The Republic. ROME. The Republic. 235 
furlongs from Rome. The Romans, that they might not be sex. The soldiers set fire to the houses, demolished the 
surrounded by the enemy, extended their wings so far as to temples and public edifices, and razed the walls to the 
make their centre very thin. Their best troops, to the num- ground. 
ber of 24,000 men, they posted between the river and the In the mean time, Camillus raised the men of Ardea, and 
adjoining hills; the rest they placed on the hills. The the Romans who inhabited the open country, attacked a 
Gauls first attacked the latter, who being soon put into detachment of Gauls, and defeated them. His next object 
confusion, the forces in the plain were struck with such terror was to open a communication with the senate besieged in 
that they fled without drawing their swords. In this general the Capitol. To do this was very difficult, the place being 
disorder, most of the soldiers, instead of returing.to Rome, invested on all sides by the enemy. However, one Pontius 
fled to Veii : some were drowned as they endeavoured to C'ominius, a man of mean birth, but bold, and very ambi- 
swim across the Tiber; many fell in the pursuit by the sword tious of glory, undertook it. He put on a light habit, and 
of the conquerors; and some got to Rome, which they filled providing himself with cork, to keep the longer above water, 
with terror and consternation, it being believed there that all threw himself into the Tiber above Rome, in the beginning 
the rest were cut off - . The day atter the battle, Brennus of the night, and suffered himself to be carried down with 
inarched his troops into the neighbourhood of Rome, and the stream. At length he came to the foot of the Capitol, 
encamped on the banks of Anio. Thither his scouts brought and landed at a steep place where the Gauls had not thought 
him word, that the gates of the city lay open, and that not it necessary to post any centinels. There he mounted with 
one Roman was to be seen on the ramparts. This made him great difficulty to the rampart of the citadel; and having 
apprehensive of some ambuscade, it being unreasonable to made himself known to the guards, he was admitted into the 
suppose that the Romans would abandon their city to be place, and conducted to the magistrates. The senate being 
plundered and sacked without making any resistance. On immediately assembled, Pontius gave them an account of 
this consideration he advanced slowly, which gave the Camillus’s victory; and in the name of all the Romans at 
Romans an opportunity to throw into the Capitol all the Veii, demanded that great captain for their general. There 
men who were fit to bear arms. They carried into it all the was not much time spent in debates: the curias being called 
provisions they could get;' and, that they might last the Ion- together, the act of condemnation which had been passed on 
ger, admitted none into the place but such as were capable Camillus was abrogated, and he named dictator with one 
of defending it. voice. Pontius was immediately dispatched with the de- 
But -while the rest of the citizens at Rome were providing cree; and the same good fortune which had attended him 
for their safety, about 80 of the most illustrious and venerable to the Capitol accompanied him in his return, 
old men,-rather than fly from their native city, chose to devote While he was taking proper measures to raise the block- 
themselves to death by a vow, which Fabiusthe high pon- ade of the citadel, some Gauls rambling round the place, 
tiff pronounced in their names. The Romans believed, that perceived on the side of the hill the print of Pontius’s hands 
by these voluntary devotements to the infernal gods, disorder and feet. They observed likewise, that the moss on the 
and confusion was brought among the enemy. Of these rocks was in several places torn up. From these marks they 
brave old men some werepontifices, others had been consuls, concluded, that somebody had lately gone up to and re- 
and others generals of armies, who had been honoured with turned from the Capitol. The Gauls immediately made 
triumphs. To complete their sacrifice with a solemnity and their report to Brennus of what they had observed; and that 
pomp becoming the magnanimity and constancy of the experienced commander laid a design, which he imparted to 
Romans, they dressed themselves in their pontifical, consular, nobody, of surprising the place by the same way that the 
and triumphal robes; and repairing to the forum, seated Roman had ascended. With this view he chose out of the 
themselves there in their curule chairs, expecting the enemy army such soldiers as had dwelt in mountainous countries, 
and death with the greatest constancy. and been accustomed from their youth to climb precipices. 
At length Brennus having spent, three days in useless pre- These he ordered, after he had well examined the nature of 
cautions, entered the city the fourth day after the battle. He the place, to ascend in the night the same way that was 
found the gates open, the walls without defence, and the marked out for them ; climbing two a-breast, that one might 
houses without inhabitants. Rome appeared to him like a support the other in getting up the steep parts of the preci- 
mere desert ;j and this solitude increased his anxiety. He pice. By this means they advanced with much difficulty 
could not believe, either that all the Romans were lodged in from rock to rock, till they arrived at the foot pf flip wall, 
the Capitol, or that so numerous a people should abandon They proceeded with such silence, that they wpre- not dis- 1 
the place of their nativity. On the other hand, he could covered or heard, either by the centinels who were upon, 
nowhere see any armed men but on the walls of the citadel, guard in the citadel, or even by the dogs that are usually 
However, having first secured all the avenues to the Capitol awaked and alarmed at the least noise, But though they 
with strong bodies of guards, he gave the rest of his soldiers eluded the sagacity of the dogs, they could not. escape the 
leave to disperse themselves all over the city and plunder it. vigilance of the geese. A flock of these birds was kept in a 
Brennus himself advanced into the forum with the troops court of the Capitol, in honour of Juno, and near her tem- 
under his command, in good order: and there he was struck pie. Notwithstanding the want of provisions in the garri- 
with admiration at the unexpected sight of the venerable old son, they had been spared out of religion; and as these erea- 
men who had devoted themselves to death. ■ Their magnifi- tures are naturally quick of hearing, they were alarmed at 
cent habits, the majesty of their countenance, the silence they the first approach of the Gauls; so that running up and' 
kept, their modesty and constancy at the approach of his down, with their cackling and beating of their wdngs; they 
troops, made him take them for so many deities: for they awaked Manlius, a gallant soldier, who some years before 
continued as motionless as statues, and saw the enemy ad- had been consul. He sounded an alarm, and was the first 
vance without showing the least concern. The Gauls kept man who mounted the rampart, where he found two Gauls 
a great while at an awful distance from them, being afraid to already upon the wall. One of these offered to discharge a 
come near them. But at length one soldier bolder than the blow at him with his battle axe; but Manliuscut offhis right 
rest, having, out of curiosity, touched the beard of M. Papi- hand at one blow, and then threw tiie other headlong from the 
rius, the old man gave him a blow on the head with his ivory rock. He, in his fall, drew many others with him; and, in. 
staff.- The soldier in revenge immediately killed him; and in the mean time, the Romans crowding to the place, pressed 
the rest of the Gauls following his example, slaughtered all upon the Gauls, and tumbled them over one another. As 
those yenerable old men without mercy. the nature of the ground would not suffer them to make a 
■ After this the enemy set no bounds to their rage and fury: regular retreat, or even to fly, most of themmither fell by the 
They plundered all places, dragging such of the Romans as swords of the enemy, or threw themselves down the preci- 
had shut themselves up in their houses into the streets, and pice. 
there putting them to the 3word, without distinction of age or ■ In acknowledgment of the important service Manlius had 
» * ' ' • • . ! ' just 
