BOOK XXXVIII.

_Marcus Fulvius the consul besieged Ambracia, in Epirus, and received its surrender; he reduced Cephallenia, and granted peace to the Ætolians, on their complete subjection. Cneius Manlius the consul, his colleague, conquered the Gallogræcians, including the Tolistoboii, Tectosagi, and Trocmi who, under the command of Brennus, had crossed over into Asia, since they were the only refractory nation on this side of Mount Taurus. Their origin is related, and likewise the manner in which they became masters of the territories which they now hold. An instance, also, of virtue and chastity in a woman is recorded: for when the wife of Ortiagon, king of the Gallogræcians, was a captive, she slew a centurion who was sentinel over her, because he offered her violence. The lustrum was closed by the censors. Two hundred and fifty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty-eight citizens were rated. A treaty of amity was entered into with Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia. Cneius Manlius, although the ten ambassadors by whose advice he had written the terms of the treaty with Antiochus, opposed him, pleaded his cause in person in the senate, and triumphed over the Gallogræcians. Scipio Africanus, a day of trial being appointed him, as some say, by Quintus Petillius, tribune of the people, as others say, by Nævius, on the charge of having fraudulently deprived the treasury of the plunder taken from Antiochus, when the day of trial came on, was summoned to the rostrum, and said, “On this day, Romans, I conquered Carthage;” and, followed by the people, ascended the Capitol. Subsequently, that he might not receive any further annoyance front the injuries done him by the tribunes, he retired into voluntary exile at Liternum: it is uncertain whether he died there or at Rome, for monuments were erected to his memory in both places. Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, brother of Africanus, was accused and condemned on the same charge of embezzlement as his brother: when he was being led to prison, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, tribune of the commons, who had been previously on unfriendly terms with the Scipios, vetoed it; and in return for that kindness, received in marriage the daughter of Africanus. When the quæstors were sent to take public possession of the property of Lucius Scipio, not only was no trace of the king’s money apparent in it, but not even so much was raised thereby as the amount in which he was fined. He would not receive the countless sum collected by his relations and friends: the mere necessaries of life were purchased back._

1. While the war is being carried on in Asia, matters were not even then tranquil among the Ætolians, a commencement of these disturbances having originated with the nation of the Athamanians. At that period, since the expulsion of Amynander, Athamania was kept in subjection by royal garrisons, under governors appointed by Philip, who by their haughty and overbearing exercise of power, had made the people regret the loss of Amynander. The hope of recovering the kingdom was presented to Amynander, then an exile in Ætolia, by the letters of his partisans, who informed him of the state of Athamania: and messengers were sent to Argithea, (for that was the chief city of Athamania,) to inform the principal men, that, if they were sufficiently assured of the inclinations of their countrymen, he, having obtained succours from the Ætolians, would come, into Athamania with a chosen body of Ætolians, who constituted the council of that nation, and their prætor, Nicander. And, when he found that they were prepared for every thing, he gave them notice, immediately after, of the day on which he would enter Athamania at the head of an army. At first there were four conspirators against the Macedonian garrison; then each of these took as associates six assistants for the execution of the business; but, afterwards, distrusting their small number, which was rather calculated for the concealment than for the execution of the design, they took in a number of associates, equal to the former. Being thus increased to fifty-two, they divided themselves into four parties, one of which repaired to Heraclea, another to Tetraphylia, where the royal treasure used to be kept, a third to Theudoria, and the fourth to Argithea. It was agreed that they should at first appear in the forum publicly, without any bustle, as if they had come about their own ordinary concerns; and then, on a certain day, raise the whole populace, so as to dislodge the Macedonian garrisons from the citadels. When the day came, and Amynander with a thousand Ætolians was on the frontiers, by the preconcerted plan the Macedonian garrisons were driven from the four places at once, and letters were despatched to all the other cities, calling on them to rescue themselves from the exorbitant tyranny of Philip, and to reinstate their hereditary and lawful prince. Accordingly, the Macedonians were, every where, expelled. The town of Theium, (in consequence of the letters being intercepted by Teno, commander of the garrison, and owing to the citadel being occupied by the king’s troops,) stood a siege of a few days, and then surrendered to Amynander, who had now all Athamania in his power, except the fort of Athenæum, on the borders of Macedonia.

2. When Philip heard of the defection of Athamania, he set out at the head of six thousand men, and proceeded, with the utmost speed, to Gomphi. Having left the greater part of his force, as they would not have been equal to such long marches, he went forward, with two thousand, to Athenæum, the only place which had been retained by his troops. Then, having made attempts on the nearest places, when he clearly perceived that all the rest of the country was hostile to him, he retreated to Gomphi, and returned with the whole of his army into Athamania. He then sent Zeno, at the head of one thousand foot, with orders to seize on Ethopia, which stands advantageously for commanding Argithea; and, as soon as he understood that this post was in possession of his party, he himself encamped near the temple of Acræan Jupiter. Here he was detained one whole day, by a tremendous storm; and on the next, proceeded to lead them towards Argithea. On the troops commencing their march the Athamanians immediately appeared hastening to the hills which overlooked the road. On the sight of whom, the foremost battalions halted, while fear and confusion spread through the whole army, and every one began to consider what might have been the consequence, if the troops had gone down into the valleys commanded by those cliffs. This confusion compelled the king, who wished, if his men would follow him, to push on rapidly through the defile, to call back the foremost, and return by the same road by which he came. The Athamanians at first followed at a distance, without making any attempt: after the Ætolians joined them, they left these to harass the rear, and extended themselves on both flanks. Some of them, by taking a shorter way, through known paths, seized the passes; and such terror was struck into the Macedonians, that they repassed the river in a manner more like a hasty flight than a regular march, leaving behind many of their men and arms. Here was the end of the pursuit, and the Macedonians, in safety, returned to Gomphi, and from Gomphi into Macedonia. The Athamanians and Ætolians ran together, from all sides, to Ethopia, to crush Zeno and his thousand Macedonians. The Macedonians, distrusting their position, removed from Ethopia, to a hill which was higher and steeper on all sides; from which the Athamanians, having found access in several places, dislodged them; and while they were dispersed, and unable to find the road for flight, through impassable and unknown rocks, slew part of them and made part prisoners. Great numbers, in their panic, tumbled down the precipices; very few, with Zeno, effected their escape to the king. Afterwards, permission to bury their dead was given to them during the truce.

3. Amynander, on recovering possession of his kingdom, sent ambassadors, both to the senate at Rome and to the Scipios in Asia, who, since the grand battle with Antiochus, stayed at Ephesus. He requested a treaty of amity, and apologized for having had recourse to the Ætolians, for the recovery of his hereditary dominions. He made many charges against Philip. The Ætolians from Athamania proceeded into Amphilochia, and, with the consent of the greater part of the inhabitants, reduced that nation under their power and dominion. After the recovery of Amphilochia, for it had formerly belonged to the Ætolians, they passed on, with hopes of equal success, into Aperantia. That also, for the most part, surrendered to the Ætolians without a contest. The Dolopians had never been subject to the Ætolians, but they were to Philip. These, at first, ran to arms; but when they were informed of the Amphilochians taking part with the Ætolians, of Philip’s flight from Athamania, and the destruction of his detachment, they also revolted from Philip to the Ætolians. Whilst the Ætolians believed that they were now secured against the Macedonians on all sides, by these nations surrounding them, the report is brought to them that Antiochus was conquered in Asia by the Romans. Not very long after, their ambassadors came home from Rome, without the prospect of peace, announcing that the consul Fulvius, with his army, had already crossed the sea. Dismayed at these accounts, they send the chief men of the state to Rome to try the last hope, having previously solicited embassies from Rhodes and Athens, that, through the influence of those states, their petitions, lately rejected, might meet with a more favourable reception from the senate: they took no kind of precaution to avert the war, before it was almost within sight. Marcus Fulvius, having brought over his army to Apollonia, was, at this time, consulting with the Epirot chiefs where he should commence his operations. It was the opinion of the Epirots that he should attack Ambracia, which had lately united itself to Ætolia; alleging, that, “in case the Ætolians should come to its relief, there were open plains around it, to fight in; or that if they should avoid a battle there would be no great difficulty in the siege, for there were at hand abundant materials for raising mounds and other works, while the Arachthus, a navigable river, well adapted to convey every thing requisite, flowed by the walls; besides, the summer was just approaching, the fittest season for the enterprise.” By these arguments they persuaded him to march on through Epirus.

