in Rome who interpreted rightly the meaning of the oracle. This
was a noble youth, M. Curtius by name, who had played his part valiantly
in war, and gained great fame by brave and manly deeds. The true
strength of Rome? he said to the people. In what else could it lie but
in the arms and valor of her children? This was the sacrifice the gods
demanded.

Going home, he put on his armor and mounted his horse. Riding to the
brink of the gulf, he, before the eyes of the trembling and awe-struck
multitude, devoted himself to death for the safety and glory of Rome,
and plunged, with his horse, headlong into the gaping void. The people
rushed after him to the brink, flung in their offerings, and with a
surge the lips of the gap came together, and the gulf was forever
closed. The place was afterwards known by the name of the Curtian Lake,
in honor of this sacrifice.

There are two other stories of this date worth repeating, as giving rise
to two great names in Rome. T. Manlius, the future conqueror of the
Latins, fought with a gigantic Gaul on the bridge over the Anio on the
Salarian road. Slaying his enemy, he took from his neck a chain of gold
(_torques_), which he afterwards wore upon his own. From this the
soldiers called him Torquatus, which name his descendants ever
afterwards bore.

In a later battle Marcus Valerius fought with a second gigantic Gaul.
During the combat a wonderful thing happened. A crow perched on the
helmet of the Roman, and continued there as the combatants fought.
Occasionally it flew up into the air, and darted down upon the Gaul,
striking at his eyes with its beak and claws. The Gaul, confounded by
this attack, soon fell by the sword of his foe, and then the crow flew
up again, and vanished towards the east. The name of Corvus (crow) was
added to that of Valerius, and was long afterwards borne by his
descendants.

These stories are rather to be enjoyed than believed. They probably
contain more poetry than history, particularly that of Curtius and the
gulf. Yet they were accepted as history by the Romans, and are given in
all their detail in the fine old work of Livy, the rarest and raciest of
the story-tellers of Rome.

_ANECDOTES OF THE LATIN AND SAMNITE WARS._

The conquest of Italy by Rome was attended by many interesting events,
of which we propose to relate here some of the more striking. The
capture and burning of Rome by the Gauls, and the dispersal of her army
and people, rui