(Marcus), a Roman youth, who devoted himself to the gods manes for the safety of his country, about 360 years before the Augustan age. A wide gap had suddenly opened in the forum, and the oracle had said that it never would close before Rome threw into it whatever it had most precious. Curtius immediately perceived that no less than an human sacrifice was required. He armed himself, mounted his horse, and solemnly threw himself into the gulf, which instantly closed over his head.

Curtius (Quintus), a Latin historian who wrote the life of Alexander the Great in 10 books, of which the two first are not indeed extant, but are so well supplied by Freinsheimius, that the loss is scarcely regretted. Where this writer was born, or even when he lived, are points no one pretends to know. By his style he is supposed to have lived in or near the Augustan age; while some are not wanting, who imagine the work to have been composed in Italy about 300 years ago, and the name of Quintus Curtius to be fictitiously added to it. Cardinal du Perron was so great an admirer of this work, as to declare one page of it to be worth 30 of Tacitus; yet M. le Clerc, at the end of his Art of Criticism, has charged the writer with great ignorance and many contradictions. He has nevertheless many qualities as a writer, which will always make him admired and applauded. CURVATURE of a Line, is the peculiar manner of its bending or flexure, by which it becomes a curve of such and such peculiar properties.