4. To the consul, on his arrival at Ambracia, the siege appeared to be a work of no small difficulty. Ambracia stands at the foot of a rocky hill, called by the natives Perranthe: the city, where the wall faces the plain and the river, looks towards the west; the citadel, which is seated on the hill, towards the east. The river Arachthus, which rises in Athamania, falls here into a gulf of the sea, called the Ambracian, from the name of the adjacent city. Besides that the river defended it on one side and the hills on the other, it was also surrounded by a strong wall, extending in circuit somewhat more than three miles. Fulvius formed two camps at a short distance from each other, and one fort on the high ground opposite to the citadel; all which he intended to join together by a rampart and trench, in such a manner that there should be no exit from the city for the besieged, nor entrance For the introduction of assistance from without. The Ætolians, on the report of the siege of Ambracia, were by this time assembled at Stratus, in obedience to an edict of their prætor, Nicander. At first they intended to have marched hence, with their whole force, to raise the siege; afterwards, when they heard that the place was already, in a great measure, surrounded with works, and that the Epirots were encamped on level ground, on the other side of the river, they resolved to divide their forces. Eupolemus, with one thousand light troops, marching to Ambracia, made his way into the city, though the works were joined to each other. Nicander’s first plan was to have attacked the camp of the Epirots in the night, with the rest of the troops, as assistance could not be easily received from the Romans, because the river ran between them. Afterward, judging it too dangerous an undertaking, lest the Romans should by any means discover it, and his retreat become unsafe, he was deterred from this design, and marched away to ravage the country of Acarnania.

5. The consul having now finished the intrenchments with which it was necessary to surround the city, and likewise the works which he was preparing to bring forward to the walls, attacked the city in five different places; three attacks, at equal distances from each other, he directed against the quarter which they called Pyrrheum, as the approach was easier from the plain; one opposite to the temple of Æsculapius, and one against the citadel. He broke down the walls with battering-rams, and tore down the battlements with poles armed with scythes. At first, terror and dismay seized the townsmen, at the formidable appearance of the works, and the shocks given to the walls, which were attended with a dreadful noise: afterwards, when they beheld them contrary to their hopes standing, having again resumed courage, they, by means of cranes, threw down upon the battering-rams weighty masses of lead, or stone, or beams of timber; dragging the armed poles, with iron grapples, within the walls, they broke off the hooks; besides, by sallies, both by night against the watch-guards of the engines, and by day against the advanced posts, they kept the besiegers in a state of continual alarm. While affairs at Ambracia were in this state, the Ætolians had returned from ravaging Acarnania, to Stratus. Their prætor, Nicander, having conceived hopes of raising the siege by a bold effort, sent a person called Nicodamus, with five hundred Ætolians, into Ambracia, and appointed a certain night, and even the time of the night, on which, from within the city, they were to assault the works of the enemy, opposite to the Pyrrheum, while he himself should alarm the Roman camp. He supposed that, in consequence of the alarm on both sides, and night increasing the terror, something memorable might be achieved. And Nicodamus, in the dead of the night, (when he had escaped the notice of some of the parties on watch, and broken through others by his determined onset,) having passed the intrenchment, penetrated into the city; and gave the besieged considerable hope and courage for any enterprise; and as soon as the appointed time arrived, according to the plan preconcerted, he made a sudden assault on the works. This undertaking was more formidable in the attempt than in the effect, because no attack was made from without; for the prætor of the Ætolians had either been deterred by fear, or had judged it more advisable to carry succours to Amphilochia, which had been lately reduced; which Perseus, the son of Philip, who was sent to recover Dolopia and Amphilochia, was besieging with the greatest vigour.

6. The works of the Romans against the Pyrrheum were carried on in three different places, as has been mentioned before, all which works the Ætolians assaulted at once, but not with similar weapons or similar force. Some advanced with burning torches, others carrying tow and pitch, and fire-darts, their entire line being illuminated by the blaze. At the first assault they cut off many of the men on guard. Afterwards, when the shout and uproar reached the camp, and the signal was given by the consul, the troops took arms and poured out of all the gates to succour their friends. In one place the contest was carried on with fire and sword; from the other two, the Ætolians retired with disappointment, after essaying rather than supporting a fight. The whole brunt of the battle fell on the one quarter with great fury. Here the two commanders, Eupolemus and Nicodamus, in their different posts, encouraged their men and animated them with hope amounting almost to certainty, that Nicander would, according to his agreement, come up speedily and attack the enemy’s rear. This expectation for some time supported their courage in the fight. But at last, as they did not receive the concerted signal from their friends, and saw the number of their enemies continually increasing, they pressed on with less energy, as if deserted; finally, having abandoned the attempt, their retreat now becoming almost impracticable, they were driven in flight into the city, after having burned a part of the works, however, and killed a much greater number than they lost themselves. If the affair had been conducted according to the plan concerted, there was no reason to doubt but that one part at least of the works might have been stormed with great havoc of the Romans;. The Ambracians and the Ætolians, who were within, not only renounced the enterprise of that night, but supposing themselves betrayed by their friends, became much less spirited. None of them any longer sallied out, as before, against the enemy’s stations, but posted on the walls and towers, fought without danger.

7. Perseus, on hearing of the approach of the Ætolians, having raised the siege of the city in which he was employed, and having ravaged the country, quitted Amphilochia, and returned into Macedon. The devastation of their sea-coast called away the Ætolians from this region. Pleuratus, king of the Illyrians, entered the Corinthian gulf with sixty barks, and having formed a junction with the ships of the Achæans lying at Patræ, wasted the maritime parts of Ætolia. Against these one thousand Ætolians were sent, who, by taking short routes, met the fleet wherever it, while sailing around the indentations of the coast, attempted a landing. The Romans at Ambracia, by the battering of their rams in many places at once, laid open a great part of the city; but nevertheless were unable to penetrate into the heart of it. For instead of the wall knocked down a new one was raised with proportionate speed, while the armed men standing on the ruins, formed a kind of bulwark. The consul, therefore, when he made no progress by open force, resolved to form a secret mine, covering the ground first with his machines. And for a long time his workmen, though employed both night and day, not only in digging under the ground but also in carrying away the earth, escaped the observation of the enemy. A heap of it, however, rising suddenly, gave the townsmen intimation of their work, and terrified lest, the wall being undermined, a passage should be opened into the city, they determined to draw a trench within, opposite to the work that was covered with machines. In which when they reached such a depth as the bottom of the mine could well be, then keeping profound silence, having applied their ears to several different places, they endeavoured to catch the sound of the miners; which being heard, they opened a way directly towards them. Nor did it require much exertion, for they came in a short time to an open space where the wall was supported with props by the enemy. The works joining here, as the passage was open from the trench to the mine, the parties began to fight in the dark under ground, first of all with the tools which they had used in the works, but afterwards armed men came quickly up. Subsequently the contest became less spirited; as the besieged stopped the passage, sometimes by stretching strong hair-cloths across it, sometimes by hastily placing doors in the way of their antagonists. A new engine, requiring no great labour, was invented against those who were in the mine. The besieged bored a hole in the bottom of a cask, by which a moderate-sized pipe could be inserted, and made an iron pipe and iron head for the cask, which was perforated in many places. They placed this cask, filled with small feathers, with its mouth turned towards the mine. Through, the holes in the head of the cask projected those very long spears, which they call sarissas, to keep off the enemy. They kindled a small spark of fire, placed among the feathers, by blowing with a smith’s bellows, inserted into the end of the pipe. After that the smoke arising from this, not only in great quantities, but also more offensive from the nauseous stench proceeding from the burnt feathers, had filled the mine, scarcely any one could stay within.

