pier is highly unlikely, as any ship tied up at it as shown would be unstable in the full force of the current. Moreover, the masts would have to be shipped for passage under the bridges. One can readily see how unsuitable the river was for sea-going traffic and how necessary the port of Ostia would have been to Rome. The opening of the Cloaca Maxima is between the docks and the stone bridge. Beyond the bridge you can just see the Aesculapium on Tiber Island. Looming over the whole scene is the Capitoline, with the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus upon it. The rising ground on the opposite side of the stone bridge is the Janiculum. Horatius Cocles at the bridge The legend of Publius Horatius Cocles at the bridge appears in many classical authors, most notably in Livy. After the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC, the exile of the royal family and the king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and the establishment of the Roman Republic, Tarquinius sought military aid to regain the throne from the Etruscan king of Clusium, Lars Porsena. Porsena led his army against Rome in 508 BC. The battle went badly for the Romans, and the Etruscan army surged towards the bridge. The Romans initially fell back. However, Horatius, with the assistance of Spurius Larcius and Titus Herminius Aquilinus, sought to buy time and halt the attack by defending the opposite end of the bridge while the Roman soldiers broke the bridge. In modern English literature, the story of Horatius at the bridge was re-told by Thomas Babington Macaulay in his poem Horatius, published as part of his Lays of Ancient Rome (1842). Gaius Gracchus at the bridge The Pons Sublicius is also the bridge over which Gaius Gracchus directed his flight when he was overtaken by his opponents (Plutarch, Life of Gaius Gracchus). Two of his friends attempted to stop them at the bridge, but were themselves killed. Gracchus died violently shortly after in a grove nearby. Roman citizens cheered on the flight of Gracchus but would not assist him. Gracchus' choice of an escape route was probably intended to make use of the magical powers attributed to the bridge, but it failed. Ritual of the Argei On the Ides of May, the procession of the Argei went from the temple of Fors Fortuna, built by Servius Tullius, to the Pons Sublicius. (There