ling with one of the nations round about,
but made light of the matter. In the meanwhile the Gauls, when they
heard that the very men that had set at nought the law of nations had
been promoted to great honour, were filled with fury, and forthwith
snatching up their standards, marched towards Rome with all speed. And
when the inhabitants of the country were terrified at their coming,
the dwellers in the cities running to arms, and the countryfolk leaving
their homes, the Gauls cried out to them that they were bound for Rome.
Nevertheless the report of their coming went before them, messengers
from Clusium and from other states hastening to Rome, from whose
reports, as also from the great speed of the enemy, there arose great
fear among the Romans. These levied an army with all haste and marched
forth, meeting the Gauls at the river Allia, where, flowing down from
the mountains of Crustumeria in a very deep channel, it is joined to the
Tiber, about eleven miles from Rome. There they found the whole country,
both in front and on either side, occupied by great multitudes of Gauls,
and in an uproar with the loud singing and shouting with which this
nation is wont to terrify its enemies.

And now the tribunes of the soldiers, having neither pitched a camp nor
made a rampart to be a defence if they should be driven back, nor taken
any account of omens, nor offered sacrifice (for they were careless
alike of gods and of men), drew up their army in array, extending their
line lest they should be surrounded by the multitude of the enemy. But
even then, though they so weakened the middle part that their ranks
scarce held together, they could not make their front equal to the front
of the enemy. There was a little hill on the right hand, and this they
occupied with a reserve. Against this reserve Brennus, the king of the
Gauls, made his first attack; for seeing that the Romans were few in
number, he judged that they must excel in skill, and that the hill had
been thus occupied to the end that the Gauls might be assailed from
behind while they were fighting with the legions in front. He judged,
therefore, that if he could thrust down them that were on this hill his
army might easily deal with the Romans on the plain, seeing that
they far exceeded them in number. So true is it that on this day the
barbarians were superior not in fortune only but also in judgment and
skill. As for the Romans, neither the captains nor the soldiers were