8. Whilst affairs at Ambracia were in this state, Phæneas and Damoteles came to the consul, as ambassadors from the Ætolians, invested with full powers by a decree of the general assembly of that nation. For when their prætor saw on one side Ambracia besieged; on another, the sea-coast infested by the enemy’s ships; on a third, Amphilochia and Dolopia ravaged by the Macedonians, and that the Ætolians were incapable of meeting the three enemies at once, having summoned a council, he consulted the chiefs on what was to be done. The opinions of all tended to one point: “that peace should be solicited on equal terms if possible; if not, on any terms that could be borne. That the war was undertaken in reliance on Antiochus. Since Antiochus was vanquished by land and sea, and driven beyond the mountains of Taurus, almost out of the world, what hope remained of their being able to support it? That Phæneas and Damoteles, since the emergency was so great, should do whatever they might judge to tend to the interest of the Ætolians and their own honour. For what counsel, what option had been left them by fortune?” Ambassadors were despatched with instructions, to beseech the consul to “have mercy on the city, and to take compassion on a nation once acknowledged as an ally; and driven to madness, they would not say by ill treatment, but undoubtedly by their sufferings.” That the Ætolians “had not in Antiochus’ war deserved a larger share of punishment than they had of reward in that against Philip. That neither then was compensation liberally made them, nor ought punishment now to be inflicted on them in an immoderate degree.” To this the consul answered, that “the Ætolians had sued for peace often, rather than ever with sincere intentions. Let them in soliciting peace imitate Antiochus, whom they had drawn into the war. He had ceded, not the few cities whose liberty was the ground of the dispute, but an opulent kingdom, all Asia on this side Mount Taurus. That he (the consul) would not listen to the Ætolians, treating concerning peace, unless they laid down their arms. That, in the first place, their arms and all their horses must be delivered up; and in the next place, one thousand talents[17] of silver must be paid to the Roman people; half of which sum must be laid down immediately, if they wished for peace. To these articles he would add when concluding the treaty, that they must have the same allies and the same enemies as the Roman people.”

9. To which demands the ambassadors having made no reply, both because they were severe, and because they knew the spirit of their country to be unbroken and changeable, returned home, that they might again and again, while the thing was undecided, consult the prætor and chiefs as to what was to be done. They were received with clamour and reproaches, and were asked “how long would they protract the matter, though commanded to bring with them a peace of some kind or other?” But as they were going back to Ambracia, they were caught in an ambuscade, laid near the road by the Acarnanians, with whom they were at war, and carried to Thyrium to be confined. The delay arising from this incident interrupted the negotiations. When the ambassadors of the Athenians and Rhodians, who had come to intercede for them, were now with the consul, Amynander also, king of Athamania, having obtained a safe-conduct, had come into the Roman camp, being more concerned for the city of Ambracia, where he had spent the greatest part of his exile, than for the nation of the Ætolians. When the consul was informed by them of the accident which had befallen the ambassadors, he ordered them to be brought from Thyrium; and on their arrival they began to treat concerning peace. Amynander, as that was his principal object, laboured assiduously to persuade the Ambracians to capitulate. When he made but little progress in this, while he was coming under the walls and conferring with their chiefs, he at last, with the consul’s permission, went into the city; where, partly by arguments, partly by entreaties, he prevailed on them to surrender themselves to the Romans. Caius Valerius, the son of Lævinus, who was the first that had made a treaty of alliance with that nation, the brother of the consul, born of the same mother, eminently aided the Ætolians. The Ambracians, having first stipulated that they might send away the auxiliary Ætolians in safety, opened their gates. Then the Ætolians stipulated that “they should pay five hundred Euboic talents,[18] two hundred of this sum at present, and three hundred at six equal annual payments; that they should deliver up to the Romans the prisoners and deserters; that they should not subject any city to their jurisdiction, which, since the first coming of Titus Quintius into Greece, had either been taken by the arms of the Romans, or voluntarily entered into alliance with them: and that the island of Cephallenia should be excluded from the treaty.” Although these terms were more moderate than they themselves had expected, yet the Ætolians begged permission to lay them before the council, which request was granted. A short discussion about the cities engaged the council. Since they had been for some time under their laws, they bore with pain that they should be torn off, as it were, from their body. However, they unanimously voted that the terms of peace should be accepted. The Ambracians presented the consul with a golden crown of one hundred and fifty pounds’ weight. The brazen and marble statues and paintings, with which Ambracia was more richly decorated than any other city in that country, since it was the royal residence of Pyrrhus, were all removed and carried away; but nothing else was injured or even touched.

10. The consul, marching into the interior parts of Ætolia, encamped at Amphilochian Argos, twenty-two miles from Ambracia. Here, at length, the Ætolian ambassadors arrived, the consul in the mean time wondered at the cause of their delay. Then, after he heard that the council of the Ætolians had approved of the terms of peace, having ordered them to go to Rome to the senate, and having permitted the Athenian and Rhodian mediators to go with them, and appointed his brother, Caius Valerius, to accompany them, he himself passed over to Cephallenia. The ambassadors found the ears and minds of all the principal people at Rome prepossessed by charges made against them by Philip, who, by complaining both by ambassadors and by letters, that Dolopia, Amphilochia, and Athamania had been forcibly taken from him, that his garrison, and at last even his son Perseus, had been driven out of Amphilochia, had turned away the senate from their entreaties. The Athenians and Rhodians were, nevertheless, heard with attention. An Athenian ambassador, Leon, son of Icesias, is said to have even affected them much by his eloquence. Making use of a common simile, and comparing the multitude of the Ætolians to a calm sea, when it comes to be ruffled by the winds, he said, that “as long as they faithfully adhered to the alliance with Rome, they rested in the calm state natural to nations; but that when Thoas and Dicæarchus began to blow from Asia, Menetas and Damocrites from Europe, then was raised that storm which dashed them on Antiochus as on a rock.”

