[Sidenote:  B.C. 362 (a.u. 392)] 1.  Dio Cassius Cocceianus, the compiler of Roman history, states that as a result of the wrath of Heaven a fissure opened in the ground round about Rome and would not close.  An oracular utterance having been obtained to the effect that the fissure would close if they should throw into it the mightiest possession of the Romans, one Curtius, a knight of noble birth, when no one else was able to understand the oracle, himself interpreted it to mean a horse and man together.  Straightway he mounted his horse and, just as he was, dashed heroically forward and passed down into that frightful pit.  No sooner had he rushed down the incline than the fissure closed; and the rest of the Romans from above scattered flowers.  From this event the name of Curtius was applied also to a cellar. (Io.  Tzetzes, Scholia for the Interpretation of Homer’s Iliad, p. 136, 17, Cp.  Zonaras, 7, 25.)

2.  There is no mortal creature either better or stronger than man.  Do you not see that all the rest go downwards and look forever toward the earth and accomplish nothing save what is closely connected with eating and the propagation of their species?  So they have been condemned to these pursuits even by Nature herself.  We alone gaze upwards and associate with heaven itself and despise those things that are on the earth, while we dwell with the gods themselves, believing them to be similar to us inasmuch as we are both their offspring and creations, not earthly but heavenly:  for which reason we paint and fashion those very beings according to our forms.  For, if one may speak somewhat boldly, man is naught else than a god with mortal body, and a god naught else than a man without body and consequently immortal.  That is why we surpass all other creatures.  And there is nothing afoot which we do not enslave, overtaking it by speed or subduing it by force or catching it by some artifice, nor yet aught that lives in the water or travels the air:  nay, even of these two classes, we pull the former up from the depths without seeing them and drag the latter down from the sky without reaching them. (Mai, p. 532.  Zonaras, 7, 25.)

[Frag.  XXIX]

¶ Dio says:  “Wherefore, although not accustomed to indulgence in digressions, I have taken pains to make mention of it and have stated in addition the Olympiad, in order that when most men forget the date of the migration,[Footnote:  This last clause is a conjecture by Reimar.] it may, from the precaution mentioned, become less doubtful.” (Mai, p. 156.)

[Frag.  XXX]

[Sidenote:  B.C. 353 (a.u. 401)] ¶ The Agyllaeans, when they ascertained that the Romans wished to make war on them, despatched ambassadors to Rome before any vote was taken, and obtained peace on surrender of half their territory. (Ursinus, p. 374.)

[Frag.  XXXI]

[Sidenote:  B.C. 349 (a.u. 405)] Marcus Corvinus received the name of Corvinus because when once engaged with a barbarian in single combat, he had a savage crow as his ally in the battle, that flew at the eyes of the barbarian until this Marcus killed him at that time. (Tzetzes, Hist. 3, 862-866.  Cp.  Zonaras, 7, 25.)