The Pledge of Allegiance of the Horatii
THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE OF THE HORATII ???

Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 - December 29, 1825)
The Oath of the Horatii   1784  Musée du Louvre at Paris


The painting "The Oath of the Horatii" http://rexcurry.net/pledgehoratii.html might have inspired (or enlarged) the myth of the Roman salute.  The myth was also  inspired by early movies that showed fictional Roman scenes using a straight-arm salute.  Those movies were inspired by the original straight-arm salute of the pledge of allegiance to the U.S. flag (from 1892).  The "Roman salute" myth was reinforced when the salute was adopted as the "Olympic salute" used at Olympic games on or before 1924.

There is no evidence that the painting "The Oath of the Horatii" inspired the original straight-armed salute in the pledge of allegiance to the U.S. flag. 

Bellamy (the author of the pledge of allegiance) and Upham (with whom Bellamy worked) discussed the process of creating the original flag salute and the painting was not part of the process and it did not even arise in their discussion. http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html   Further, Bellamy and Upham explicitly rejected the idea of an "oath" and specifically chose to use the word "pledge."

One would have to wildly speculate that if the painting inspired the flag salute at all, then it was subliminally.

There is no speculation about the fact that Francis Bellamy was a National Socialist in the USA three decades before the National Socialists in Germany, and that the USA's National Socialists promoted their dogma and their original straight-armed salute to the USA's flag for three decades ahead of the similar dogma and behavior of National Socialists in Germany.

The scene depicted in the painting "The Oath of the Horatii" was not actually an oath (other than in the artist's title), nor a pledge, nor a salute at all.  The painting depicts a scene from a story in which a father exhorts his sons to fight.  The painting shows the sons reaching for their weapons (swords) as the father hands them over.

The painting by Jacques-Louis David (8/30/1748 - 12/29/1825) is famous in the history of French painting and is exhibited at the Louvre Museum.  The story was taken from Titus-Livy.  The painter David chose to imagine the start of the story, rather than the action that followed.  David chose the idea of the oath (the oath is not mentioned in the historical accounts).  David may have been the first person to "make up" a formal oath as part of the story.  In fact the very story depicted, even without the oath, may not have actually happened. The story was inspired by the wars between Rome and Alba, in 669 B.C.  The painting depicts the three Roman brothers of the Horatii family pledging allegiance and gesturing toward weapons held by their father who exhorts his sons to fight.

If the painting had served as inspiration for the pledge of allegiance, then the pledge of allegiance would probably have been a better pledge that more accurately describes the painting: "I pledge allegiance to my right to keep and bear arms, and to the liberty for which it stands, to defend my father, my family and myself."

As the story is told, Rome was represented by the triplets Horatii, and Alba also by triplets from the family of Curatii. As a result of the combat only one (Horatius) survived and Rome was declared the victor.   There may be a relationship to the names "Horatio" or "Horace" (see Horace of the Horatian Ode), and "Horatius Cocles" a hero of ancient Roman Legend, celebrated for his defense of a bridge over the Tiber against the Etruscans.

The painting was inspired by the period of the wars between Rome and Alba, in 669 B.C.  It has been decided that the dispute between the two cities must be settled by an unusual form of combat to be fought by two groups of three champions each. The two groups are the three Horatii brothers and the three Curiatii brothers. The drama lay in the fact that one of the sisters of the Curiatii, Sabina, is married to one of the Horatii, while one of the sisters of the Horatii, Camilla, is betrothed to one of the Curiatii. Despite the ties between the two families, the Horatii's father exhorts his sons to fight the Curiatii and they obey, despite the lamentations of the women."