11. The Ætolians, after being a long time buffeted about, at length prevailed to have articles of peace concluded. They were these:—“Let the Ætolian nation, without fraud or deceit, maintain the empire and majesty of the Roman people; let them not suffer to pass through their territories, nor, in any manner whatever, aid or assist any army that shall march against the allies and friends of the Romans; let them have the same enemies as the Roman people; let them bear arms against them, and take a share in their wars; let them deliver up the deserters, fugitives, and prisoners, to the Romans and their allies, excepting such as were prisoners before, who having returned home, were afterwards captured; and also such as, at the time of their being taken, were enemies to Rome, while the Ætolians were in the Roman army. Let such of the others as can be found be delivered up, without reserve, to the magistrates of Corcyra, within one hundred days; and such as cannot now be found, as soon as they shall be discovered. Let them give forty hostages at the discretion of the Roman consul, none younger than twelve years nor older than forty; let neither the prætor, nor the general of the horse, nor the public secretary, be a hostage; nor any person who has before been a hostage in the hands of the Romans. Let Cephallenia be excluded from these articles.” With respect to the sum of money which they were to pay, and the mode of payment, no alteration was made in the arrangement which had been made by the consul. If they chose to give gold instead of silver, it was agreed that they might do so, provided that one piece of gold should be deemed equivalent to ten of silver of the same weight. “Whatever cities, whatever lands, whatever men have been formerly under the jurisdiction of the Ætolians, and have, either in the consulate of Titus Quintius and Publius Ælius, or since their consulate, been subdued by the arms of the Roman people, or have made a voluntary submission to them, the Ætolians are not to reclaim. The Œnians, with their city and lands, are to belong to the Acarnanians.” On these conditions was the treaty concluded with the Ætolians.

12. Not only in the same summer, but almost at the very time in which these acts were performed by Marcus Fulvius the consul in Ætolia, the other consul, Cneius Manlius, carried on war in Gallogræcia; the progress of which I shall now relate. In the beginning of spring the consul came to Ephesus, and having received the command of the army from Lucius Scipio, and reviewed the troops, he made an harangue to the soldiers; in which, having praised their bravery in having completely conquered Antiochus in a single battle, he encouraged them to undertake a new war against the Gauls, who had supported Antiochus with auxiliaries, and were, besides, of such untractable tempers, that Antiochus was to no purpose removed beyond the range of Mount Taurus, unless the power of the Gauls was broken; he then spoke briefly of himself, in terms neither ill-grounded nor extravagant. The delighted soldiers heard the consul with frequent bursts of applause, considering the Gauls as having been a part of the strength of Antiochus; and that, since that king had been vanquished, there would be no power in the forces of the Gauls, by themselves. The consul judged that Eumenes was absent at an unseasonable time, (he was then at Rome,) as he was well acquainted with the nature of the country and of the inhabitants, and as it was his interest that the power of the Gauls should be broken. He therefore sends for his brother Attalus, from Pergamus, and having exhorted him to undertake the war in conjunction with him, he sends him, away to make preparations, after promising his own exertions and those of his countrymen. A few days after, Attalus with one thousand foot and two hundred horse, having ordered his brother Athenæus to follow with the rest of the troops, and committed the care of Pergamus to persons whom he knew to be faithful to his brother and to his government, met the consul, who had marched from Ephesus to Magnesia. The consul, after highly commending the young prince, having advanced with all his forces, encamped on the bank of the Mæander, for as that river could not be forded, it was necessary to collect shipping for carrying over the army.

13. Having passed the Mæander, they came to Hiera Come.[19] In this place there is a magnificent temple, and oracle of Apollo; the priests are said to deliver their responses in verses by no means inelegant. Hence, in two days’ march they reached the river Harpasus; whither came ambassadors from Alabandæ, entreating the consul, either by his authority or his arms, to compel a fort, which had lately revolted from it, to return to its former allegiance. To the same place came Athenæus the brother of Eumenes, and Attalus, with Leusus, a Cretan, and Corragos, a Macedonian commander. They brought with them one thousand foot and three hundred horse, composed of various nations. The consul, having sent a military tribune with a small party, took the fort by assault, and restored it to the Alabandians. He himself, not deviating from his route, pitched his camp at Antioch on the Mæander. The source of this river is in Celænæ, which city was formerly the metropolis of Phrygia. The inhabitants afterwards removed to a spot not far distant from Old Celænæ, and the name of Apama was given to their new city, from Apama the sister of king Seleucus. The river Marsyas also, rising at a little distance from the head of the Mæander, falls into the latter river, and report so has it, that at Celænæ Marsyas contended with Apollo in the music of the pipe. The Mæander, springing up in the highest part of the citadel of Celænæ, runs down through the middle of the city, then through Caria, afterwards through Ionia, and empties itself into a bay which lies between Priene and Miletus. Seleucus, son of Antiochus, came into the consul’s camp at Antioch, to furnish corn for the troops, in conformity with the treaty with Scipio. Here a small dispute arose, concerning the auxiliary troops of Attalus; for Seleucus affirmed, that Antiochus engaged to supply corn to the Roman soldiers only. This difference was terminated by the firmness of the consul, who gave orders to a tribune despatched by him, that the Roman soldiers should receive none, until the auxiliaries under Attalus should have received their share. From hence the army advanced to Gordiutichos,[20] as they call it: from which place it marched, in three days, to Tabæ. This city stands on the confines of Pisidia, in that part which verges to the Pamphylian sea. Whilst the strength of that country was unimpaired, it produced valiant warriors: and even on this occasion, their horsemen, sallying out on the Roman troops, caused by their first onset no small confusion; then, as soon as it appeared that they were not equal to them either in numbers or bravery, being driven back to the city, they begged pardon for their transgressions, and offered to surrender the city. They were ordered to pay twenty-five talents of silver,[21] and ten thousand bushels of wheat; and on these terms their surrender was accepted.

14. On the third day after their leaving this place, the army reached the river Chaus, and proceeding thence, took the city of Eriza at the first assault. They then came to Thabusios, a fort standing on the bank of the river Indus, to which an elephant’s guide thrown from the animal had given its name. They were now not far from Cibyra, yet no embassy appeared from Moagetes, the tyrant of that state; a man faithless and tyrannical in every respect. The consul, in order to sound his intentions, sent forward Caius Helvius, with four thousand foot and five hundred horse. Ambassadors met this body on their entrance into his territories, declaring, that the king was ready to execute their commands. They entreated Helvius to enter their confines in a friendly manner, and to restrain his soldiers from plundering the land; and they brought with them in lieu of a golden crown fifteen talents. Helvius, having promised to keep their lands safe from plunderers, ordered the ambassadors to go on to the consul. And when they delivered the same message to him, the consul said, “We Romans have not any sign of the tyrant’s good will towards us, and we are agreed that he is such a person that we ought rather to think of punishing him than of contracting friendship with him.” Struck with astonishment at such a reception, the ambassadors requested nothing more than that he should receive the present, and give permission to the tyrant to come to him, and an opportunity to speak and excuse himself. By the permission of the consul, the tyrant came next day into the camp. His dress and retinue were scarcely equal to the style of a private person of moderate fortune; while his discourse was humble and incoherent, depreciating his own wealth and complaining of the poverty of the cities under his sway. He had under his dominion, (beside Cibyra,) Syleum, and the city called Alimne. Out of these he promised (in such a manner as if he were diffident that he could strip himself and his subjects of so much) to raise twenty-five talents.[22] “Truly,” said the consul, “this trifling cannot be borne. It is not enough for you that you did not blush, though absent, when you were imposing on us by your ambassadors; but even when present you persist in the same effrontery. Is it that twenty-five talents would exhaust your dominions? If within three days you do not pay down five hundred talents,[23] expect the devastation of your lands and the siege of your city.” Although terrified by this menace, he persisted obstinately in his plea of poverty; gradually by illiberal advances, (sometimes cavilling, sometimes recurring to prayers and counterfeit tears,) he was brought to agree to the payment of one hundred talents,[24] to which, were added ten thousand bushels of corn. All this was done within six days.

