Chief of the Celtic Gauls, crossed the Apennines in 391 B.C., ravaged Etruria, and annihilated a Roman army of about 40,000 men on the Allia some 12 m. from Clusium (July 16, 390). Rome thus lay at his mercy, but he wasted time, and the Romans were able to occupy and provision the Capitol (though they had not sufficient forces to defend their walls) and to send their women and children to Veii. When on the third day the Gauls took possession, they found the city occupied only by those aged patricians who had held high office in the state. For a while the Gauls withheld their hands out of awe and reverence, but the ruder passions soon prevailed. The city was sacked and burnt; but the Capitol itself withstood a siege of more than six months, saved from surprise on one occasion only by the wakefulness of the sacred geese and the courage of Marcus Manlius. At last the Gauls consented to accept a ransom of a thousand pounds of gold. As it was being weighed out, the Roman tribune complained of some unfairness. Brennus at once threw his heavy sword into the scale; and when asked the meaning of the act, replied that it meant Vae victis (“woe to the conquered”). The Gauls returned home with their plunder, leaving Rome in a condition from which she took long to recover. A later legend, probably an invention, represents M. Furius Camillus as suddenly appearing with an avenging army at the moment when the gold was being weighed, and defeating Brennus and all his host.
See Livy v. 33–49; Plutarch, Camillus, 17, 22, 28; Polybius i. 6, ii. 18; Dion. Halic. xiii. 7.
