The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian/Book XIV/Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII

 * The peace of Antalcidas. The war by the Persians against Evagoras in Cyprus. The miserable condition of Rhegium. Its surrender. The cruel usage of Philo, the governor of Rhegium, and of his son. The expedition of the Gauls against Italy. The Romans routed by the Gauls at the river Allia. Roime taken by the Gauls. The Romans besieged in the Capitol. The Volsei revolt from the Romans. The Gauls routed by Marcus Furius in their return. All cut off afterwards in the plans of Trausium.

WITH these actions the year ended, and now Theodotus was made chief magistrate of Athens; and six military tribunes executed the consular authority of Rome, Quintus Cæsus, Sulpitius Ænos, Cæsus Fabius, Quintus Cervilius, Publius Cornelius, and Marcus Claudius. At the time the Lacedæmonians, tired out with the war both against the Greeks and Persians, ordered their admiral Antalcidas to go to Artaxerxes, to strike up a peace. When he had delivered his embassy to the king, he answered, that he would make peace with the Grecians, upon condition that all the Greek cities in Asia should return to their obedience, and that the rest of the Grecians should all govern their cities according to their own laws; and that, if any should stand out, and not submit to these conditions, it should be lawful for him to make war upon them, by those that did agree. These terms were allowed, and so the Lacedæmonians rested from the war. But the Athenians and Thebans, with some others, were much vexed, and highly concerned to see the cities of Asia thus betrayed; but, not being able to contend with Persia by their own strength, they were forced to embrace peace upon the same terms.

And now the king, being free from the long and tedious war with the Grecians, he prepared and made ready an army for the Cyprian war. For Evagoras had raised a vast army almost throughout all Cyprus, taking advantage of Artaxerxes's being engaged in a war with the Greeks.

In the mean time Dionysius, having continued the siege of Rhegium now for the space of eleven months, and obstructing all ways and means of relief, he brought the besieged to the utmost extremity, through want of all things necessary: for it is reported that at that time bushel of wheat was sold for five minas; and the famine was so great, that they first eat up their horses, and then all other beasts of burthen, and at length fed upon boiled skins and leather. And at the last they came out of the town, and, like cattle, began to eat the grass that grew under the walls; so that, to supply nature they were forced to feed upon those things proper to the beasts of the field, for want of man's ordinary food. When Dionysius heard what the Rhegians did, he was so far commiserating them, who were sunk in misery below the common condition of mankind, that he added to their affliction, and put in his carriage horses, and other draught cattle, to graze there, where they used to feed, and so ate up all that poor provision which was only left for them. The citizens, being thus overcome by extreme famine, (no longer to be borne), were forced to deliver up themselves and their city to the tyrant's mercy. When he entered, he found heaps of carcasses in the streets, who had perished for want of bread; and, those that were alive were like walking ghosts, lean, and almost pined away by famine: however, he got together above six thousand prisoners, and sent them to Syracuse, with orders, that whoever paid a mina might be redeemed; and, as for those who were not able, he sold them all for slaves. Philo, the governor, he bound in chains, and caused his son to be hurled into the sea, and fastened Philo himself to the top of one of his highest engines, that the severity of his punishment might be taken notice of by all, and sent one of his guards to tell him, that his son was drowned the day before; to whom Philo answered, that his son was by one day more happy than his father; After this, he ordered him to be whipped through the city, and to be scoffed and scorned, and undergo all sorts of cruelty, a cryer in the meantime making proclamation—That the rascal was so severely dealt with because he stirred up the city to the war. But Philo, who had all along through the siege proved himself a valiant commander, and during his whole life was esteemed and honoured, was not then the least discouraged at death, but, with an undaunted courage cried out—That he thus suffered because he would not betray the city to Dionysius; however, God would revenge him of the tyrant in a short time. This admirable courage and brave spirit of the man began to work compassion in some of Dionysius's soldiers, so that they began to murmur: upon which Dionysius (being afraid lest Philo should be rescued) left off tormenting him, and ordered the miserable man, with all his kindred, to be drowned in the sea. Thus suffered this worthy man, who deserved much better than to undergo so heavy and dreadful a punishment: and many Grecians there were who grieved at his sad misfortune; and several poets in after times made elegies upon his mournful and lamentable end.

At the same time when Dionysius lay at the siege of Rhegium, the Gauls who lay beyond the Alps passed over those straits with a numerous army, and possessed themselves of all the country between the Apenine hills and the Alps, driving thence the Tyrrhenians, the natural inhabitants. Some say they were colonies sent thither from twelve cities in Tyrrhenia ; others say they were Pelasgians, who, before the Trojan war, fled out of Thessaly at the time of Deucalion's flood, and settled themselves in these parts. As for the Gauls, they were a people that were divided into several tribes, and dwelt in several countries. Those called the Sinones inhabited the mountain farthest from the sea of all the other mountains, and because the heat was excessive and troublesome to them, they resolved to seek for themselves some more commodious habitations. To this end, they sent forth the ablest of their young men, well armed, to find out some other seats, who, making an interruption into Tyrrhenia with thirty thousand men, wasted and spoiled the territories of the Caulonians.

