story says it closed of itself, another that it became easy to fill it
up with earth.

The Romans thought that such a sacrifice must please the gods and bring
them success in their battles; but in the war with the Hernici that was
now being waged the plebeian consul was killed, and no doubt there was
much difficulty in getting the patricians to obey a plebeian properly,
for in the course of the next twenty years it was necessary fourteen
times to appoint a Dictator for the defence of the state, so that it is
plain there must have been many alarms and much difficulty in enforcing
discipline; but, on the whole, success was with Rome, and the
neighboring tribes grew weaker.

[Illustration: CURTIUS LEAPING INTO THE GULF. (_From a Bas-Relief_.)]




CHAPTER XIV.

THE DEVOTION OF DECIUS.

B.C. 357


Other tribes of the Gauls did not fail to come again and make fresh
inroads on the valleys of the Tiber and Anio. Whenever they came,
instead of choosing men from the tribes to form an army, as in a war
with their neighbors, all the fighting men of the nation turned out to
oppose them, generally under a Dictator.