The Gauls Sack Rome
Livy
1
OVERVIEW
Throughout much of Roman history, Roman armies proved far superior to their adversaries,
and in most cases, it was the Romans who sacked the cities of their enemies. Here, however,
the Roman historian Livy describes a military upset in 390 B.C. that ended with the Gauls
sacking Rome. Ultimately this defeat was just a pause in Rome’s steady rise to mastery of a
vast empire.
GUIDED READING As you read, consider the following questions:
• To what does this historian attribute the initial swift defeat of the Romans by the Gauls?
• How did the Gauls themselves ultimately contribute to their own defeat?
A
t this time ambassadors arrived [in Rome] from Clusium asking aid
against the Gauls.…
The Clusians were terrified at the approach of this strange enemy, and
[had] determined to send ambassadors to Rome to solicit aid from the Senate,
which request was not granted. The three Fabii [ambassadors] were sent to
mediate with the Gauls in the name of the Senate and Commons of Rome.
The Romans asking by what right they [the Gauls] demanded land from the
[Clusian] owners and threatened war in case of refusal, and what business the
Gauls had in Etruria, the latter fiercely replied that “They carried their right
on the points of their swords and that all things were the property of the
brave.” Thus, with minds inflamed on both sides, they hastily separated to
prepare for battle, which began without delay. Here, Fate now pressing the
city of Rome, the ambassadors, contrary to the law of nations, took part in the
action. Dropping therefore their resentment against the Clusians, the Gauls
sounded a retreat, threatening vengeance on the Romans. Some advised an
immediate march on Rome; but the opinion of the elders prevailed that
ambassadors should first be sent to demand that the Fabii be delivered up to
them as a satisfaction for this violation of the “Law of Nations.” When the
Gallic ambassadors had explained matters, so powerful was the influence of
interest and wealth that the very persons whose punishment was the subject of
deliberation were appointed military tribunes for the ensuing year. At this the
justly enraged Gauls, openly threatening war, returned to their countrymen.
When Fortune is determined on the ruin of a people, she can so blind
them as to render them insensible to dangers of the greatest magnitude;
accordingly the Roman state sought no assistance. Tribunes whose temerity
had brought on the troubles were intrusted with the reins of government, and
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The Gauls Sack Rome
1
they used no greater diligence in raising forces than was usual in the case of a
rupture with any of their neighbors. Meanwhile, the Gauls, inflamed with
rage, instantly snatched up their ensigns and began the march with the utmost
speed. But rumor outstripped them and caused the utmost consternation in
Rome, whose army, partly a rabble, with all the haste possible scarcely reached
the eleventh stone before they met the enemy at the junction of the Allia and
Tiber. Already their whole front and flanks were covered by numerous bodies
of Gauls, and as that nation has a natural turn for increasing terror by
confusion, they filled the air with a horrid din by their harsh music and
discordant yells.
There the military tribunes, without forming a camp, without taking the
precaution of raising a rampart that might secure a retreat, regardless of duty
to the gods, to say nothing of that to man, without taking auspices or offering
a sacrifice, drew up their line. Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, turned his
force against the reserve: thus not only Fortune but judgment also was on the
side of the barbarians. In the other army, neither commanders nor soldiers
appeared like Romans. Terror and dismay had seized them, so that far greater
numbers fled to Veii, though the Tiber was in the way, than to Rome to their
wives and children. Thus no lives were lost in battle; but their rear was cut to
pieces in the confused retreat. There was great slaughter in the left wing on the
banks of the Tiber, and many, overweighted by their armor, were drowned.
The right wing took the way to Rome and got into the citadel without even
shutting the city gates.
