under the nephews of the king Ambiatus, for the banks of the Danube and the Po. The one horde, headed by Sigovesus, entered the Hercynian forest, in the heart of Germany, where Gallic settle ments are mentioned by Cæsar. The other, led by Bellovesus across the Graian Alps (the Little St. Bernard)* into the plain of Northern Italy, gained a victory over the Etruscans, and formed the canton of the Insubres, whose capital was Mediolanum (Milan). Soon afterwards another host formed the canton of the Cenomanni around Brixia (Brescia) and Verona.† Other streams followed, of Celtic invaders mingled with Ligurians, till the whole country north of the Po was overrun, and the Etruscans for the most part driven out. But still did Gaul pour forth her teeming hordes. The Boii-that wide-spread tribe, who were both distinguished in the history of Transalpine Gaul, and one of whose migrations gave the country of Bohemia its name-crossed, with the Lingones, over the Pennine Alps, by the Great St. Bernard, and, passing the Po on rafts, began to expel the Etruscans and Umbrians from the region between that river and the Apennines. Their capital was the old Etruscan Felsina, under the new name Bononia (Bologna). They were followed by the Senones from the banks of the Seine, who settled along the shore of the Adriatic between the rivers Utis (Montone) and Esis (Esino), from Rimini to Ancona. A few of the old Etruscan cities, such as Mantua, held out against the invaders: others which bear Celtic names, as Mediolanum, were probably in existence before, as these wandering pastoral tribes are not likely at first to have built new cities. The epoch of the complete ascendancy of the invaders over the Etruscans is traditionally marked by the fall of the rich city of Melpum, in the Milanese, on the very day on which Camillus took Veii (B.c. 396). However little these traditions may be worth in detail, they represent the undoubted historic fact of a great movement of the Celtic race, which overpowered the Etruscans in the region between the Alps and the Apennines, and confined their confederacy within the limits of Etruria Proper, at the very time when the Romans were attacking them on the south, and the Samnites and other Italians stripping them of their possessions in Campania. The older opinion is that they crossed the Alps by the pass of Mont Genevre, the Taurinus Saltus. For the discussion of these alleged migrations, and their relation to the tribes of Transalpine Gaul, on the one hand, and the older Celtic settlements in Italy, on the other, see Mr. Long's article, Gallia Cisalpina, in Smith's Dictionary of Geography. B.C. 390.] BATTLE OF THE ALLIA. 265 After the fall of Melpum, the Gauls pressed on over the Apennines into the heart of Etruria, and the tribe of the Senones laid siege to Clusium. In their extremity, the Etruscans sought aid from Rome, and an opportunity seemed to be offered, at once to repel the barbarian invaders and to reduce the Etruscans to the level of protected allies. But the Romans had already formed the idea, that it was for them to command and for other nations to submit; or rather, their annalists-whose account of the whole campaign is imbued with fable from beginning to end-choose to represent them as adopting this tone, and boast of the bad faith with which they sustained their arrogance. Three envoys were sent to bid the Gauls not to molest the allies of Rome. Arriving at Clusium, they joined the besieged in a sally, and one of them slew a Gaulish chief. The enemy-says Livysoon perceived that three of the bravest and noblest of the Roman youth were fighting in the van of the Etruscans, with whom they could not be confounded. Deputies were sent to Rome to demand the surrender at least of him who had killed a Gaul, when there was no war between the nations. The Senate would have complied; but the father of the offender, a military tribune, appealed to the people and the demand was rejected. It is even said that the three envoys were elected as military tribunes for the ensuing year, the more plainly to show contempt of the barbarians. Indignant at this adoption of the envoys' breach of faith by the Roman people, the Gauls, who numbered 70,000 fighting men, broke up the siege of Clusium, and marched straight for the devoted city. To the astonished people of the towns which they passed by without attacking, their forbearance was explained by the reiterated cry, "For Rome! for Rome!" So say the annalists; but in truth the invaders, whose one object was plunder, would not stay to besiege the walled cities of Etruria, when the rich plains of Latium invited their cupidity. They did not, in fact, march direct for Rome, but crossed the Tiber into the Sabine territory, and began to ravage the fertile country between that river and the Anio. The military tribunes, who had expected to see them on the right bank of the river, marched out in haste with the whole levy, amounting to 40,000 men, and met the enemy on the banks of the little river ALLIA, a confluent of the Tiber, within eleven miles of Rome. Still possessed with the idea, that the * According to Livy, the exact spot was eleven Roman miles from the city, on the high road (the Via Salaria). Notwithstanding this precise description, there is a difficulty in identifying the river, and the choice lies between what are now two barbarians were a despicable foe, the Romans neglected their usual precautions of fortifying a camp and providing for a retreat. They prepared for their first encounter with the Celts with that confidence in superior discipline, which has possessed regular armies in many a later conflict with the same race. But there is no evidence of that extreme carelessness, by the imputation of which the family bards magnified the want of Camillus on that day. A defensive position was taken up behind the Allia, the broken water-course covering the front. The right, composed of the worse armed class of the poorer citizens, had the advantage of the higher ground; the main body filled the space between the hills and the Tiber; the left rested on the river. The Gallic chieftain led his bravest warriors against the Roman right, which gave way before the desperate valour and the sweeping broadsword of the Gael. The fugitives, making for the river, spread disorder into the ranks of the legions; the Gauls pressed on in their furious charge; and the rout became general. Some fled to Rome; others found shelter in a thick wood till night; while the mass of the fugitives, in their eagerness to seek safety beyond the Tiber, tried to swim the river and escape to Veii. A fearful slaughter was made upon the bank and in the stream; and the flower of the Roman youth perished there. The rest escaped to the right bank, and left open the road to Rome. The 18th of July, in the 364th year of the city (B.c. 390), was ever after distinguished in the Roman calendar by the blackest mark, as the Day of the Allia.