The most popular story (~362 BCE), and also the one Livy deemed most likely, was a myth glorifying the nation: Rome was endangered when a great chasm opened on the Forum.

After dropping various things into the ravine without result, a young horseman named Marcus Curtius (again, of the Curtia gens) saved the city by realizing that it was virtus that the Romans held most dear.

[1] A bit to the east of the Lacus Curtius were found the skeletal remains of a man, woman, and child who had been bound together and drowned.

[citation needed] This supports the notion that legends of Mettius and Marcus Curtius are perhaps warped recollections of a very ancient sacrificial drowning ritual done when the feature was still large enough to form a pool.

Marcus Curtius' self-sacrifice has been a popular theme since the Renaissance, depicted by Paolo Veronese, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and many others.