The Making of a Roman Hero
What Made a Roman Hero?
Roman writers did not agree on one single definition of heroism, but the texts studied in this theme keep returning to the same idea: a hero puts the good of the res publica above their own safety. Whether the hero is a politician facing an armed enemy, a lone soldier holding a bridge, or an emperor guided by the gods, Latin authors present courage, self-sacrifice and divine favour as the marks of true heroism.
Latin writers repeatedly link heroism to three things: physical courage in the face of death, a willingness to sacrifice comfort or life for the state, and a sign that the gods support the hero’s cause.
A Politician Recalls His Own Bravery — Cicero on Himself
Cicero delivered fourteen speeches attacking Mark Antony after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. These speeches are called Philippics, after speeches once given against a Greek tyrant. In the passage studied here, the closing lines of the Second Philippic, Cicero looks back at his own consulship of 63 BC, when he crushed the conspiracy of Catilina, and compares that danger to the new threat from Antony.
Cicero draws a direct parallel between his youth and his old age: defendi rem publicam adulescens, non deseram senex — I defended the republic as a young man, I shall not desert it as an old man. The repetition of the same structure for both halves of his life presents his loyalty to Rome as constant and unshakeable, no matter the personal cost.
He goes further, offering his own death if it would restore freedom to the state: corpus libenter obtulerim — I shall willingly offer my body. This willingness to die for the res publica is exactly the kind of self-sacrifice that Roman writers treat as heroic, whether performed by a general on a battlefield or, as here, by an old statesman in the senate.
Cicero had been consul in 63 BC, the year he suppressed Catilina’s plot against the state. He never let the senate forget that achievement, and used it throughout his later career to present himself as the saviour of the republic.
By the time he composed this speech, in November 44 BC, Cicero knew that attacking Antony was extremely dangerous. Antony went on to form an alliance with Octavian and Lepidus and placed Cicero’s name at the head of a list of enemies who could be killed on sight. Cicero was killed by Antony’s men on 7th December 43 BC — not long after boasting that he would not fear Antony’s swords.
Horatius Saves Rome — Courage on the Bridge
Livy sets this story in 508 BC, the year after Rome expelled its last king. An Etruscan army under Lars Porsena captured the Janiculum hill and rushed towards the only bridge into the city. As the rest of the Roman soldiers fled in panic, one man stayed to block the way.
Livy makes clear how much depended on a single person: nisi unus vir fuisset, Horatius Cocles — if it had not been for one man, Horatius Cocles. Horatius held the narrow approach to the bridge alone, buying time for his comrades to tear down the crossing behind him.
Once the bridge was destroyed and the enemy were left stranded, Horatius turned to prayer before leaping into the river fully armed: Tiberine pater — Father Tiber — and then te sancte precor, haec arma et hunc militem propitio flumine accipias — I solemnly pray to you, may you receive these weapons and this soldier in your kindly river. His courage is matched by his piety: he trusts the river god to protect him as he swims to safety.
Horatius Cocles single-handedly blocked the bridge against the Etruscan army, then prayed to the river god Tiber before swimming to safety — combining physical courage with religious devotion.
Livy tells this story with almost no interest in the destruction of the bridge itself; his focus stays on Horatius’s heroism. Roman children were taught this story precisely because it showed how the courage of one individual could hold back overwhelming odds.
Two other soldiers stood with Horatius at first, but shame — not orders — kept them there only briefly before he sent them back to safety and faced the Etruscan army alone. Livy uses this detail to make Horatius’s isolated stand even more remarkable.
Divine Support for a Leader — Propertius on Augustus
Propertius imagines the god Apollo flying over the naval Battle of Actium in 31 BC, declaring his support for Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) against the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Presenting a leader as chosen by the gods was a powerful way of proving that his cause was the right one.
Apollo tells Octavian that the land is already his and urges him now to win the sea as well: vince mari: iam terra tua est — conquer at sea, the land is yours already. The god promises to fight alongside him, turning a human battle into a contest with divine backing on one side.
The poem ends with the deified spirit of Julius Caesar watching from the stars and declaring his own divinity and his shared blood with Octavian: sum deus; est nostri sanguinis ista fides — I am a god; that is proof of our shared blood. Linking a living leader to a divine ancestor was one of the clearest ways Roman poets could claim that the gods themselves supported their hero.
This kind of divine sign was not new. A few lines earlier in the same speech, Apollo warns that unless Octavian defends his country, Romulus — the legendary founder of Rome and augur of its walls — watched the flight of the birds over the Palatine in vain — another example of a Roman leader whose authority rested on a sign from the gods.