The first mention of Curtius away from home, and of his earliest position in the cursus honorum, is his "attachment" (haeserat) to "him who held Africa" (obtinenti Africam) as comes, literally a "companion," meaning a staff member.
Curtius was at leisure in a portico when he became frightened by the preter-human figure of a woman, which the Tacitean version calls a species, "appearance."