. Those who say that Cloelia, and Cloelia alone, crossed the river on horseback, produce this fact in evidence.

Others dispute the inference, and say that the Tuscan merely honoured in this way the maiden’s courage. But an equestrian statue of her stands by the Via Sacra, as you go to the Palatine, though some say it represents not Cloelia, but Valeria.[*](According to Livy, who gives a very different version of the Cloelia episode (ii. 13, 6-11), the maidens were incited by the example of Mucius to their display of courage, in memory of which the Romans erected at the top of the Via Sacra an equestrian statue, virgo insidens equo. )

Porsena, thus reconciled with the Romans, gave the city many proofs of his magnanimity. In particular, he ordered his Tuscan soldiers,

when they evacuated their camp, to take within them their arms only, and nothing else, leaving it full of abundant provisions and all sorts of valuables, which he turned over to the Romans. Therefore it is that down to this very day, when there is a sale of public property, Porsena’s goods are cried first, and thus the man’s kindness is honoured within perpetual remembrance. Moreover, a bronze statue of him used to stand near the senate-house, of simple and archaic workmanship.[*](Cf. Livy, ii. 14, 1-4. )

After this, when the Sabines invaded the Roman territory, Marcus Valerius, a brother of Publicola, was made consul, and with him Postumius Tubertus. Inasmuch as the most important steps were taken with the advice and assistance of Publicola, Marcus was victorious in two great battles, and in the second of them, without losing a single Roman, slew thirteen thousand of the enemy.[*](Cf. Livy, ii. 16, 1. )

Besides the triumphs, he also obtained the honour of a house built for him at the public charge on the Palatine. And whereas the doors of other houses at that time opened inwards into the vestibule, they made the outer door of his house, and of his alone, to open outwards, in order that by this concession he might be constantly partaking of public honour.

They say that all Greek doors used to open outwards in this way, and the conclusion is drawn from their comedies, where those who are about to go out of a house beat noisily on the inside of their own doors, in order that persons passing by or standing in front of them may hear, and not be taken by surprise when the doors open out into the street.