was threatening the
empire. Rome had become great, because the country which she had
conquered was weak through its oligarchical institutions; the subjects
of the other states gladly joined the Romans, because under them their
lot was more favorable, and probably because they were kindred nations.
But matters went with the Romans as they did with Basilius, who subdued
the Armenians when they were threatened by the Turks, and who soon after
attacked the whole Greek empire and took away far more than had been
gained before.

The expedition of the Gauls into Italy must be regarded as a migration,
and not as an invasion for the purpose of conquest: as for the
historical account of it, we must adhere to Polybius and Diodorus, who
place it shortly before the taking of Rome by the Gauls. We can attach
no importance to the statement of Livy that they had come into Italy as
early as the time of Tarquinius Priscus, having been driven from their
country by a famine. It undoubtedly arose from the fact that some Greek
writer, perhaps Timaeus, connected this migration with the settlement of
the Phocians at Massilia. It is possible that Livy even here made use of
Dionysius; and that the latter followed Timaeus; for as Livy made use of
Dionysius in the eighth book, why not also in the fifth? He himself knew
very little of Greek history;[44] but Justin's account is here evidently
opposed to Livy.

[Footnote 44: Comp. _Hist. of Rome_, vol. iii. n. 485.]

Trogus Pompeius was born in the neighborhood of Massilia, and in writing
his forty-third book he obviously made use of native chronicles, for
from no other source could he derive the account of the _decreta
honorifica_ of the Romans to the Massilians for the friendship which the
latter had shown to the Romans during the Gallic war; and from the same
source must he have obtained his information about the maritime wars of
Massilia against Carthage. Trogus knows nothing of the story that the
Gauls assisted the Phocians on their arrival; but according to him, they
met with a kind reception among the Ligurians, who continued to inhabit
those parts for a long time after. Even the story of the _lucumo_ who is
said to have invited the Gauls is opposed to him, and if it were
referred to Clusium alone it would be absurd. Polybius places the
passage of the Gauls across the Alps about ten or twenty years before
the taking of Rome; and Diodorus describes them as advancing toward Rome
by an uninte