About this time the Romans sent ambassadors into Tyrrhenia, to gain intelligence what this expedition of the Gauls meant; who, when they came to Clusium, and saw the armies on both sides drawn up in battalia ready to engage, with more valour than prudence, they joined with them of Clusium, and fought with the enemy; and one of the ambassadors by good fortune killed one of the noblest commanders of the Gauls; who, when they heard of it, sent ambassadors to Rome, to require the ambassador who had killed the Gaul to be delivered up to them, as one that had begun an unjust war: upon which, the senate would have persuaded the ambassadors to have accepted money in satisfaction of the injury; but when they refused it, it was decreed that the person should be delivered. Upon this, the father of him who was to be given up into the enemy's hands (being then of consular dignity, and one of the military tribunes, and being likewise very rich, and of great interest and account with the commonalty) referred the decision of the matter to the people, and so easily procured the judgment and decree of the senate to be repealed. From this time the people began to rescind the decrees of the senate, though ever before they always submitted to them.

But the ambassadors of the Gauls returned to their camp, and declared what answer was given them by the Romans: upon which they were in a great rage, and increased their army with new-raised forces out of their own country. And forthwith marched towards Rome with above seventy thousand men.

When the news came to Rome, the military tribunes commanded all that were able to bear arms to list themselves, who, marching out of the city, passed over the Tiber, and came with all their forces unto a river fourscore furlongs from Rome; where, when they understood that the enemy was near at hand, they drew up their army in this manner: their best soldiers, to the number of four-an-twenty thousand, they posted all along from the river to the hills adjoining, the rest were placed upon the rising grounds. On the other hand, the enemy out-winging the Romans, their strongest and ablest soldiers (whether on purpose or by chance is uncertain) fronted those weaker and inexperienced soldiers on the hills. And now the trumpets on both sides sounded a charge. Whereupon the armies ran one upon another with a great shout; and those Gauls that set upon them that were upon the hills presently cleared the place of them, who fled in great confusion to their own men into the plain; so that by their flight, and the hot pursuit of the Gauls, they broke and disordered their own army, and put them likewise to the run. And, while the greatest part of them made to the river, and in great precipitation and confusion trod down one another, the enemy without intermission killed all still that were in the rear, so that the whole field was covered with dead bodies. Some of the stoutest of those who had fled to the river swam over with their arms, prizing them as much as their lives; but many of them (through the violence of the stream, and the weight of their arms) were drowned. Some with great difficulty, (after they had fled a long way, and in by-paths, with much ado), escaped. However, may still pursued close by the enemy, who made a great slaughter among them upon the bank of the river) threw away their arms, and swam over the Tiber. And, though the Gauls had cut off so many upon the shore, yet such was their continued rage, that they cast their darts and javelins against those that took the water; and, many darts being buried amongst shoals of them that were swimming, no small execution was done, so that some were killed forthwith, and others so wounded, that through loss of blood, and strength of the current, they were spent and carried away by the stream.

The greatest number of those that escaped from this sad overthrow of the Romans, fled into Veii, lately ruined by them, and fortifying the place as well as they could, received the rest that fled thither. Those few who swam the river, and returned unarmed into Rome, related how the whole army was destroyed, which sad news greatly amazed all those that were left in the city: for, the strength and flower of the citizens being now cut off, they looked upon themselves unable in the least to resist; and besides, to aggravate their misery, it seemed to them impossible to fly, wit their wives and children, without the greatest hazard imaginable, the enemy being so near. Therefore, many of the ordinary sort removed, with their whole families, to the neighbouring towns and villages; but the city magistrates, encouraging the people, ordered that victuals and all other necessaries should be brought into the capitol, by which means both the castle and capitol were filled not only with meat and provisions, but with silver and gold, and all sorts of rich garments and attire, good of all kinds throughout the whole city being heaped together in this one place; for they had but three days time to remove what was moveable, and to fortify the place: for the Gauls spent the first day (according to the custom of their country) in cutting of the heads of those that were slain; the other two days they lay quiet in their camp, now close to the city: for, when they discerned that the walls were left bare and undefended, and yet heard a confused noise (occasioned by the bringing in of household goods, and other things useful into the capitol) they suspected some stratagem was designing against them. But the fourth day, when they came to understand the truth, they broke down the gates, and laid all the city in rubbish, except a few houses upon Mount Pallatine: and though afterwards they pressed upon them in the capitol with continual assaults, yet they within suffered little by it, but many of the Gauls perished. However, they stuck close to the siege, hoping, though they could not gain the place by force, yet at least in time, when all the provisions and victuals were spent, they might possess themselves of the fort.

