The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
guards. For this purpose a spirited youth, Pontius Cominius, offered his
services, and supporting himself on cork was carried down the Tiber to
the city. From thence, where the distance from the bank was shortest, he
makes his way into the Capitol over a portion of the rock that was
craggy, and therefore neglected by the enemy's guard: and being
conducted to the magistrates, he delivers the instructions received from
the army. Then having received a decree of the senate, both that
Camillus should be recalled from exile at the comitia curiata, and be
forthwith appointed dictator by order of the people, and that the
soldiers should have the general whom they wished, he passed out the
same way and proceeded with his despatches to Veii; and deputies being
sent to Camillus to Ardea, conducted him to Veii: or else the law was
passed by the curiæ, and he was nominated dictator in his absence; for I
am more inclined to believe that he did not set out from Ardea until he
found that the law was passed; because he could neither change his
residence without an order of the people, nor hold the privilege of the
auspices in the army until he was nominated dictator.
47. Whilst these things were going on at Veii, in the mean while the
citadel and Capitol of Rome were in great danger. For the Gauls either
having perceived the track of a human foot where the messenger from Veii
had passed, or having of themselves remarked the easy ascent by the rock
at the temple of Carmentis, on a moonlight night, after they had at
first sent forward an unarmed person, to make trial of the way,
delivering their arms, whenever any difficulty occurred, alternately
supported and supporting each other, and drawing each other up,
according as the ground required, they reached the summit in such
silence, that they not only escaped the notice of the sentinels, but of
the dogs also, an animal extremely wakeful with respect to noises by
night. The notice of the geese they did not escape, which, as being
sacred to Juno, were spared though they were in the greatest scarcity of
food. Which circumstance was the cause of their preservation. For Marcus
Manlius, who three years before had been consul, a man distinguished in
war, being aroused from sleep by their cackling and the clapping of
their wings, snatched up his arms, and at the same time calling the
others to do the same, proceeds to the spot; and whilst the others are
thrown into confusion, he struck with the boss of his shield and tumbles
down a Gaul, who had already got footing on the summit; and when the
fall of this man as he tumbled threw down those who were next him, he
slew others, who in their consternation had thrown away their arms, and
caught hold of the rocks to which they clung. And now the others also
having assembled beat down the enemy by javelins and stones, and the
entire band, having lost their footing, were hurled down the precipice
in promiscuous ruin. The alarm then subsiding, the remainder of the
night was given up to repose, (as far as could be done considering the
disturbed state of their minds,) when the danger, even though past,
still kept them in a state of anxiety. Day having appeared, the soldiers
were summoned by sound of trumpet to attend the tribunes in assembly,
when recompence was to be made both to merit and to demerit; Manlius was
first of all commended for his bravery and presented with gifts, not
only by the military tribunes, but with the consent of the soldiers, for
they all carried to his house, which was in the citadel, a contribution
of half a pound of corn and half a pint of wine: a matter trifling in
the relation, but the [prevailing] scarcity had rendered it a strong
proof of esteem, when each man, depriving himself of his own food,
contributed in honour of one man a portion subtracted from his body and
from his necessary requirements. Then the guards of that place where the
enemy had climbed up unobserved, were summoned; and when Quintus
Sulpicius declared openly that he would punish all according to the
usage of military discipline, being deterred by the consentient shout of
the soldiers who threw the blame on one sentinel, he spared the rest.
The man, who was manifestly guilty of the crime, he threw down from the
rock, with the approbation of all. From this time forth the guards on
both sides became more vigilant; on the part of the Gauls, because a
rumour spread that messengers passed between Veii and Rome, and on that
of the Romans, from the recollection of the danger which occurred during
the night.
