Horatius Coclès was created during the Reign of Terror, at the height of the French Revolution, when all works of art were strongly encouraged to have a political purpose.

Arnault saw parallels between the Rome of Horatius, which had just expelled its kings, and Revolutionary France, fighting against the crowned heads of Europe.

During one night in the second run, one of the chorus fell off the "Pons Sublicius", taking 50 other performers with him, resulting in multiple injuries to the singer playing the lead.

[2][3] A chorus of Romans mourns the death of Lucius Junius Brutus, who had led them to expel King Tarquin and found the republic.

Mucius Scaevola enters dressed as an Etruscan and declares his intention to infiltrate the enemy camp and assassinate Porsenna, even at the cost of his own life.

[6] Elizabeth Bartlet comments that Méhul "did not hesitate to find a musical equivalent for 'fraternité' [i.e. fraternity, one of the chief French Revolutionary virtues].

In Horatius Coclès the little music for soloists, apart from recitative to advance the plot, is for the most part in the form of duos and trios, not solos.