Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/196

 GALLIA CIS. ftll their netghboun. The most memorable erent in tile early history of Rome is the capture of the citj iij a band of these Italian Galli, who, after threaten* ing Glosiam (Liv. ▼. 83), tnnied their arms against the BomanSi who had taken this Etmscan dtj under their protection. The Galli and the Bomans first tried their strength on the Allia, a small affluent of the Tiber. The Bomans were defeated, and this was for evm a block day in their calendar (b. c. 390). The capture of Borne and the siege of the CafMtol by the Galli were embellished with Uie fiction iJiat characterises all the early Boman hisUny. To the Galli this was no more tluui one of their ordinary marauding expeditions. An inyasion of the lands of the Galli by their neighbours the Veneti is assigned as the immediate cause of their retreat from Biome. Domestic quarrels kept tham at home for some time; and they had also enemies around them. The Galli had become possessed of the plains only, and the mountaineers of the Alps knew the value of plunder OS well as the Galli. They were probably kept fully employed in taking care of themselves for the apace of thirty years tbit elapsed between the cap- ture of Borne and the next expedition to the south. But, from the time of their little city being sacked, the Bomans knew that they had an enemy whom they must destroy, or perish themselves. ** Gallicus tumultus," or simply ** tnmultus," was the name that they gave to a hostile movement of the Gallic tribes of North Italy. This was the signal to prepare for a desperate fight (Liv. viii. 20); for with the Galli, says Sallust, the Bomans fought for their existence, not for gloxy {BelL Jug, c. 1 14). They set apart a reserved treasure in the Capitol for the emeigendes of a Gallic war; for the fear of the Galli seems to )iave been the origin of the aerarium sanctios, as it was sometimes adled. (Appian, JS. C ii. 41 ; Liv. zxvii. 10.) Thirty yean afUr the captore of Borne, as Poly- bios (iL 18, 19) fixes the time, the Galli came again vfith. a huge force as fiur as Alba, and the Bomans were afraid to meet them. The historian does not say how bng they staid in the neighbourhood of B(»ne; but, as he says that they came twelve years afterwards with a great force, we may infer that they staid the first time as long as the country could nmintain them. The second time that they came the Bomans with their allies were ready to meet them; but the Galli fled as the Bomans advanced, and, re- turning to their own country, remained quiet foe tliirteen years. Finding that the Bomans were in- creasing in power, the Galli consented to a treaty of peace with them, which they strictly observed for thirty years. This dry narrative of Polybius is enough to show what a dangerous enemy the Ganl was to the city on the Tiber. We can easily ima- gine what LaUum suffered from these pitiless barba- rians. The Bomans had many traditioas or fictions about these GaUic wars; and a marvellous story of Titus Manlius fighting a duel with a Gallic giant on the banks of the Anio, in presence of both armies, and killiqg him. (Liv. vii. 10.) Manlius took finom the neck of his enemy a blood-stained chain (torques)^ and put it on his own neck ; and the soldiers gave him the name Torqfuatus, which became the distinctive appellation of a noble Boman fiunily. The narrative of Livy contains two facts worth notice. The Galli made Tibur on the Anio their strong post in some one or more of these invasbns, and the people of Tibur joined them against the Bomans. The Galli also carried their incnrsions into Campania (Liv. Tii. GALLLA CIS. 937 11), and, either going or returning, plundered the country about Lavicum, Tusculum, and the Alban territory. The Boman annalists here repeat the story of Torquatus under another form. A Gallic giant challenges the Bomans, and is killed in a duel by M. Valerius; but his glory was not equal to that of Manilas, for a nven came to his assistance and pecked and scratched the face and eyes of the Gaul^ till, blinded and frightened out of his senses, he was pierced by the sword of the Boman. (Liv. vii. 26.) About B. c. 299 some finesh bands of Transalpine Galli crossed the mountains into the valley of the Po, without being invited. Though we do not know when the Trons^pine people first found their way across the Alps, we know that they have at intervals, whenever the opportunity has ofi'ved, repeated these visits up to the present time. To get rid of these dangerous kinsmen, the Cisalpine Galli pu^ed them on against the Bomans, and joined them in an ex- pedition to the south. In their way through Etruria their numbers were increased by some Tuscans. They got a good booty within the Boman territory, and returned ; but, as usual with the nation, they had a dispute about the division of the spoil, and came to blows. They were given to drink and all kinds of excess, and fond of quarrels. Four years later (B.C. 296) the Galli and the Samnites were leagued together. (Polyb. ii. 19.) Livy (x. 21) mentions the Umbri and Etruscans also as joining the league against the Bonums. Polybius states that the Bo- mans were defeated with loss in the territory of the Camertil, as he calls it. (Comp. Liv. x. 26). But in another battle, fought a few days after in the neighbourhood of Sentinum, on the north side of the Apennines, the Bomans defeated the Galli and their allies. Livy, in his description of this battle (x. 28), for the first time mentions the war-chariots of the Galli (essedd). Caesar, in his GaUic War, never speaks of ^e Transalpine Galli using war-chariots; and when he invaded Britun and found them there, the strangeness of the thing led him to describe it minutely. These war-chariots of Livy are probably a rhetorical embellishmeat The chariots (irvywpiScf) which Polybius (ii. 28) speaks of do not seem to have been war-chariots. Livy is, however, satisfied with fixing the number of the enemy that fell at 25,000, which later writers raised to 40,000 and 100,000. It was a victory won after a hard fight, and on Galtic ground. It was a sign that Bome was growing stronger, and that the hitter days of the Galli were approaching. About ten yeare Uter (b. c. 283) the Galli Seno- nes, with a large force, besi^ed Airetium {Artzzo), an Etruscan town under ti^e protection of Bome. The Bomans came to its relief, under L. Caecilius Metellus. Boman ambasssdors, however, were first sent to ezpoetuhite with the Senooes, and to induce them to retire; but they were mnidered liy the Galli, ooDtrory to the law <£ nations. Polybius tells the story of the massacre somewhat differently. Upon this the consul P. Cornelius Dolabella entered the ooontiy of the Senooes, burnt all before iiim^ put the men to the sword, and carried off the women and children. He treated the Galli as they had treated other nations. In the mean time Metellus was de- feated by the Senooes before Arretium, with great loss; but it does not appear that the town was taken by the enemy. (Comp. Polyb. ii. 19 with Liv. EpU, 12, and Freinsheim's SuppkmeaCy. The quar- rel between the Bomans and the Senones was schii decisively settled. The Bomans gave them a com-