15. From Cibyra the army was led through the territory of the Sindensians, and, after crossing the river Caularis, encamped. Next day they marched along the side of the lake of Caralitis, and passed the night at Mandropolis. As they advanced to the next city, Lagos, the inhabitants fled through fear. The place being deserted, yet filled with abundance of every thing, was pillaged by the soldiers. From this they marched to the sources of the river Lysis, and on the next day to the river Cobulatus. At this time the Termessians were besieging the citadel of the Isiondensians, after having taken the city. The besieged, when they had no other hope of aid, sent ambassadors to the consul, imploring succour; adding, that, “being shut up in the citadel, with their wives and children, they were in daily expectation of suffering death, either by the sword or famine.” An occasion for turning aside to Pamphylia was thereby offered to the consul, who was very desirous of it. By his approach he raised the siege of Isionda. He granted peace to Termessus on receiving fifty talents of silver;[25] and, likewise, to the Aspendians and other states of Pamphylia. Returning from Pamphylia he pitched his camp, the first day, at the river Taurus, and the second at Come Xyline,[26] as they call it. Departing from which, he proceeded, by uninterrupted marches, to the city of Cormasa. The next city was Darsa, which he found abandoned by the inhabitants through fear, but filled with abundance of every thing useful. Ambassadors from Lysinoe, with the surrender of that state, met him while marching along the marshes. He then came into the Sagalassenian territory, rich and abounding in every kind of production. The inhabitants are Pisidians, the best soldiers, by far, of any in that part of the world. This circumstance, as well as the fertility of their soil, the multitude of their people, and the situation of their city, preeminently fortified, gave them boldness. The consul sent a party to ravage the country, because no embassy attended him on the frontiers. Then, at length, their obstinacy was overcome, as soon as they saw their property carried off and driven away. After sending ambassadors, and agreeing to pay fifty talents, with twenty thousand bushels of wheat and twenty thousand of barley, they obtained peace. The consul then marched to the source of the Obrima, and encamped at a village called Come Acaridos.[27] Hither Seleucus came, next day, from Apamea. Then when the consul had sent the sick and the useless baggage to Apamea, having received guides from Seleucus, he marched that day into the plain of Metropolis, and advanced on the day following to Diniæ in Phrygia, and thence to Synnas; all the towns on every side being deserted by the inhabitants through fear. And now, bringing along his army encumbered with the spoil of those cities, after scarcely completing in a whole day a march of five miles, he arrived at a town called Old Beudi. Next day he encamped at Anabura; on the following, at the source of the Alander, and on the third at Abassus, where he halted for several days, because he arrived at the borders of the Tolistoboians.

16. These Gauls, in a very numerous body, induced either by scarcity of land or hopes of plunder, and thinking that no nation through which they were to pass would be a match for them in arms, made their way under the command of Brennus into Dardania. There a dissension arose, and about twenty thousand men under the chieftains Leonorius and Lutarius, a secession being made from Brennus, turned their route to Thrace. Then when, fighting with such as resisted them, and imposing a tribute on such as sued for peace, they had arrived at Byzantium, they held possession for a long time of the cities in that quarter, laying the coast of the Propontis under contribution. Then a desire of passing over into Asia seized them, hearing in the neighbourhood how great the fertility of that continent was; and, having taken Lysimachia by treachery, and possessed themselves of the whole Chersonesus by force of arms, they went down to the Hellespont. When they there beheld Asia separated from them by a narrow strait, their wishes to pass into it were much more highly inflamed, and they despatched envoys to Antipater, governor of that coast, to treat of a passage. And when, business being protracted to a greater length than they expected, a new quarrel broke out between their chieftains, Leonorius, with the greater part of the people, went back to Byzantium, whence they came: Lutarius takes two decked ships and three barks from some Macedonians, sent by Antipater, under the pretext of an embassy, to act as spies. By carrying over in these galleys detachment after detachment, day and night, he transported all his troops within a few days. Not long after, Leonorius, with the assistance of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, passed over from Byzantium. The Gauls then re-united their forces, and assisted Nicomedes in a war which he was carrying on against Zybœta, who held possession of a part of Bithynia. By their assistance chiefly Zybœta was subdued, and the whole of Bithynia reduced under the dominion of Nicomedes. Then leaving Bithynia, they advanced into Asia; and although, of their twenty thousand men, not more than ten thousand carried arms, yet such a degree of terror did they strike into all the natives, dwelling on this side of Taurus, that those which they visited, and those which they did not visit, the most remote as well as the nearest, submitted to their authority. At length as there were three tribes of them, the Tolistoboians, the Trocmians, and the Tectosagians, they made a division of Asia into three provinces, according to which it was made tributary to each of their states. The coast of the Hellespont was assigned to the Trocmians; the Tolistoboians obtained of the allotment Æolia and Ionia; the Tectosagians received the inland parts of Asia. They levied tribute throughout every part of Asia on this side Mount Taurus; but chose their own residence on the banks of the river Halys; and so great was the terror of their name, their numbers, too, increasing by a rapid population, that at last even the kings of Syria did not refuse to pay them tribute. The first of all the inhabitants of Asia who refused, was Attalus, the father of king Eumenes; and beyond the expectation of all, fortune favoured his bold resolution, and he defeated them in a pitched battle; yet he did not so effectually break their spirits, as to make them give up their pretensions to empire. Their power continued the same until the war between Antiochus and the Romans; and, even then, after Antiochus was expelled the country, they still entertained a hope, that, as they lived remote from the sea, the Roman army would not come so far.

17. As the troops were about to act against this enemy, so terrible to all in that part of the world, the consul, in an assembly, addressed the soldiers for the most part to this effect: “It does not escape me, that, of all the nations inhabiting Asia, the Gauls are pre-eminent for military fame. A fierce nation, after overrunning the face of the earth with its arms, has fixed its abode in the midst of a race of men the gentlest in the world. Their tall persons, their long red hair, their vast shields, and swords of enormous length; their songs also, when they are advancing to action, their yells and dances, and the horrid clashing of their armour, while they brandish their shields in a peculiar manner, practised in their original country; all these circumstances are preconcerted to inspire terror. But let Greeks, and Phrygians, and Carians, to whom these things are unusual and strange, be frightened by such acts: to the Romans, accustomed to Gallic tumults, even these vain efforts to strike terror are known. Once our ancestors fled from them, but it was long ago, when they first met them at the Allia. Ever since that time, for, now, two hundred years, the Romans drive them before them in dismay, and kill them like cattle; there have, indeed, been more triumphs celebrated over the Gauls, than over almost all the rest of the world. It is now well known by experience, that if you sustain their first onset, which they make with fiery eagerness and blind fury, their limbs are unnerved with sweat and fatigue; their arms flag; and, though you should not employ a weapon on them, the sun, dust, and thirst prostrate their enervated bodies and minds when their fury has ceased. We have tried them, not only with our legions against theirs, but in single combat, man to man. Titus Manlius and Marcus Valerius have demonstrated how far Roman valour surpasses Gallic fury. Marcus Manlius, singly, thrust back the Gauls who were mounting the Capitol in a body. Our forefathers had to deal with genuine Gauls, born in their own lands; but they are now degenerate, a mongrel race, and, in reality, what they are named, Gallogræcians; just as is the case of vegetables and cattle, the seeds are not so efficacious in preserving their original constitution, as the properties of the soil and climate under which they are reared, are in changing it. The Macedonians who settled at Alexandria in Egypt, or in Seleucia, or Babylonia, or in any other of their colonies scattered over the world, have sunk into Syrians, Parthians, or Egyptians. Marseilles, owing to its situation in the midst of Gauls, has contracted somewhat of the disposition of its adjoining neighbours. What of the hardy, rugged discipline of Sparta hath remained to the Tarentines? Every thing is produced in higher perfection in its own native soil; whatever is planted in a foreign land, by a gradual change in its nature, degenerates into that by which it is nurtured. Therefore you, victorious, will slay the conquered Phrygians, though laden with Gallic armour, as you slew them in the ranks of Antiochus. I am more apprehensive of our gaining but little honour from the victory, than of the struggle being a severe one. King Attalus often routed and put them to flight. Do you think that brutes only, when taken, retain at first their natural ferocity, and subsequently grow tame, after being long fed by the hands of men; and that nature does not exert the same power in softening the savage disposition of men. Do you believe these to be of the same kind that their fathers and grandfathers were? Exiles from home through scarcity of land, they marched along the craggy coast of Illyricum, then traversed Pæonia and Thrace, in a continual struggle against the fiercest nations, and took possession of these countries. A land which could glut them with plenty of every thing, received them hardened and infuriated by so many evils. By the very great fertility of the soil, the very great mildness of the climate, and the gentle dispositions of the neighbouring nations, all that fierceness with which they came has been quite mollified. You, by Hercules, who are the sons of Mars, ought to guard against the seductions of Asia, and shun them from the very first; so great is the power of those foreign pleasures in extinguishing the vigour of the mind, so strong the contagion from the relaxed discipline and manners of the people about you. One thing has happened fortunately; that though they will not bring against you a degree of strength by any means equal to what they formerly possessed, yet they still retain a character among the Greeks equal to what they had at their first coming; consequently you, when victors, will acquire the same warlike renown, as if you had conquered the Gauls still acting up to their ancient standard of courage.”

