had just founded Marseilles, two great Gallic hordes got in motion at the
same time, and crossed, one the Rhine, the other the Alps, making one for
Germany, the other for Italy. The former followed the course of the
Danube and settled in Illyria, on the right bank of the river. It is too
much, perhaps, to say that they settled; the greater part of them
continued wandering and fighting, sometimes amalgamating with the
peoplets they encountered, sometimes chasing them and exterminating them,
whilst themselves were incessantly pushed forward by fresh bands coming
also from Gaul. Thus marching and spreading, leaving here and there on
their route, along the rivers and in the valleys of the Alps, tribes that
remained and founded peoples, the Gauls had arrived, towards the year 340
B.C., at the confines of Macedonia, at the time when Alexander, the son
of Philip, who was already famous, was advancing to the same point to
restrain the ravages of the neighboring tribes, perhaps of the Gauls
themselves. From curiosity, or a desire to make terms with Alexander,
certain Gauls betook themselves to his camp. He treated them well, made
them sit at his table, took pleasure in exhibiting his magnificence
before them, and in the midst of his carouse made his interpreter ask
them what they were most afraid of.

"We fear nought," they answered, "unless it be the fall of heaven; but we
set above everything the friendship of a man like thee." "The Celts are
proud," said Alexander to his Macedonians; and he promised them his
friendship. On the death of Alexander, the Gauls, as mercenaries,
entered, in Europe and Asia, the service of the kings who had been his
generals. Ever greedy, fierce, and passionate, they were almost equally
dangerous as auxiliaries and as neighbors. Antigonus, King of Macedonia,
was to pay the band he had enrolled a gold piece a head. They brought
their wives and children with them, and at the end of the campaign they
claimed pay for their following as well as for themselves: "We were
promised," said they, "a gold piece a head for each Gaul; and these are
also Gauls."

Before long they tired of fighting the battles of another; their power
accumulated; fresh hordes, in great numbers, arrived amongst them about
the year 281 B.C. They had before them Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly,
Greece, rich, but distracted and weakened by civil strife. They effected
an entrance at several points, devastating, plundering, loa