* The victors rested for a whole day on the field of battle, collecting the trophies of the slain, to be the memorials of each warrior's valour. On the third day the victors entered the open gates of Rome. This brief delay gave time to remove or bury many of the most sacred objects, and to prepare for the defence of the citadel. Many of the citizens had found shelter at Veii, where they would naturally revive the interrupted scheme of founding a new capital. Many more seized the opportunity to disperse, with their moveable little brooks, running through deep ravines from the hills to the Tiber. One of these, the Scolo del Casale, crosses the road at a spot called the Fonte di Papa, about twelve miles from Rome. Its precipitous banks answer exactly to Livy's description of the Allia. *The day was called that of the Clades Alliensis. According to the Roman reckoning it was A.D. XV. Cal Sextil., which is frequently rendered, by an oversight, the 16th of July. There seems also to be an error in the year, in consequence of the disorder into which the Roman calendar fell. The Greek date is Ol. 98. 1, a year which began at the Midsummer of B.C. 388. B.C. 390.] SELF-DEVOTION OF THE FATHERS. 267 effects, to other neighbouring cities of Etruria and Latium. But it was resolved not to abandon the ancient seat of the three great deities upon the Capitol, the spot to which sure omens had foretold the empire of the world. Still, to provide against the worst, the Flamen of Quirinus and the Vestal Virgins were sent to Cære, with the sacred things over which they watched. The procession had crossed the Tiber, and was mounting the slope of the Mount Janiculus on foot, when they were overtaken by a plebeian named L. Albinus, who was conveying his wife and children in a wagon. He pronounced it to be a shame that he and his should ride, while the sacred virgins went on foot, and, making his family dismount, he placed them, with the holy fire, in the carriage, and escorted them safe to Cære. Meanwhile, the Capitol was hastily provisioned, and none were admitted within its precincts but such as could take part in its defence. There were still left a number of aged citizens, ministers of religion and heads of the old patrician houses, who were unable to render military service, and unwilling to abandon the homes of their forefathers and their gods. They met together and recited, by the mouth of the chief pontiff, M. Fabius, the impressive formula, by which the lives of their enemies were devoted, with their own, to the gods beneath the earth and to the spirits of the dead. For such was the Roman faith, that the citizen who did not shrink from the solemn devotion of himself acquired a power over the fate of his country's enemies. Then they parted, and each sat down in the porch of his house-pontiffs, priests, senators, and former curule magistrates, all invested with the insignia of their rank, and seated in their curule chairs. The Gallic hordes poured into the undefended city. The chieftains occupied the houses of the patricians on the Palatine, while their followers were dispersed plundering and destroying in the streets. With profound astonishment they beheld the venerable men seated in calm dignity, and took them at first for gods. Presently a Gaul went up to the priest Papirius, and began reverently to stroke his long white beard. Indignant at this profanation of his sacred person, Papirius smote the Gaul upon the head with his ivory sceptre. With the quickness of his race to resent a blow, the barbarian cut down Papirius with his broadsword; the sight of his blood dissolved the spell; and the other fathers of the city shared his fate in a general massacre. The Gauls now attempted to storm the Capitol by the slope* *The clivus Capitolinus. which then formed its only approach, the other sides being guarded by high precipices. Failing in this assault, they formed a blockade, and occupied themselves in ravaging the lands of Latium. Some accounts represent them as carrying their ravages far into the south of Italy. Meanwhile, the spirits of the Romans in Veii began to revive, and plans were proposed for the succour of the besieged. A youth named Pontius Cominius volunteered to open a communication with the Capitol. The outer face of the hill was left unenclosed, as we have seen, by the walls of Servius, and the envoy, having swum down the Tiber, climbed up this way by night, and returned in safety. But in the morning, the marks of his passage suggested to the Gauls a means of surprising the citadel. In the dead of the following night a party scaled the cliff. There was neither wall nor sentinel in their way; the very dogs seemed miraculously silent, as if resigning the honour of that night to other guardians. In the precinct of the three great deities were kept some geese, sacred to Juno; and these birds had been spared in the famine, from which the garrison had begun to suffer. They now cried out and flapped their wings. The noise roused M. Manlius, who dwelt close by. Rushing to the cliff, he dashed his shield in the face of the foremost Gaul, who fell back, overthrowing those behind him. A panic seized the assailants. Dropping their arms to cling to the rock, they fell an easy prey to the Romans, who had now caught the alarm. The Capitol was saved. Manlius was rewarded with a share of the daily ration of each of the defenders, and his name was enrolled among the worthies of the Roman state, though he was soon destined to fall a victim to patrician jealousy. Such legends fill up an acknowledged historic void with more than merely fictitious beauties: for they show the faith of the Romans in the unconquerable spirit of their ancestors, even in the hour of their deepest distress. At The blockade of the Capitol had lasted for seven months,* during which the city had been reduced to ashes and the surrounding country devastated, when famine drove the defenders to purchase the retreat of the barbarians by a heavy ransom. this crisis, the Gauls received tidings that the Veneti, an Illyrian tribe, whose name still survives in Venice, had invaded their recently acquired possessions on the Po. They consented to accept a thousand pounds' weight of gold, which the besieged collected from the treasures of the Capitoline temples and from * The old annalists found no difficulty in believing that the Romans had been able, in one day, to stock the citadel with seven months' provisions. |