thumb|230px|The Sacrificial Death of Marcus Curtius (1550–52) by [[Paolo Veronese]]
thumb|230px|Marcus Curtius in the [[Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)]]
Marcus Curtius is a mythological young Roman who offered himself to the gods of Hades. He is mentioned shortly by Varro and at length by Livy. He is the legendary namesake of the Lacus Curtius in the Roman Forum, the site of his supposed self-sacrifice.
Legendary biography
After an earthquake in 362 BC, a huge deep pit suddenly opened in the Roman Forum, which the Romans attempted to fill, but in vain. Despairing, they consulted an augur who responded that the gods demanded the most precious possession of Rome. The Romans doubted the warning, and struggled to think of what that was.
However, a young soldier named Marcus Curtius castigated them and responded that arms and the courage of Romans were the nation's most precious possessions. Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) painted a large oil entitled Curtius Leaping into the Gulf in 1842.
See also
- Curtia (gens)