Mettius Curtius was a Sabine warrior who fought under Titus Tatius during the time of Romulus, the founder and first king of Rome.
Hostilius had Fufetius brutally executed, and Rome's mother city razed, because he suspected the Alban commander of disloyalty.
Scullard equates the name with the Oscan word meddix, apparently a cognate of the Latin magister.
If this is correct, then the name would belong to a class of praenomina including the Etruscan Arruns and Lars, which were derived from words meaning prince and lord, respectively.
[6][7] Although known from only a handful of examples in Latin, the praenomen Mettius was borrowed by the Etruscans, in whose language it became Metie.