Note 1265 — Chapter VIII · Rome

Platner, ibid. p. 105. Pais claims the story of Curtius (445 or 362 B.C.; Varro, L.L. V. 148; Livy VII. 6) as an alternative version of the draining of the Forum. The existence of two conflicting versions would not, pace Pais, Legends, pp. 35–6, prove that neither was true; in this particular case we have not two rival stories, since the Curtius legend refers not to the original draining of the site, but to a sudden flood, such as that which so alarmed the Romans in the days of Horace (Odes, I. ii. 12–20). The Forum continues to be seriously flooded from time to time.