48. But beyond all the evils of siege and war, famine distressed both
armies; pestilence, moreover, [oppressed] the Gauls, both as being
encamped in a place lying between hills, as well as heated by the
burning of the houses, and full of exhalations, and sending up not only
ashes but embers also, whenever the wind rose to any degree; and as the
nation, accustomed to moisture and cold, is most intolerant of these
annoyances, and, suffering severely from the heat and suffocation, they
were dying, the diseases spreading as among cattle, now becoming weary
of burying separately, they heaped up the bodies promiscuously and
burned them; and rendered the place remarkable by the name of Gallic
piles. A truce was now made with the Romans, and conferences were held
with the permission of the commanders; in which when the Gauls
frequently alluded to the famine, and referred to the urgency of that as
a further motive for their surrendering, for the purpose of removing
that opinion, bread is said to have been thrown in many places from the
Capitol, into the advanced posts of the enemy. But the famine could
neither be dissembled nor endured any longer. Accordingly, whilst the
dictator is engaged in person in holding a levy, in ordering his master
of the horse, Lucius Valerius, to bring up the troops from Veii, in
making preparations and arrangements, so that he may attack the enemy on
equal terms, in the mean time the army of the Capitol, wearied out with
keeping guard and with watches, having surmounted all human sufferings,
whilst nature would not suffer famine alone to be overcome, looking
forward from day to day, to see whether any succour would come from the
dictator, at length not only food but hope also failing, and their arms
weighing down their debilitated bodies, whilst the guards were being
relieved, insisted that there should be either a surrender, or that they
should be bought off, on whatever terms were possible, the Gauls
intimating in rather plain terms, that they could be induced for no very
great compensation to relinquish the siege. Then the senate was held and
instructions were given to the military tribunes to capitulate. Upon
this the matter was settled between Quintus Sulpicius, a military
tribune, and Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, and one thousand
pounds' weight of gold was agreed on as the ransom of a people, who were
soon after to be the rulers of the world. To a transaction very
humiliating in itself, insult was added. False weights were brought by
the Gauls, and on the tribune objecting, his sword was thrown in in
addition to the weight by the insolent Gaul, and an expression was heard
intolerable to the Romans, "Woe to the vanquished!"
49. But both gods and men interfered to prevent the Romans from living
on the condition of being ransomed; for by some chance, before the
execrable price was completed, all the gold being not yet weighed in
consequence of the altercation, the dictator comes up, and orders the
gold to be removed, and the Gauls to clear away. When they, holding out
against him, affirmed that they had concluded a bargain, he denied that
the agreement was a valid one, which had been entered into with a
magistrate of inferior authority without his orders, after he had been
nominated dictator; and he gives notice to the Gauls to get ready for
battle. He orders his men to throw their baggage in a heap, and to get
ready their arms, and to recover their country with steel, not with
gold, having before their eyes the temples of the gods, and their wives
and children, and the soil of their country disfigured by the calamities
of war, and all those objects which they were solemnly bound to defend,
to recover, and to revenge. He then draws up his army, as the nature of
the place admitted, on the site of the half-demolished city, and which
was uneven by nature, and he secured all those advantages for his own
men, which could be prepared or selected by military skill. The Gauls,
thrown into confusion by the unexpected event, take up arms, and with
rage, rather than good judgment, rushed upon the Romans. Fortune had now
changed; now the aid of the gods and human prudence assisted the Roman
cause. At the first encounter, therefore, the Gauls were routed with no
greater difficulty than they had found in gaining the victory at Allia.
They were afterwards beaten under the conduct and auspices of the same
Camillus, in a more regular engagement, at the eighth stone on the
Gabine road, whither they had betaken themselves after their defeat.
There the slaughter was universal: their camp was taken, and not even
one person was left to carry news of the defeat. The dictator, after
having recovered his country from the enemy, returns into the city in
triumph; and among the rough military jests which they throw out [on
such occasions] he is styled, with praises by no means undeserved,
Romulus, and parent of his country, and a second founder of the city.
His country, thus preserved by arms, he unquestionably saved a second
time in peace, when he hindered the people from removing to Veii, both
the tribunes pressing the matter with greater earnestness after the
burning of the city, and the commons of themselves being more inclined
to that measure; and that was the cause of his not resigning his
dictatorship after the triumph, the senate entreating him not to leave
the commonwealth in so unsettled a state.
50. First of all, he proposed matters appertaining to the immortal gods;
for he was a most scrupulous observer of religious duties; and he
procures a decree of the senate, "that all the temples, as the enemy had
possessed them, should be restored, their bounds traced, and expiations
made for them, and that the form of expiation should be sought in the
books by the decemvirs; that a league of hospitality should be entered
into by public authority with the people of Cære, because they had
afforded a reception to the sacred utensils of the Roman people and to
their priests; and because, by the kindness of that people, the worship
of the immortal gods had not been intermitted; that Capitoline games
should be exhibited, for that Jupiter, supremely good and great, had
protected his own mansion and the citadel of the Roman people when in
danger; and that Marcus Furius, the dictator, should establish a college
for that purpose, out of those who should inhabit the Capitol and
citadel." Mention was also introduced of expiating the voice heard by
night, which had been heard announcing the calamity before the Gallic
war, and neglected, and a temple was ordered in the New Street to Aius
Locutius. The gold, which had been rescued from the Gauls, and that also
which during the alarm had been collected from the other temples into
the recess of Jupiter's temple, the recollection being confused as to
the temples to which it should be carried back, was all judged to be
sacred, and ordered to be placed under the throne of Jupiter. Already
the religious scruples of the state had appeared in this, that when gold
was wanting for public uses, to make up for the Gauls the amount of the
ransom agreed upon, they had accepted that which was contributed by the
matrons, so that they might not touch the sacred gold. Thanks were