2-634-372 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The youth laid the arms he had taken from his foe at his father's feet', c1912 (1912). Titus Manlius Torquatus, a Consul of Rome, had given strict orders that no soldier was to engage in single combat. But the son of Torquatus disobeyed, winning a lengthy combat. Thinking that his father would forgive his disobedience, the son laid the arms he had taken from his enemy at his father's feet. Torn between the success of his son and the disappointment of his disobedience, Torquatus ordered the soldiers to behead his son as a lesson. From The Story of Rome, by Mary MacGregor. [Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1912]