Curtius, a noble youth of Roman legend who leapt on horseback full-armed into a chasm in the Forum, which the soothsayers declared would not close unless at the sacrifice of what Rome held dearest, and which he did, judging that the wealth of Rome lay in its citizens, and tradition says the chasm thereupon immediately closed.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Curtis, George William * Curtius, Ernst