Somewhere in this part of the Forum was the famous _Curtian Lake_, so called from Mettus Curtius, a Sabine warrior, who with difficulty escaped from its quagmires to the Capitol after a battle between Romulus and Tatius.[52] Tradition declares that the quagmire afterwards became a gulf, which an oracle declared would never close until that which was most important to the Roman people was sacrificed to it. Then the young Marcus Curtius, equipped in full armour, leapt his horse into the abyss, exclaiming that nothing was more important to the Roman people than arms and courage; and the gulf was closed.[53] Two altars were afterwards erected on the site to the two heroes, and a vine and an olive tree grew there.[54] "Hoc, ubi nunc fora sunt, udæ tenuere paludes: Amne redundatis fossa madebat aquis. Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinet aras, Nunc solida est tellus, sed lacus ante fuit." _Ovid, Fast._ vi. 401. Some fountain, like those of Servilius and Juturna, bearing the name of Lacus Curtius must have existed on this site to imperial times, for the Emperor Galba was murdered there. "A single cohort still surrounded Galba, when the standard-bearer tore the Emperor's image from his spear-head, and dashed it on the ground. The soldiers were at once decided for Otho; swords were drawn, and every symptom of favour for Galba amongst the bystanders was repressed by menaces, till they dispersed and fled in horror from the Forum. At last, the bearers of the emperor's litter overturned it at the Curtian pool beneath the Capitol. In a few moments enemies swarmed around his body. A few words he muttered, which have been diversely reported: some said that they were abject and unbecoming; others affirmed that he presented his neck to the assassin's sword, and bade him strike 'if it were for the good of the republic;' but none listened, none perhaps heeded the words actually spoken; Galba's throat was pierced, but even the author of his mortal wound was not ascertained, while his breast being protected by the cuirass, his legs and arms were hacked with repeated gashes."--_Merivale_, vii. 73. At the foot of the Clivus Capitolinus, on the left (looking towards the Arch of Titus) stood the _Temple of Janus Quirinus_, between the great Forum and the Forum of Julius Cæsar, and near the ascent to the Porta Janualis, by which Tarpeia admitted the Sabines to the Capitol. Procopius, in the sixth century, saw the little bronze temple of Janus still standing. This was one of many temples of the great Sabine god. "Quum tot sint Jani; cur stas sacratus in uno, Hic ubi juncta foris templa duobus habes?" _Ovid, Fast._ i. 257. This was the temple which was the famous index of peace and war, closed by Augustus for the third time from its foundation after the victory of Actium.[55]