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See also:MARCUS See also:CURTIUS , a legendary See also:hero of See also:ancient See also:Rome . It is said that in 362 B.C. a deep gulf opened in the See also:forum, which the seers declared would never See also:close until Rome's most valuable See also:possession was thrown into it . Then See also:Curtius, a youth of See also:noble See also:family, recognizing that nothing was more See also:precious than a brave See also:citizen, leaped, fully armed and on horseback, into the chasm, which immediately closed again . The spot was afterwards covered by a See also:marsh called the Lacus Curtius . Two other explanations of the name Lacus Curtius are given: (I) a See also:Sabine See also:general, Mettius (or Mettus) Curtius, hard pressed by the See also:Romans under See also:Romulus, leaped into a swamp which covered the valley afterwards occupied by the forum, and barely escaped with his See also:life; (2) in 445 B.C. the spot was struck by See also:lightning, and en-closed as sacred by the See also:consul, See also:Gaius Curtius . It was marked by an See also:altar which was removed to make See also:room for the See also:games in celebration of See also:Caesar's funeral (See also:Pliny, Nat . Hist. xv . 77), butrestored by See also:Augustus (cf . See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, vi . 403), in whose See also:time there was apparently nothing but a dry well . The altar seems to have been restored See also:early in the 4th See also:century A.D . In See also:April 1904, on the N. See also:side of the Via Sacra and 20 ft .
N.W. of the Equus Domitiani, remains of the buildings were discovered
.
See See also:Livy i
.
12, vii
.
6; DionHalic. ii
.
42; See also:Varro, De lingua See also:Latina, v
.
148; Ch
.
Hulsen, The See also:Roman Forum (Eng. trans. of 2nd ed., J
.
B
.
See also:Carter, 1906); O
.
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