2*34 The Republic. R O 
next election, instead of consuls, insisted upon restoring their 
military tribunes. With this the senate were obliged to 
comply. The next year, however, the government returned 
to its ancient channel, and consuls were chosen. 
The Veientes had long been the rivals of Rome; and had 
ever taken the opportunity of its internal distresses to ravage its 
territories. It was now therefore determined, that the city of 
Veil, whatever it should cost, should fall; and the Romans 
accordingly sat regularly down before it, prepared for a long 
and painful resistance. The strength of the place, or the 
unskilfulness of the besiegers, may be inferred from the con¬ 
tinuance of the siege, which lasted for 10 years; during 
which time the army continued encamped round it, lying 
in winter under tents made of the skins of beasts, and in 
summer driving on the operations of the attack. Various was 
the success, and many were the commanders that directed 
the siege: sometimes all the besiegers’ works were destroyed, 
and many of their men cut off by sallies from the town; 
sometimes they were annoyed by an army of Veians, who 
attempted to bring assistance from without. A siege so 
bloody seemed to threaten depopulation to Rome itself, by 
draining its forces continually away; so that a law was 
obliged to be made for all the bachelors to marry the widows 
of the soldiers who were slain. In order to carry it on with 
greater vigour, Furius Camillus was created dictator, and to 
him was intrusted the sole power of managing the long pro¬ 
tracted war. Camillus, who, without intrigue or any 
solicitation, had raised himself to the first eminence in the 
state, had been made one of the censors some time before, and 
was considered as the head of that office; he was afterwards 
made a military tribune, and had in this post gained several 
advantages over the enemy. Conscious that he was unable 
to take the city by storm, he secretly wrought a mine into it 
with vast labour, which opened into the midst of the citadel, 
and by this means, like a second Troy, was the city of Veii 
taken, after a ten years siege. 
Similar good forlune attended Camillus in another expe¬ 
dition against the Falisci; he routed their army, and be¬ 
sieged their capital city Falerii, which threatened a long and 
vigorous resistance. Here a schoolmaster, who had the care 
of the children belonging to the principal men of the city, 
having found means to decoy them into the Roman camp, 
offered to put them into the hands of Camillus, as the surest 
means of inducing the .citizens to a speedy surrender. The 
general was struck with the treachery of a wretch whose duty 
it was to protect innocence, and not to betray it; and im¬ 
mediately ordered him to be stripped, his hands tied behind 
him, and in that ignominious mannerto be whipped into the 
town by his own scholars. This generous behaviour in 
Camillus effected more than his arms could do: the magis¬ 
trates of the town immediately submitted to the senate, leav¬ 
ing to Camillus the conditions of their surrender; who only 
fined them in a sum of money to satisfy his army, and 
received them under the protection and into the alliance of 
Rome. 
Notwithstanding the veneration which the virtues of 
Camillus had excited abroad, they seemed but little adapted 
to bring over the respect of the turbulent tribunes at home. 
They accused him of various misdemeanours, as embezzling 
spoil, aiming at the sovereignty, &c., and he was banished. 
The Romans soon found a more formidable enemy than 
ever they had met with. An inundation of Gauls, leaving 
their native woods, under the command of one Brennus, 
wasted every thing with fire and sword. The occasion of 
the irruption was this: Arunx, one of the chief men of 
Clusium in Etruria, had been guardian to a young lucumo, 
or lord of a lucumony, and had educated him in his house 
from his infancy. The lucumo, as soon as he was of age to 
feel the force of passion, fell in love with his guardian’s 
wife; and, upon the first discovery of their intrigue, con¬ 
veyed her away. Arunx endeavoured to obtain reparation 
for the injury he had received; but the lucumo, by his in¬ 
terest and money, gained over the magistrates: so that the 
injured guardian, finding no protectors in Etruria, resolved 
ME. - The Republic. 
to make his application to the Gauls. The people among 
all the Celtic nations, to whom he chose to address himself,, 
were the Senones; and, in order to engage them in his 
quarrel, he acquainted them with the great plenty of Italy, 
and made them taste of some Italian wines. Upon this the 
Senones resolved to follow him; and a numerous army was 
immediately formed, which passing the Alps, under the 
conduct of their Etrurian guide, and leaving the Celtae in 
Italy unmolested, fell upon Umbria, and possessed them-/ 
selves of all the country from Ravenna to Ficenum. They 
were about six years in settling themselves in their new 
acquisitions, while the Romans were carrying on the siege 
of Veii. At length Arunx brought the Senones before Clu¬ 
sium, in order to besiege that place, his wife and her lover 
having shut themselves up there. 
The senate, being unwilling to engage in an open war 
with a nation which had never offended them, sent an em¬ 
bassy of three young patricians, of the Fabian family, to 
bring about an accommodation between the two nations. 
They demanded of Brennus, the leader of the Gauls, What 
injury the Clusini had done him; or what pretensions any 
people from a remote country could have upon Etruria > 
Brennus answered, That his right lay in his sword, and 
that all things belonged to the brave; but that, without 
having recourse to this primitive law of nature, he had a 
just complaint against the Clusians, who, having more lands 
than they could cultivate, had refused to yield to him those 
they left untilled: and, he observed, “ that the Romans had 
deprived the Sabines, the Albans, the Fidenates, the /Equi, 
ahd the Volsci, of the best part of their territories. Not 
that we accuse you of injustice; but it is evident, that you 
thought this to be the prime and most ancient of all laws, 
to make the weak give way to the strong. Forbear, there¬ 
fore, to interest yourselves for the Clusini, or allow us to 
take the part of the people you have subdued.” 
The Fabii were highly provoked at so haughty an 
answer; but dissembling their resentment, desired leave to 
go into the town, under pretence of conferring with the 
magistrates. But they were no sooner there, than they be¬ 
gan to stir up the inhabitants to a vigorous defence; nay 
forgetting their character, they put themselves at the head of 
the besieged in a sally, in which Q. Fabius slew a chief of the 
Gauls. Hereupon Brennus, calling the gods to witness the 
perfidiousness of the Romans, and their violating the law of 
nations, immediately broke up the siege of Clusium, and 
marched leisurely to Rome, having sent a herald before him 
to demand that those ambassadors, who had so manifestly 
violated the law of nations, should be delivered up 
to him. The Roman senate was greatly perplexed 
between their regard for the law of nations and their 
affection for the Fabii. The wisest of the senate thought the 
demand of the Gauls to be just and reasonable; however, as. 
it concerned persons of great consequence and credit, the 
conscript fathers referred the affair to the people assembled . 
by Curiae. As the Fabian family was very popular, the 
Curiae were so far from condemning the three brothers, that, 
at the next election of military tribunes, they were chosen the 
first. Brennus, looking upon the promotion of the Fabii 
as a high affront on his nation, hastened his march to 
Rome. 
As his army was very numerous, the inhabitants of the 
towns and villages through which he passed left their habi- 
tations at his approach; but he stopped nowhere, declaring 
that his design was only to be revenged on the Romans. 
The six military tribunes, to wit, Q. Fabius, Cseso Fabius, 
Caius Fabius, Q. Sulpitius, Q. Servilius, and Sextus Cor¬ 
nelius, marched out of Rome at the head of40,000 men, with¬ 
out either sacrificing to the gods or consulting the auspices; 
essential ceremonies among a people that drew their courage 
and confidence from the propitious signs which the augurs 
declared to them. As most of the military tribunes were 
young, and men of more valour than experience, they ad¬ 
vanced boldly against the Gauls, whose army was 70,000 
strong. The two armies met near the river Allia, about 60. 
furlongs 
