Diodorus, that they left nothing standing but a few houses on the Palatine. The accounts of the rebuilding of the city, after the departure of the Gauls, likewise imply that the conflagration had extended over the whole city. (106)

But although the Gauls have pillaged and ruined the city, the Capitol still holds out, defended by its small garrison.(107) An attempt to take it by storm is repulsed; and the Gauls prepare to reduce it by siege: being however destitute of provisions, they send a portion of their army to collect supplies in the neighbouring country. A party of these foragers who went towards Ardea, is related to have been cut off by the Ardeates, under the command of Camillus: the Romans in Veii likewise meet with like success against a body of plunderers from Etruria. (108)

The Gauls now desist from any active attacks upon the Capitol, and only seek to prevent all ingress or egress. One day however C. Fabius Dorso descends from the Capitol, passes through the enemy's lines, crosses the valley of the forum, and ascends the adjoining Quirinal hill, in order to perform a hereditary sacrifice of his family, which was due at that spot on that day; and having punctually fulfilled this sacred obligation, he returned unhurt into the Capitol. Such is the account given by Livy and Valerius Maximus. (109) This incident is however related with some divergence by other writers; Dio Cassius and Florus represent it as a public sacrifice, performed by one of the pontifices, whom the former calls Kæso Fabius, the latter Fabius simply.(110) Appian again, on the authority of Cassius Hemina,

inter incendia ac ruinas captæ urbis nihil superesse præter armatos hostes viderent; ib. 43. Compare the speech of Camillus, c. 53. Plut. Cam. 22. Florus says: Faces tectis injiciunt, et totam urbem igne, ferro, manibus exæquant; i. 13.

(106) Livy, v. 55. Compare Tac. Ann. xv. 43.

(107) Florus i. 13, says that it scarcely amounted to 1000 men.

(108) Livy, v. 43-5. The exploit of Camillus at Ardea is likewise recounted by Plut. Cam. 23: Zon. vii. 23. Diodorus mentions the defeat of the Etruscans by the Romans at Veii, and the recovery of the plunder : but he says nothing of the exploit of Camillus.

(109) Livy, v. 46, 52; Val. Max. i. 1, § 11.
(110) Dio Cass. fragm. xxv. 5; Florus, i. 13.

states that it was a public sacrifice performed in the temple of Vesta, by a priest named Dorso.(111)

We now hear that the Romans in Veii, under the guidance of Cædicius, wish that Camillus should be appointed dictator. Livy says that they are unwilling to take this step without the consent of the Senate.(112) Plutarch and Dio Cassius represent them as sending a deputation to Camillus, and receiving from him an injunction to this effect. (113) Dionysius however describes Cædicius and the Romans in Veii appointing Camillus dictator, of their own authority, and without communication with the Senate.(114) According to Livy and Plutarch, the process is more circuitous. Pontius Cominius, having provided himself with corks, swims the Tiber; the Sublician bridge now being guarded by the Gauls ;(115) mounts into the Capitol by the Porta Carmentalis; and delivers his message from the Romans in Veii. Plutarch says that the Senate appointed Camillus dictator: according to Livy, they decreed that when Camillus had been recalled from exile by the comitia curiata, he should be appointed dictator by the people. This course was taken by the Romans in Veii, and Camillus was constituted dictator.(116) Diodorus mentions the visit of Pontius Cominius to the Capitol,

(111) Appian, Hist. Rom. iv. 6. This fragment is omitted by Krause, p. 157-66. Cassius Hemina wrote about the Third Punic War, 146 B.C., and was therefore a century older than Livy. The incident is alluded to by Minucius, Oct. 6.

(112) v. 46. Adeo (he says) regebat omnia pudor, discriminaque rerum prope perditis rebus servabant.

(113) Plut. Cam. 24; Dio Cass. xxv. 7.

(114) Dion. Hal. xiii. 7-8.

(115) It may be remarked that the narrative is consistent in this point. When Albinius and the flamen and Vestal virgins were escaping over the Sublician bridge, the Gauls had not yet entered the city. If however (with Diodorus) we suppose the battle to have been fought on the right bank of the Tiber, the Gauls would naturally have been in possession of the bridge on the day of the battle.

(116) Livy, v. 46; Plut. Cam. 24, 25. Plutarch is followed by Zon. vii. 23; Claudius Quadrigarius ap. Gell. xvii. 2, § 24. Plutarch, c. 26, says that Camillus found 20,000 men in arms, and that he collected other forces from the allies. According to Appian, H. R. iv. 5, Cædicius received instructions from the Senate in the Capitol for the appointment of Camillus as dictator.

but describes it as intended to communicate to the Romans in the Capitol the prospect of relief from their countrymen in Veii.(17) Frontinus, on the other hand, represents Cominius as sent by the Romans in the Capitol to ask assistance from Camillus, as going to Veii and returning to the Capitol. (118)