On the other hand, the attainment of such a speedy, such an almost
miraculous victory, astonished the Gauls. At first they stood motionless through
apprehension for their own safety, scarcely knowing what had happened, then
they dreaded some stratagem; at length, they collected the spoils of the slain,
and piled the arms in heaps, according to their practice. And now, seeing no
signs of an enemy anywhere, they at last began to march forward, and a little
before sunset arrived near the city of Rome, where, receiving intelligence by
some horsemen who had advanced before, that the gates were open without any
troops posted to defend them, nor any soldiers on the walls, this second
incident, not less unaccountable than the former, induced them to halt; and
apprehending danger from the darkness of the night, and their ignorance of the
situation of the city, they took post between Rome and the Anio, sending scouts
about the walls and the several gates, to discover what plans the enemy would
pursue in this desperate state of their affairs. The Roman soldiers who were
living, their friends lamented as lost; the greater part of them having gone from
the field of battle to Veii, and no one supposing that any survived, except those
who had come home to Rome. In fine, the city was almost entirely filled with
sorrowings. But on the arrival of intelligence that the enemy were at hand, the
apprehensions excited by the public danger stifled all private sorrow: soon after,
the barbarians patrolling about the walls in troops, they heard their yells and the
dissonant clamor of their martial instruments. During the whole interval
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between this and the next morning they were held in the most anxious suspense,
every moment expecting an assault to be made on the city. During that night,
however, and also the following day, the state preserved a character very
different from that which such a dastardly flight at the Allia had indicated; for
there being no room to hope that the city could possibly be defended by the
small number of troops remaining, a resolution was taken that the young men
who were fit to bear arms, and the abler part of the senate, with their wives and
children, should go up into the citadel and the capitol; and having collected
stores of arms and corn, should, in that strong post, maintain the defence of the
deities, of the inhabitants, and of the honor of Rome. That the Flamen
Quirinalis, and the vestal priestesses, should carry away, far from slaughter and
conflagration, all that appertained to the gods of the state; and that their
worship should not be intermitted until there should be no one left to perform
it.
Their exhortations were then turned to the band of young men, whom
they escorted to the capitol and citadel, commending to their valor and
youthful vigor the remaining fortune of their city, which, through the course
of three hundred and sixty years, had ever been victorious in all its wars. When
those who carried with them every hope and every resource parted with the
others, who had determined not to survive the capture and destruction of the
city, the view which it exhibited was sufficient to call forth the liveliest
feelings, the women at the same time running up and down in distraction,
now following one party, then the other, asking their husbands and their sons
to what fate they would consign them. All together formed such a picture of
human woe as could admit of no aggravation. A great party, however, of the
women followed their relations into the citadel, no one either hindering or
inviting them; because, though the measure of lessening the number of useless
persons in a siege might doubtless be advisable in one point of view, yet it was
a measure of extreme inhumanity. The rest of the multitude, consisting chiefly
of plebeians, for whom there was neither room on so small a hill, nor a
possibility of support in so great a scarcity of corn, pouring out of the city in
one continued train, repaired to the Janiculum. From thence some dispersed
through the country, and others made their way to the neighboring cities,
without any leader, or any concert, each pursuing his own hopes and his own
plans, those of the public being deplored as desperate. In the meantime, the
Flamen Quirinalis and the vestal virgins, laying aside all concern for their own
affairs, and consulting together which of the sacred deposits they should take
with them, and which they should leave behind, for they had not strength
sufficient to carry all, and what place they could best depend on preserving
them in safe custody, judged it the most eligible method to inclose them in
casks, and bury them under ground, in the chapel next to the dwelling-house
of the Flamen Quirinalis, where at present it is reckoned profane even to spit.
The rest they carried, distributing the burdens among themselves, along the
road which leads over the Sublician bridge to Janiculum.
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Meanwhile at Rome, when every disposition for the defence of the citadel
had been completed, as far as was possible in such a conjuncture, the aged
crowd withdrew to their houses, and there, with a firmness of mind not to be
shaken by the approach of death, waited the coming of the enemy: such of
them as had held curule offices, choosing to die in that garb which displayed
the emblems of their former fortune, of their honors, or of their merit, put on
the most splendid robes worn, when they draw the chariots of the gods in
procession, or ride in triumph. Thus habited, they seated themselves in their
ivory chairs at the fronts of their houses. Some say that they devoted
themselves for the safety of their country and their fellow-citizens; and that
they sung a hymn on the occasion. They [the Gauls] marched next day,
without any anger or any heat of passion, into the city, through the Colline
gate, which stood open, and advanced to the Forum, casting around their eyes
on the temples of the gods, and on the citadel, the only place which had the
appearance of making resistance. From thence, leaving a small guard to
prevent any attack from the citadel or capitol, they ran about in quest of
plunder. Not meeting a human being in the streets, part of them rushed in a
body to the houses that stood nearest; part sought the most distant, as
expecting to find them untouched and abounding with spoil. Afterward, being
frightened from thence by the very solitude, and fearing lest some secret design
of the enemy might be put in execution against them while they were thus
dispersed, they formed themselves into bodies, and returned again to the
Forum, and places adjoining it. Finding the houses of the plebeians shut up,
and the palaces of the nobles standing open, they showed rather great
backwardness to attack those that were open than such as were shut: with such
a degree of veneration did they behold men sitting in the porches of those
palaces, who, beside their ornaments and apparel, more splendid than became
mortals, bore the nearest resemblance to gods in the majesty displayed in their
looks and the gravity of their countenances. It is said that while they stood
gazing on them as statues, one of them, Marcus Papirius, provoked the anger
of a Gaul by striking him on the head with his ivory sceptre, while he was
stroking his beard, which at that time was universally worn long; that the
slaughter began with him and that the rest were slain in their seats. After the
nobles were put to death, no living creature was spared. The houses were
plundered and, as soon as they were emptied, set on fire.
