For the ashes of his fathers...

In Frederick Forsyth's "The Afghan",to describe a context in which the lead character faces a situation of Do or Die, he quotes a few lines from a poem by Thomas Macaulay's (much reviled by many Indians) "Lays of Ancient Rome"
which in turn is the English translation of heroic ballads of Ancient Rome. These also find mention in the regular works of Roman historians like Livy and Polybius.

Horatius was "Captain of the Gate" of the city of Rome. Once Etruscans fell upon Rome with a very huge army and had rapidly reached the environs of the city. The only thing that separated the city from their invasion was the bridge across the Tiber river. As the legend goes, no soldier was willing to stand up and defend. As the Consul of Rome lamented the situation, Horatius came forward boldly and said that he will stand on the other end of the bridge against the Etruscans and while he fought against them, let the bridge be broken so that the city is saved. He but asked two more men to stand by him and two of his lieutenants were readily willing. He turned to the Consul and said, the brave words which were recorded in the Roman ballads and translated by Macaulay in the 19th century

Then spake out brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late,
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods"

In another page in the last few pages of "The Afghan", when again the lead character faces a choice, Forsyth quotes the great Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Masood - Lion of the Panjshir, and a great guerilla fighter of the last century - "We are all sentenced to die. But only a warrior blessed of Allah may be allowed to choose how."