18. Having then dismissed the assembly, and having despatched ambassadors to Eposognatus, (who alone of all the petty princes had remained in friendship with Eumenes, and refused to assist Antiochus against the Romans,) he proceeded on his march. He came the first day to the river Alander, and the next to a village called Tyscos. When ambassadors of the Oroandensians had come to that place, seeking amity, two hundred talents[28] were levied on them; and on their requesting that they might bear this announcement home, permission to do so was given. The consul then led the army to Plitendos; then the Roman camp was pitched at Alyatti. The persons sent to Eposognatus returned to him here, and with them ambassadors from that chieftain, who entreated him not to make war on the Tolistoboians, for that Eposognatus himself would go among that people and persuade them to submit. This request of the prince was complied with. The army then began to march through the country called Axylos:[29] which derives its name from the nature of the place; for it not only does not produce timber, but not even brambles, or any species of fire-wood. The inhabitants, instead of wood, use cow dung. While the Romans were encamped at Cuballum, a fort of Gallogræcia, the enemy’s cavalry appeared with great tumult. They not only disordered by their sudden charge the advanced guards of the Romans, but killed several of the men; and when this alarm was spread to the camp, the Roman cavalry, pouring out hastily by all the gates, routed and dispersed the Gauls, and killed many as they fled. The consul, now perceiving that he had reached the enemy’s country, marched henceforth exploring his route and carefully bringing up his rear. When by continued marches he had arrived at the river Sangarius, he set about constructing a bridge, because no where was there a passage by a ford. The Sangarius, running from the mountain of Adoreus, through Phrygia, joins the river Thymbris at the confines of Bithynia. After doubling its quantity of water by this junction, it proceeds in a more copious stream through Bithynia, and empties itself into the Euxine Sea. Yet it is not so remarkable for the size of its current, as for the vast quantity of fish which it supplies to the people in its vicinity. When the bridge was finished, and the army had passed the river, as they were marching along the bank, the Gallic priests of the Great Mother, coming from Pessinus with the symbols of their office, met them; who, in inspired rhymes, foretold that the goddess would grant the Romans a safe passage, success in the war, and the empire over that country. When the consul had said that he embraced the omen, he pitched his camp on that very spot. On the following day he arrived at Gordium. This is not a large town, but a mart more frequented and noted than an inland town generally is. It has three seas nearly at equal distances from it, that at the Hellespont, that at Sinope, and that at the shore of the opposite coast, in which the maritime Cilicians dwell. It is also contiguous to the borders of many and great nations, the commerce of which has been centred by mutual convenience principally in this place. The Romans found the town deserted owing to the flight of the inhabitants, yet at the same time filled with plenty of every thing. While they halted here, ambassadors came from Eposognatus, with information that “he had applied to the petty princes of the Gauls, and had been unable to bring them to reason; that they were removing in crowds from the villages and lands in the open country; and, with their wives and children, carrying and driving whatever could be carried or driven, were going to Mount Olympus, that there they might defend themselves by their arms and the nature of the ground.”

19. Deputies from the Oroandensians afterwards brought more particular intelligence; that “the state of the Tolistoboians had seized Mount Olympus, but that the Tectosagians, taking a different route, were gone to another mountain called Magaba; and that the Trocmians, leaving their wives and children in charge with the Tectosagians, had resolved to carry their armed force to the assistance of the Tolistoboians.” The chieftains of the three states were at that time, Ortiagon, Combolomarus, and Gaulotus; and this was their reason in particular for choosing this mode of warfare, because as they had possession of the highest mountains in that part of the world, and had conveyed thither stores of every kind, sufficient for their consumption during the time, although long, they thought that they would weary out the enemy by the tediousness of the enterprise: “for neither would they dare to climb over places so steep and uneven; and if they should attempt it, they could be prevented and driven down, even by a small band; nor would they, sitting in inactivity at the foot of the frosty mountains, endure cold and hunger.” Although the height of their posts was in itself a strong defence, yet they drew, besides, a trench and other fortifications round the summits which they occupied. The least part of their care was employed in providing a stock of missile weapons; for they trusted that the rocky ground itself would furnish stones in abundance.

20. The consul, as he had foreseen that the fight would not be hand to hand, but at a distance, in the attack of the enemy’s post, had prepared an immense quantity of javelins, light infantry, spears, arrows, balls of lead, and small stones, fit to be thrown with slings. Furnished with this stock of missile weapons, he marched towards Mount Olympus, and encamped within five miles of it. On the next day, as he was advancing with four hundred horse, and Attalus, to examine the nature of the mountain and situation of the camp of the Gauls; a party of the enemy’s cavalry, double in number to his, sallying from the camp, forced him to take to flight. A few of his soldiers were killed in the flight, and several wounded. On the third day, marching to explore the ground at the head of all his cavalry, as none of the enemy advanced beyond their fortifications, he rode round the mountain with safety, and saw that on the south side the hills were composed of earth, and rose to a certain height, with a gentle slope, but that on the north there was nothing but steep and almost perpendicular cliffs; and that there were but three practicable ways, almost all the others being impassable; one at the middle of the mountain, where the ground was earthy, and two others, both very difficult, one on the south-east, and the other on the north-west. After taking a full view of all these places, he pitched his camp that day close to the foot of the mountain. On the day following, after that, offering sacrifice, he had received favourable auspices with the first victims, he proceeds to lead his army, in three divisions, against the enemy. He himself, with the greatest part of the forces, marched up where the mountain afforded the easiest ascent. He ordered his brother, Lucius Manlius, to ascend on the south-east side, as far as the ground allowed him to do so with safety; but if any dangerous and steep precipices should lie in his way, then not to contend with the unfavourable nature of the place, or attempt to conquer insuperable obstacles, but by a slope across the mountain to incline towards him, and join the body under his command; and he directed Caius Helvius, with the third division, to march round leisurely, by the foot of the mountain, and to climb the hill on the north-east. The auxiliary troops of Attalus he distributed equally among the three divisions, ordering the young prince to accompany him. The cavalry and elephants he left in the plain, at the foot of the hills; orders were given to the prefects to watch attentively every thing that should happen, and to be expeditious in bringing succour wherever circumstances should require it.