While the Roman affairs were thus perplexed, the Tuscans, their neighbours, made an incursion with a great army into their territories, and wasted and destroyed all before them. But, when they had got many prisoners, and much spoil and plunder into their hands, the Romans that had fled to Veii set upon them on the sudden, and put them to flight, and not only recovered all the spoil, but likewise possessed themselves of all their tents: and by this means, being furnished with a great number of arms, they armed their fellow-soldiers, who hitherto were unarmed since the late defeat, and got together a company of country-fellows from several parts, and armed them likewise: for they had a design to raise the siege of the capital, but were most perplexed and concerned how to give notice of their purpose to the besieged, in regard the Gauls so straitly blocked it up. Upon this, one Pontius Caminius undertook to get into the capitol; to which end he passed on himself alone, and privately in the night swam over the river, and, ascending a steep rock of the capitol with great difficulty, drew himself up, and so came to the besieged, and acquainted them that they of Veii were in a body, and that they intended to fall upon the Gauls upon the first opportunity; and, having delivered his message, he returned to Veii the same way he came. But when the Gauls perceived, by the impressions of a man's feet, that some person had lately passed that way into the castle, they were determined to attempt to make an entry by climbing the rock in that part: and to that end, about midnight (the guards being careless, trusting to the strength of the place) some of the Gauls got up to the top, and were not taken notice of by the watch; but the geese dedicated to Juno, that fed there, (seeing them appear above the walls) presently made a great gaggling and noise, which so alarmed the watch, that they all ran to the place: upon which the Gauls, now betrayed and affrighted, durst not proceed any farther.

In the mean time that famous man Marcus Manlius, hastening to the defence of the place, cut off the hand of a Gaul as he was raising himself to recover the wall, and, by a thrust in his breast with the boss of his buckler, cast him down headlong from the top of the rock; and another being destroyed after the same manner, the rest in all haste retired; and, because the rock was very steep, (being in a great terror and amazement), they all miserably perished. The Romans hereupon sending ambassadors to them to treat upon terms of peace, obtained it upon these conditions—That upon receiving a thousand pound weight of gold, they should leave the city, and depart out of the Roman territories.

After this, because the houses were destroyed, and many of the citizens killed, the Romans gave leave to everyone that would, to build, and roofed and covered all the houses at the public charge, which were therefore ever after to this day called the public houses. And because every man built according to his own humour, where he pleased, the streets were made very narrow and crooked, which (notwithstanding the riches of the city) in succeeding times could never be reformed. Some have reported, that the Roman matrons gave all their golden ornaments for the redeeming of their country; for which they have this honour allowed them, that they may at any time be carried in chariots through the city.

The Roman being thus impoverished and brought low by the late calamity, the Volsci took the advantage, and raised arms against them. Upon which, the consular tribunes got their forces together, and marched out into the Campus Martius (as it is called) and encamped about two hundred stages from the city. The Volscii far exceeded the Romans in number, and set upon their camp: upon which the senate, much concerned for them in the field, made Marcus Furius dictator, who ordered the young men in the city to take up arms, and whom he marched out in the night, and came upon the backs of the Volsci, (when they were very busy and intent in assaulting the Romans), and easily put them to flight: upon which, they within the camp sallying out, the Volsci by this means were hemmed in on every side, and almost all cut off. And thus this nation, who were before a strong and potent people, by this overthrow were brought extremely low, and weaker than any of the nations round about them.

The dictator afterwards, hearing that Bola was besieged by the Æqui, marched thither, and killed most of the besiegers. Thence he moved to Sutrinum, a colony of the Romans, but then possessed by the Æqui, and, falling upon them on the sudden, he made a great slaughter among them, and restored the city to them of Sutrinum.

About this time the Gauls, in their march from Rome, besieged Veascus, a confederate city of the Romans; upon which the dictator marched against them, fought, and routed them, and seized their bag and baggage, amongst which was the gold weighed at Rome, and recovered almost all the prey and plunder they had gained in taking of the city. And, though he had performed all this good service, yet the tribunes of the people, through envy, denied him a triumph. Yet some relate that he did triumph in a chariot drawn by four white horses for the victory over the Tuscans, and within two days after was fined by the people in a great sum of money, which we shall mention hereafter in its proper place.

Those Gauls that went to Japygium, designed to return through the Roman territories; but the Cerii laid an ambush for them in the night, and cut them all off in the plains of Trausium.

Callisthenes the historian began his Grecian memoirs from this year, wherein the peace was made between the Grecians and Artaxerxes, and ended them with the year the temple of Delphos was taken and rifled by Philomelus the Phocian, comprehending an account of affairs for the space of thirty years in ten books. And now, being come to the peace between Artaxerxes and the Greeks, and the danger threatened to Rome by the Gauls, according to our purpose at the beginning, we shall put an end to this book.