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ings had been set in order, as far as might be, for the defending of the Citadel; and the old men, going back to their homes, sat awaiting the coming of the Gauls with minds wholly fixed on death. And such among them as had borne the more honourable magistracies, because they would die having on them the emblems of their old glory, put on them the splendid robes which they wear who draw the ropes of the chariots of the gods, or ride in triumph, and so sat down in their ivory chairs before their houses. Some say that, following a form of words which Marcus Folius the chief priest repeated, they devoted themselves to death for their country and for the citizens of Rome. The next day the Gauls entered the city by the Colline Gate without any anger or fury, for such as had been stirred by the battle had abated during the night; and indeed they had met with no peril in the field, nor did they now take the city by storm. So they came to the marketplace and thence looked about them on the Citadel, which alone in the city still preserved some semblance of war, and on the temples of the Gods. Here they left a guard of no great strength, lest haply some attack should be made upon them from the Capitol, while they were scattered; and the rest scattered themselves to gather spoil, some seeking it in the dwellings that were nigh at hand, and some in such as were more distant, thinking that they would find these rather untouched and abounding with riches. Thence again, terrified by the silence of the place, and fearing lest some stratagem of the enemy might be concealed thereby, they returned to the market-place and to the parts adjacent thereto. Here finding that the palaces of the nobles were open, and the houses of the common folk barred, they were slower to enter the open than the shut, for they beheld with no small reverence the men that sat each in the porch of his house, noting how great was the splendour of their apparel and their ornaments, and that the majesty of their countenances was rather that of gods than of men. So they stood marvelling at them as though they had been images of the gods, till a certain Marcus Papirius, one of the priests, smote a Gaul on the head with his ivory staff, the man having stroked his beard, which it was then the custom to wear of a great length. The barbarian in a rage slew him, and all the others also were slain where they sat. The nobles having thus perished, all others that were found i
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