[Marcus Curtius]

There is nothing more precious than the arms and courage of Rome!

This mid-16th century woodblock print was originally published as part of a French edition of Sebastian Munster’s Cosmographia. The block of text and accompanying hand-colored image tells the story of Marcus Curtis.

According to the British Museum; Curtius was “a legendary hero of ancient Rome; according to legend, in 362 BC a deep chasm opened in the Roman Forum, the seers declared that the pit would never close until Rome’s most valuable possession was thrown into it; claiming that nothing was more precious than a brave citizen, Curtius leaped, fully armed on horseback, into the chasm, which immediately closed; the spot was afterward covered by a pond, known as the Lacus Curtius, which was dry by the 1st century BC; the legend of Marcus Curtius is the most widespread of several tales invented to explain the origin of the name Lacus Curtius. Some versions of the myth (in Livy, for example), refer to him by the name of Mettius Curtius.”

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