21. The Gauls, (thoroughly satisfied that the ground on their two flanks was impassable,) in order to secure, by arms, the ascent on the side which was situated towards the south, sent about four thousand soldiers to keep possession of a hill which hung over the road, at the distance of near a mile from their camp; hoping that they might stop the enemies’ progress by this as by a fortress. Which when the Romans saw, they prepared for battle. The light infantry marched a little in advance of the line, supported by draughts from Attalus’s troops, composed of the Cretan archers and slingers, the Trallians and Thracians. The battalions of infantry, as the ground was steep, marched at a slow pace, holding their shields before them, merely to ward off missile weapons, as they did not seem likely to fight in a close engagement. The fight commenced with the missile weapons, at the proper interval, and was at first equal, as the situation aided the Gauls, the variety and abundance of weapons, the Romans. But, as the contest advanced, there was no longer any equality: their shields, long, but too narrow for the breadth of their bodies, and besides being flat, ill protected the Gauls. Nor had they now any other weapons except their swords, which they had no opportunity of using, as the enemy did not come to close action. They used stones, and these not of a proper size, as they had not previously laid them up, but whatever came to the hand of each in his haste and confusion, as persons unaccustomed generally do, aiding the blow neither by skill nor strength. Incautiously exposing themselves, they were transfixed on all sides by arrows, leaden balls, and darts; nor did they know what to do, their minds being paralysed by rage and fear; and they were engaged in a kind of fight for which they were least of all qualified. For, as in a close encounter, where they can receive and give wounds in turn, rage inflames their courage; so when they are wounded at a distance, with light weapons from unknown hands, and have no object on which they can rush in their blind fury, they rush forward at random, like wounded wild beasts, often upon their own party. Their wounds were more conspicuous because they always fight naked, and their bodies are large and white, since they are never stripped except in battle; thus more blood was poured from their large persons, and the cuts appeared the more shocking, while the whiteness of their skins offered a stronger contrast to the black blood. But they were not much moved by open wounds. Sometimes they even cut off the skin, when the wound was more broad than deep, thinking that in this condition they fought with the greater glory. But when the point of an arrow or a ball, sinking deep in the flesh, tormented them, with a wound small in appearance, and the weapon did not come forth although they used every effort to extract it, then they fell into fits of phrensy and shame, at being destroyed by so small a hurt; and dashing themselves on the ground, they lay scattered over the place. Some rushing against the enemy were overwhelmed with darts; and when any of them came near, they were slain by the swords of the light infantry. A soldier of this description carries a shield three feet long, and, in his right hand, javelins, which he throws at a distance. He is begirt with a Spanish sword, and when he must fight in close encounter, having shifted his spears into his left hand, he draws it. There were few of the Gauls now left; and these, seeing themselves overpowered by the light infantry, and the battalions of the legions advancing, fled in confusion to the camp, now full of tumult and dismay, as the women, children, and others unfit to bear arms, were all crowded together there. The hills, thus abandoned by the enemy, were seized by the victorious Romans.

22. At this juncture, Lucius Manlius and Caius Helvius, having marched up as high as the sloping hills allowed them to do, after they came to insuperable steeps, turned towards that side of the mountain which alone had a practicable ascent; and began, as if by concert, to follow the consul’s party at a moderate distance; being driven by necessity to adopt the plan, now, which would have been the best at the beginning. For in such disadvantageous ground reserves have often been of the utmost use; for instance, should the first line happen to be repulsed, the second may both cover their retreat, and, being fresh, succeed to their place in the fight. The consul, as soon as the vanguard of the legions reached the hills taken by the light infantry, ordered the troops to halt and take breath; at the same time he showed them the bodies of the Gauls spread about the hills, asking them, “Since the light troops had fought such a battle, what might be expected from the legions, from a regular army, and from the spirit of the bravest soldiers? They ought certainly to take the camp into which the enemy had been driven in confusion by the light infantry.” He then orders the light infantry to go forward, who, while the army halted, had not spent their time in idleness, but in gathering weapons about the hills, that there might be a sufficient supply of missiles. They now approached the camp. The Gauls, lest their fortifications might not give them sufficient protection, had posted themselves, in arms, on the outside of the rampart. Then being overwhelmed with weapons of every description, since in proportion as they were more numerous and crowded together, the less likely were the weapons to fall between them without effect, they were driven in an instant within their trenches, leaving only strong guards at the entrances of the gates. Against the crowd that fled into the camp a vast quantity of missile weapons was discharged, and the shouts, intermixed with lamentations of the women and children, showed that great numbers were wounded. The first line of the legions hurled their javelins against those who were posted to guard the gate; these, however, were not wounded, but most of them, having their shields pierced through, were entangled and fastened together, nor did they longer withstand the attack.

23. The gates being now open, a flight of the Gauls in every direction from the camp took place before the victors could burst in. They rushed on blindly through passable and impassable places; no craggy cliffs, nor even perpendicular rocks, stopped them; they feared nothing but the enemy. Great numbers, therefore, falling down precipices of vast height, were either maimed or killed. The consul, taking possession of the camp, restrained the soldiers from plunder and booty; he orders every one to pursue with his utmost speed, to press on the enemy, and to increase their panic while they were in dismay. The other party, under Lucius Manlius, now came up. These he did not suffer to enter the camp, but sent them forward in the pursuit, and followed shortly in person, after committing the guard of the prisoners to some military tribunes: for he thought that the war would be finished, if in that consternation the greatest possible number should be slain or taken prisoners. After the consul’s departure, Caius Helvius arrived, with the third division: he was not able to prevent their sacking the camp; and, by a most unjust dispensation, the booty fell into the hands of men who had not had any concern in the action. The cavalry stood for a long time ignorant of the fight, and of the success of their army. At last, they also, as far as they could ascend the hills on horseback, pursuing the Gauls, (who were now dispersed round the foot of the mountain,) either killed or made prisoners of them. The number of the slain could not easily be ascertained because the flight and slaughter were widely extended through all the windings of the mountains; and a great number fell from impassable cliffs into cavities of prodigious depth; others were killed in the woods and thickets. Claudius, who mentions two battles on Mount Olympus, asserts, that forty-thousand fell in them; yet Valerius Antias, who is generally addicted to great exaggeration on the point of numbers, says, not more than ten thousand. The number of prisoners undoubtedly amounted to forty thousand, because the Gauls had dragged along with them a crowd of people of all descriptions and of all ages, like men removing to another country, rather than going out to war. The consul, having burnt the arms of the enemy collected in one heap, then ordered all to bring together the rest of the booty, and either sold that portion which was to be applied to the use of the public, or distributed the remainder among the soldiers, taking care that the shares should be as just as possible. They were all praised in a public assembly, and presented with gifts each according to his merit; Attalus was distinguished above all, with the general approbation of the rest. For not only were the courage and activity of that young prince conspicuous in undergoing dangers and fatigue, but also the modesty of his deportment.

