Gauls. But it was a natural feeling with the Romans
to look upon the fall of their city as the consequence of a _nefas_
which no human power could resist. Roman vanity also is at work here,
inasmuch as the Roman ambassadors are said to have so distinguished
themselves that they were recognized by the barbarians among the hosts
of Etruscans. Now, according to another tradition directly opposed to
these statements, the Gauls sent to Rome to demand the surrender of
those ambassadors: as the senate was hesitating and left the decision to
the people, the latter not only rejected the demand, but appointed the
same ambassadors to the office of military tribunes, whereupon the Gauls
with all their forces at once marched toward Rome.

Livy here again speaks of the _populus_ as the people to whom the senate
left the decision: this must have been the patricians only, for they
alone had the right to decide upon the fate of the members of their own
order. It is not fair to accuse the Romans on that occasion of
dishonesty; but this account assuredly originated with later writers,
who transferred to barbarians the right belonging to a nation standing
in a legal relation to another. The statement that the three
ambassadors, all of whom were Fabii, were appointed military tribunes,
is not even the usual one, for there is another in Diodorus, who must
here have used Roman authorities written in Greek, that is, Fabius;
since he calls the Caerites [Greek: Kairioi] and not [Greek: Agullaioi].
He speaks of a single ambassador, who being a son of a military tribune
fought against the Gauls. This is at least a sign how uncertain history
yet is. The battle on the Alia was fought on the 16th of July; the
military tribunes entered upon their office on the first of that month;
and the distance between Clusium and Rome is only three good days'
marches. It is impossible to restore the true history, but we can
discern what is fabulous from what is really historical.

An innumerable host of Gauls now marched from Clusium toward Rome. For a
long time the Gauls were most formidable to the Romans, as well as to
all other nations with whom they came in contact, even as far east as
the Ukraine; as to Rome, we see this as late as the Cisalpine war of the
year A.U. 527. Polybius and Diodorus are our best guides in seeking for
information about the manners of the Gauls, for in the time of Caesar
they had already become changed. In the description of their per