The Romans, beholding, from the citadel, the city filled with the enemy,
who ran up and down through every street, some new scene of horror arising
to their view in every different quarter, were neither able to preserve their
presence of mind, or even to retain the command of their eyes and ears.
On the other side, the Gauls, having for several days only waged an
ineffectual war against the buildings, when they perceived that among the fires
and ruins of the city nothing now remained but a band of armed enemies,
who were neither terrified in the least by so many disasters, nor likely to
condescend to treat of a capitulation, unless force were applied, resolved to
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have recourse to extremities and make an assault on the citadel. On a signal
given, at the first light, their whole multitude was marshalled in the Forum,
from whence, after raising the shout and forming a testudo, they advanced to
the attack. The Romans, in their defence, did nothing rashly, nor in a hurry;
but having strengthened the guards at every approach, and opposing the main
strength of their men on the quarter where they saw the battalions advancing,
they suffered the enemy to mount the hill, judging that the higher they should
ascend, the more easily they might be driven back down the steep. About the
middle of the ascent they met them; and their making their charge down the
declivity, which of itself bore them against the enemy, routed the Gauls with
such slaughter and such destruction, occasioned by their falling down the
precipice, that they never afterward, either in parties or with their whole force,
made another trial of that kind of fight.
Meanwhile, those at Veii found not only their courage but their strength
also increasing daily. And as not only such of the Romans repaired thither who
in consequence either of the defeat in the field or of the disaster of the city
being taken, had been dispersed in various parts, but volunteers also flowed in
from Latium, with a view to share in the spoil, it now seemed high time to
attempt the recovery of their native city and rescue it out of the hands of the
enemy. But this strong body wanted a head: the spot where they stood
reminded them of Camillus, a great number of the soldiers having fought with
success under his banners and auspices. Besides, Cedicius declared that he
would not take any part which might afford occasion to any, either god or
man, to take away his command from him; but rather, mindful of his own
rank, would himself insist on the appointment of a general. With unanimous
consent it was resolved that Camillus should be invited from Ardea; but that
first the Senate, at Rome, should be consulted.
Thus they were employed at Veii, while, in the meantime, the citadel and
Capitol at Rome were in the utmost danger. For the Gauls, having either
perceived the track of a human foot, where the messenger from Veii had passed;
or, from their own observation, remarked the easy ascent at the rock of
Carmentis on a moonlight night, having first sent forward a person unarmed to
make trial of the way, handing their arms to those before them; when any
difficulty occurred supporting and supported in turns, and drawing each other
up according as the ground required, they climbed to the summit in such
silence, that they not only escaped the notice of the guards, but did not even
alarm the dogs, animals particularly watchful with regard to any noise at night.
They were not unperceived, however, by some geese, which, being sacred to
Juno, the people spared even in the present great scarcity of food. For, by the
cackling of these creatures and the clapping of their wings, Marcus Manlius was
roused from sleep, a man of distinguished character in war, who had been
consul the third year before, and, snatching up his arms, and at the same time
calling the rest to arms, he hastened to the spot. Where, while the rest ran about
in confusion, he, by a stroke with the boss of his sword, tumbled down a Gaul
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The Gauls Sack Rome
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who had already got footing on the summit; and this man’s weight, as he fell,
throwing down those who were next, he slew several others who, in their
consternation, threw away their arms and caught hold with their hands of the
rocks, to which they clung. By this time others had assembled at the place, who,
by throwing javelins and stones, beat down the enemy so that the whole band,
unable to keep their footing, were hurled down the precipice in ruin.
[Roman soldiers led by Camillus eventually did arrive to drive the Gauls
from Rome.]
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