The story of the Horatii and the Curiatii, as told by the historians Dyonysius of Halicarnassus and Titus Livius, deals with the ambiguity of heroism. The presence of several similarities between distinct Mediterranean cultures shows how ancient the story is. Relating it to Indian and Irish epics, G. Dumézil showed that it can be seen as a magic war-ritual, and tried to go back to the Indo-European archetype. Titus Livius gave it the form of a Roman tragedy.
