they had not defended their relations the Veientians against the Roman people. No aid was obtained: three ambassadors were sent, sons of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, to treat with the Gauls in the name of the senate and Roman people; that they should not attack the allies and friends of the Roman people from whom they had received no wrong. That they should be supported by the Romans even by force of arms, if circumstances obliged them; but it seemed better that war itself should be kept aloof, if possible; and that the Gauls, a nation strangers to them, should be known by peace, rather than by arms.
36
The embassy was a mild one, had it not been consigned to ambassadors too hot in temper, and who resembled Gauls more than Romans. To whom, after they delivered their commission in the assembly of the Gauls, the following answer is returned: Though the name of the Romans was new to their ears, yet they believed them to be brave men, whose aid was implored by the Clusians in their perilous conjuncture. And since they chose to defend their allies against them by negociation rather than by arms, that they on their part would not reject the pacific terms which they propose, if the Clusians would give up to the Gauls in want of land, a portion of their territories which they possessed to a greater extent than they could cultivate; otherwise peace could not be obtained: that they wished to receive an answer in presence of the Romans; and if the land were refused them, that they would decide the matter with the sword in presence of the same Romans; that they might have an opportunity of carrying home an account how much the Gauls excelled all other mortals in bravery. On the Romans asking what right they had to demand land from the possessors, or to threaten war (in case of refusal), and what business the Gauls had in Etruria, and on their fiercely replying, that they carried their right in their swords, that all things were the property of the brave, with minds inflamed on both sides they severally have recourse to arms, and the battle is commenced. Here, fate now pressing hard on the Roman city, the ambassadors, contrary to the law of nations, take up arms; nor could this be done in secret, as three of the noblest and bravest of the Roman youth fought in the van of the Etrurians; so conspicuous was the valour of the foreigners. Moreover Quintus Fabius, riding out beyond the line, slew a general of the Gauls who was furiously charging the very standards of the Etrurians, having run him through the side with his spear: and the Gauls recognised him when stripping him of his spoils; and a signal was given throughout the entire line that he was a Roman ambassador. Giving up therefore their resentment against the Clusians, they sound a retreat, threatening the Romans. Some gave it as their opinion that they should proceed forthwith to Rome. The seniors prevailed, that ambassadors should be sent to complain of the injuries done them, and to demand that the Fabii should be given up to them in satisfaction for having violated the law of nations. When the ambassadors had stated matters, according to the instructions given to them, the conduct of the Fabii was neither approved by the senate, and the barbarians seemed to them to demand what was just: but in the case of men of such station party favour prevented them from decreeing that which they felt to be right. Wherefore lest the blame of any misfortune, which might happen to be received in a war with the Gauls, should lie with them, they refer the consideration of the demands of the Gauls to the people, where influence and wealth were so predominant, that those persons, whose punishment was under consideration, were elected military tribunes with consular power for the ensuing year. At which proceeding the Gauls being enraged, as was very natural, openly menacing war, return to their own party. With the three Fabii the military tribunes elected were Quintus Sulpicius Longus, Quintus Servilius a fourth time, Servius Cornelius Maluginensis.
37
Though danger of such magnitude was impending (so completely does Fortune blind the minds of men when she wishes not her threatening stroke to be foiled) a state, which against the Fidenatian and Veientian enemies, and other neighbouring states, had recourse to aid even from the most extreme quarters, and had appointed a dictator on many trying occasions, that same state now, when an enemy, never before seen or heard of, from the ocean and remotest regions of the earth, was advancing in arms against them, looked not for any extraordinary command or aid. Tribunes, by whose temerity the war had been brought on them, were appointed to the chief direction of affairs, and even making less of the war than fame had represented it, held the levy with no greater diligence than used to be exercised for ordinary wars. In the mean while the Gauls, on hearing that honour was even conferred on the violators of human law, and that their embassy was slighted, inflamed with resentment, over which that nation has no control, immediately snatched up their standards, and enter on their march with the utmost expedition. When the cities, alarmed at the tumult occasioned by them as they passed precipitately along, began to run to arms, and the peasants took to flight, they indicated by a loud shout that they were proceeding to Rome, taking up an immense space of ground, wherever they passed, with their horses and men, their troops spreading widely in every direction. But fame and the messengers of the Clusians, and then of the other states one after another, preceding them, the rapid advance of the enemy brought the greatest consternation to Rome; for, with their tumultuary troops hastily led on, they met them within the distance of the eleventh mile-stone, where the river Allia, descending from the Crustuminian mountains in a very deep channel, joins the river Tiber not far below the road. Already all places in front and on each side were crowded with the enemy, and this nation, which has a natural turn for causeless confusion, by their harsh music and discordant clamours, filled all places with a horrible din.
38
There the military tribunes, without having previously selected a place for their camp, without having previously raised a rampart to which they might have a retreat, unmindful of their duty to the gods, to say nothing of that to man, without taking auspices or offering sacrifices, draw up their line, which was extended towards the flanks, lest they should be surrounded by the great numbers of the enemy. Still their front could not be made equal to that of the enemy, though by thinning their line they rendered their centre weak and scarcely connected. There was on the right a small eminence, which it was determined to fill with bodies of reserve; and that circumstance, as it was the first cause of their dismay and flight, so it proved their only means of safety in their flight. For Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, being chiefly apprehensive of some design169 being intended in the small number of the enemy, thinking that the high ground had been seized for this purpose, that, when the Gauls had been engaged in front with the line of the legions, the reserve was to make an attack on their rear and flank, directed his troops against the reserve; certain, that if he had dislodged them from their ground, the victory would be easy in the plain for a force which had so much the advantage in point of numbers: thus not only fortune, but judgment also stood on the side of the barbarians. In the opposite army there appeared nothing like Romans, either in the commanders, or in the soldiers. Terror and dismay had taken possession of their minds, and such a forgetfulness of every thing, that a far greater number of them fled to Veii, a city of their enemy, though the Tiber stood in their way, than by the direct road to Rome, to their wives and children. Their situation defended the reserve for some time; throughout the remainder of the line as soon as the shout was heard, by those who stood nearest on their flank, and by those at a distance on their rear, almost before they could look at the enemy as yet untried, not only without attempting to fight, but without even returning the shout, fresh and unhurt they took to flight. Nor was there any slaughter of them in the act of fighting; but their rear was cut to pieces, whilst they obstructed their flight by their struggling one with another. Great slaughter was made on the bank of the Tiber, whither the entire left wing, having thrown down their arms, directed their flight; and many who did not know how to swim, or were exhausted, being weighed down by their coats of mail and other defensive armour, were swallowed up in the current. The greatest part however escaped safe to Veii; whence not only no reinforcement, but not even an account of their defeat, was forwarded to Rome. Those on the right wing which had been posted at a distance from the river, and rather near the foot of the mountain, all made for Rome, and, without even shutting the gates, fled into the citadel.
39
The miraculous attainment of so sudden a victory held even the Gauls