24. The war with the Tectosagians remained still in its original state. The consul, marching against them, arrived, on the third day, at Ancyra, a city remarkable in those parts, from which the enemy were but a little more than ten miles distant. While his camp lay there, a memorable action was performed by a female. Among many other captives, the wife of the Gallic chieftain Ortiagon, a woman of exquisite beauty, was strictly guarded, and a centurion, possessing the lust and avarice usual among military men, commanded this guard. He, first, endeavoured to learn her sentiments; but, finding that she abhorred the thought of voluntary prostitution, he offered violence to her person, which by the decree of fortune was his slave. Afterwards, in order to soothe her indignation at the insult, he gives the lady hope of a return to her friends; and not even that gratuitously, like a lover. He stipulated for a certain weight of gold, but, being unwilling to have any of his countrymen privy to it, he gave her leave to send any one of the prisoners, whom she chose, as a messenger to her friends. He appointed a spot near the river, to which two of this woman’s friends, and not more, were to come with the gold in the night following, to receive her. It happened that among the prisoners under the same guard was a servant of the lady; the centurion, as soon as it grew dark, conveyed this messenger beyond the advanced posts. Her friends came to the place at the appointed time, likewise the centurion with his prisoner. Here, on their producing the gold, which mounted to an Attic talent, for he had stipulated for that sum the lady in her own language ordered them to draw their swords, and kill the centurion, while he was weighing the gold. She herself, bearing wrapped up in her garment the head of the slain centurion, detached from the trunk, reached her husband Ortiagon, who had fled home from Olympus. And before she would embrace him, she threw down the centurion’s head at his feet; and on his asking, with astonishment, whose head it was, and what was the meaning of such a proceeding, so unaccountable in a female, she acknowledged to her husband the injury committed on her person, and the vengeance she had taken for the forcible violation of her chastity. She maintained to the last, as it is said, by the purity and strictness of the rest of her life, the glory of this achievement, so honourable to her sex.

25. Envoys from the Tectosagians met the consul at Ancyra, entreating him not to decamp until he had held a conference with their kings; that any conditions of peace were in their opinion preferable to war. The time fixed was the next day, and the place that which seemed the most central between the camp of the Gauls and Ancyra. The consul came thither at the appointed hour, with a guard of five hundred horse, but seeing none of the Gauls there, returned into his camp: after which the same envoys came again, with an apology, that their kings could not come, since religious feelings deterred them; but that the principal men of the nation would attend, and that the business might be as well transacted by them. To which the consul answered, that he would send Attalus on his part. To this meeting both parties came. When Attalus had brought with him as an escort three hundred horse, the terms of peace were proposed. As there could not be a conclusion to the affair in the absence of the leaders, it was agreed, that the consul and the kings should meet in the same place on the following day. The delay of the Gauls had the following objects: first, to waste time, that they might remove their effects, which they were unwilling to risk, and also their wives and children, to the other side of the river Halys; and, secondly, because they were framing a plot against the consul, who took no precautions against treachery in the conference. They chose for this purpose, out of all their number, one thousand horsemen of approved intrepidity; and their treachery would have taken effect, had not fortune exerted herself in favour of the law of nations, in violation of which their plan was laid. The Roman parties, who went out for forage and wood, were led towards that quarter where the conference was to be held; for the tribunes judged that to be the safest course, as they would have the consul’s escort, and himself, as a guard opposed to the enemy. However, they posted another guard of their own, of six hundred horse, nearer to the camp. The consul, being assured by Attalus that the kings would come, and that the business might be concluded, having set out from his camp with the same attendants as before, when he had advanced about five miles, and was not far from the place appointed, he saw, on a sudden, the Gauls coming on with hostile fury, and with their horses at full gallop. He halted, and ordering his horsemen to make ready their arms, and recall their courage, received the enemy’s first charge with firmness, nor gave way. At length, when their numbers were overpowering him, he began to retreat leisurely, without disturbing the order of the troops, but at last, when there was more danger in delay than protection in keeping their ranks, they all fled in hurry and disorder. Then truly the Gauls pressed hard on them, dispersed, and killed several; and a great part of them would have been cut off, had not the six hundred horse, the guard of the foragers, come up to meet them. These, on hearing, at a distance, the shout of dismay raised by their friends, made ready their weapons and horses, and, being quite fresh, renewed the fight after it was almost over. The fortune of the battle, therefore, was instantly reversed, and dismay recoiled from the conquered on the conquerors. At the first charge the Gauls were routed; at the same time the foragers from the fields ran together towards the spot, and an enemy was on every side of the Gauls in such a manner that they could not have an easy or safe retreat, especially as the Romans pursued on fresh horses, while theirs were fatigued. Few therefore escaped; yet not one was taken; by far the greater part paid their lives as a forfeit for having violated the faith of a conference. The whole army of the Romans, with minds burning with rage, marched up, next day, close to the enemy.

26. The consul, that no particular should escape his knowledge, spent two days in examining the nature of the mountain with his own eyes. On the third day, after taking the auspices, and then offering sacrifice, he formed his troops in four divisions, that he might lead two up the middle of the mountain, and direct the other two, one on each side, against the wings of the Gauls. The main strength of the enemy, the Tectosagians and Trocmians, amounting to fifty thousand men, formed the centre of their line. They dismounted their cavalry, in number ten thousand men, because horsemen could not act among the uneven rocks, and placed them on the right wing. The Cappadocians of Ariarathes, with the auxiliary troops of Morzes, on the left, made up almost four thousand. The consul, having placed his light troops in the van, as he had done before at Mount Olympus, took care that they should have ready at hand the same abundance of weapons of every sort. When they approached the enemy, all circumstances, on both sides, were the same as in the former battle, excepting their spirits; those of the victors being elated by their success, and those of the Gauls depressed; because, though they themselves had not been defeated, yet they considered as their own, the overthrow of people of their own race. The battle, therefore, commencing under similar circumstances, had the same issue. The cloud, as it were, of light weapons that were thrown, overwhelmed the army of the Gauls; and, as none of them dared to charge forward from their ranks, for fear of exposing all parts of their bodies to the blows, so while they stood still, the closer they were together the more wounds they received, as the assailants directed their weapons as if at a mark. The consul now judged, that if he should once show the standards of the legions to them already disordered, they would instantly turn about and fly; receiving, therefore, the light infantry, and the rest of the auxiliaries, between the ranks, he ordered the line to advance.

27. The Gauls, discouraged by the memory of the defeat of the Tolistoboians, and carrying weapons sticking in their flesh, fatigued also by long standing and wounds, were not able to support even the first shout and onset of the Romans. Their flight was directed towards their camp; only a few of them entered the trenches; the greater part, passing by, on the right and left, fled whichever way each man’s giddy haste carried him. The conquerors, following them to the camp, cut off their rear; but then, through greediness for booty, they stopped in the camp, and not one of them continued the pursuit. The Gauls in the wings stood some time longer, because the Romans reached them at a later period. But they did not endure even the first discharge of weapons. The consul, as he could not draw off the men who had got into the camp for plunder, sent forward those, who had been in the wings, to pursue the enemy. They, accordingly, followed them a considerable way; yet, in the pursuit, for there was no fight, they killed not more than eight thousand men: the rest crossed the river Halys. A great part of the Romans lodged that night in the enemy’s camp; the consul led back the rest to his own. Next day, he took a review of the prisoners, and of the booty, the quantity of which was as great as a nation most greedy of rapine could amass, after holding possession, by force of arms, of all the country on this side Mount Taurus, during a space of many years. The Gauls, after this scattered and confused flight, re-assembled in one place, a great part of them being wounded or unarmed, and as all were destitute of every kind of property, they sent deputies to the consul, to supplicate for peace. Manlius ordered them to attend him at Ephesus; and, being in haste to quit those cold regions, in the vicinity of Mount Taurus, as it was now the middle of autumn, he led back his victorious army into winter quarters on the sea-coast.

28. During the time of those transactions in Asia, affairs were tranquil in the other provinces. At Rome, the censors, Titus Quintius Flamininus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, read over the roll of the senate; Publius Scipio Africanus was, a third time, declared prince of the senate, and only four members were struck out, none of whom had held any curule office. In their review of the knights, also, their censorship was very