MARCUS

See also:

• CURTIUS, ERNST (1814-1896)
• MARCUS CURTIUS

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

N.W. of the Equus Domitiani, remains of the buildings were discovered . See

Livy i . 12, vii . 6; DionHalic. ii . 42; Varro, De lingua Latina, v . 148; Ch . Hulsen, The Roman Forum (Eng. trans. of 2nd ed., J . B . Carter, 1906); O . Gilbert, Geschichte and Topographie der Siadt Rom im Altertum, i . (1883), 334—338 .