After occupying the Janiculum on the west side of the Tiber, the Clusian army approached the Pons Sublicius, a wooden bridge leading into the city.
The Roman forces withdrew to the eastern side of the river, as engineers began the work of destroying the bridge's supports.
Three Romans remained on the bridge to fend off the Etruscans: Publius Horatius Cocles, Titus Herminius Aquilinus, and Spurius Larcius.
[15][16][18][19][20] Larcius and Herminius appear again in the war with Clusium, commanding troops as part of a trap devised by the consul Publius Valerius Publicola to capture Etruscan raiding parties.
[21] Larcius was elected consul for 506 BC, the fourth year of the Republic, with Titus Herminius, his companion on the bridge, as his colleague.
[39] The stand of Larcius and his companions against Lars Porsena at the Sublician Bridge in 508 BC is celebrated in Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, the most famous of which is Horatius.