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12 - Stories from the History of Rome by Emily Beesly · Stories from the History of Rome

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of Stories from the History of Rome by
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  Speaker 1: Emily Beasley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The Gulf in the Forum. Some years after the taking
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  Speaker 1: of Rome by the Gauls, the people of Rome were
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  Speaker 1: greatly troubled by a strange thing that happened in the city.
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  Speaker 1: The ground in the middle of the forum or marketplace
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  Speaker 1: split and sunk down to a great depth, leaving a
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  Speaker 1: large hole or gulf, so deep that no man could
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  Speaker 1: tell where the bottom of it might be. The Romans
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  Speaker 1: tried to fill it up and threw in cart loads
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  Speaker 1: of earth and stones, but it was of no use.
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  Speaker 1: However much they threw in, the gulf still seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be as deep as ever. Do what they would, they
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  Speaker 1: could not find the bottom. So wonderful a thing the
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  Speaker 1: people thought must be caused by the anger of the gods.
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  Speaker 1: They inquired of the prophets and begged them to pray
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  Speaker 1: to the gods and to say what the Roman people
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  Speaker 1: must do to win pardon. At last. The prophets brought
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  Speaker 1: their answer, which was as follows. If the Roman people
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  Speaker 1: would have their republic last forever, let them throw into
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  Speaker 1: the gulf the best and most precious thing that there
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  Speaker 1: is in Rome. Then all the people began to consult
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  Speaker 1: and talk together, that they might find out what was
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  Speaker 1: the most precious thing in Rome. Some said gold, another's jewels,
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  Speaker 1: and other's corn. Some said one thing, and some another.
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  Speaker 1: But a brave young man called Marcus Curtius came forward
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  Speaker 1: and said, there is nothing in Rome so precious as
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  Speaker 1: the brave heart and good weapons of a Roman. Then,
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  Speaker 1: when all were silent, he looked at the temples of
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  Speaker 1: the gods that stood on the capitol and could be
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  Speaker 1: seen from the forum, and, stretching his hands out, first
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  Speaker 1: towards Heaven and then towards the deep gulf at his feet,
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  Speaker 1: he vowed to sacrifice himself for Rome. He then put
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  Speaker 1: on his armor, and, mounting his good horse, rode to
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  Speaker 1: the gulf and leaped in, while crowds of men and
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  Speaker 1: women flung fruit and flowers in after him. The earth
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  Speaker 1: closed over him, and for hundreds of years afterwards, the
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  Speaker 1: place where the gulf had been was called the Curtian Pool.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eleven