In the meantime, the Capitol had been in imminent danger of a surprise for the footsteps of Cominius or of some other messenger from Veii had been observed by the Gauls on the side of the rock, or they had perceived the easiest ascent; and they accordingly planned a night-attack, which was nearly successful. A Gaul was about to scale the rampart, when the sacred geese of Juno, which had been spared by the ill-fed garrison, disturbed by the unwonted sounds, gave the alarm by their screams, and the flapping of their wings; M. Manlius, who had been consul two years before, rushed to the place and threw down the leading assailant: others came to his aid, and the Capitol was saved. Manlius was rewarded by the voluntary gift of half a pound of flour and a quarter of a pint of wine from each of the garrison. According to Livy, Q. Sulpicius, the consular tribune, wished to put all the men on guard to death; but, on the remonstrance of his soldiers, was satisfied with throwing one down the rock. Dionysius says that the Senate sentenced them all to death, but that the people, more merciful, were contented with the punishment of one.(119)

(117) Diod. xiv. 117; Dio Cassius, fragm. xxv. 8, nearly agrees with Diodorus. He says that Camillus sent the messenger to inform the garrison in the Capitol of his intention to attack the Gauls.

(118) Strat. iii. 13, § 1.

(119) Livy, v. 47; Plut. Cam. 27; Dion. Hal. xiii. 9-12; Dio Cass. xxv. 8; Zon. vii. 23; Diod. xiv. 117; Plut. de Fort. Rom. 12. Dionysius knows nothing of the expedition of Cominius, and therefore describes the footsteps on the Capitol as those of a certain young man (véos Tis). Servius, En. viii. 652, gives the following account: Postea paulatim ingressi [Galli] cuncta vastarunt octo integris mensibus, adeo ut quæ incendere non poterant, militari manu diruerent, solo remanente Capitolio: ad quod cum utensilibus reliqui confugerant cives, qui tamen a Gallis obsidebantur, etiam id penetrare cupientibus: quos alii per dumeta et saxa aspera, alii per cuniculos dicunt conatos ascendere. Tunc Manlius custos Capitolii Gallos detrusit ex arce, clangore anseris excitatus, quem privatus quidam dono Junoni dederat.' The warning of the goose is mentioned by Veget.

Two sacred legends commemorated the privations of the garrison in the Capitol. The altar of Jupiter Pistor was said to have been so named because the Romans, having received a warning from Jupiter to give to the enemy that which they were least willing to part with, pelted their assailants with loaves of bread. This appearance of plenty deceived the Gauls, who, despairing of success, raised the siege.(120) Livy, Florus, and Frontinus indeed mention this incident as having actually occurred.(121) Another legend declared that the altar of Jupiter Soter on the Capitol was so named, because, when the siege of the Capitol was raised, the garrison burnt upon it the pieces of leather and old soles of shoes, which they had moistened, and used for assuaging their hunger.(122)

§ 82 The Gauls after a time suffered from want of food, and from pestilence. Numbers of them died, and their bodies were burnt in heaps: whence the place in Rome called Busta Gallica received its name. (123) A truce was afterwards made; but no succours came from without, and the garrison were now compelled by famine to capitulate. Hints were thrown out by the

de Re Mil. iv. 26. The defence of the Capitol by Manlius was referred to when he was accused of aiming at supreme power, and was thrown in prison by the dictator; Livy, vi. 17. The people were assembled for his trial in the Peteline grove, in order that they might not be within sight of the Capitol; ib. 20. Manlius saved the Capitol; Appian, H. R. ii. 9. The attack of the Capitol by a mine, alluded to in the above-cited passage of Servius, is mentioned by Cicero pro Cacinâ, 30; Philipp. iii. 8. It is unknown to the historians. Cicero speaks of the choice of a precipitous citadel by Romulus : ut ita munita arx circumjectu arduo et quasi circumciso saxo niteretur, ut etiam in illâ tempestate horribili Gallici adventus incolumis atque intacta permanserit;' De Rep. ii. 6.

(120) Ovid. Fast. vi. 343-88.

(121) In quibus [colloquiis] quum identidem Galli famem objicerent, dicitur avertendæ ejus opinionis causâ multis locis panis de Capitolio jactatus esse in hostium stationes; Livy, v. 48. [Manlius], ut spem hostibus demeret, quamquam in summâ fame, tamen ad speciem fiduciæ, panes ab arce jaculatus est; Florus, i. 12; Frontinus, iii. 15, § 1.

(122) In tantam autem cibi penuriam redacti erant in obsidione, ut coriis madefactis et postea frictis vescerentur, cujus rei argumentum est, quod hodieque ara in Capitolio est Jovis Soteris, in quâ, liberati obsidione, coria et sola vetera concremaverunt; Serv. Æn. viii. 652.

(123) Livy, v. 48. Varro says that name was given because the bones of the Gauls were collected together in this place, after the city was recovered; De L. L. v. § 157. See Becker, vol. i. p. 485.

Gauls that they were willing to accept a price for leaving the city. The Senate authorized the consular tribunes to negotiate, and Q. Sulpicius agreed with Brennus, the king of the Gauls, that, for 1000 pounds of gold, the siege would be raised. When Sulpicius complained that false weights had been used, Brennus threw his sword into the scale, adding the famous words, Væ victis!(124)

At this critical moment, Camillus appears on the stage. He orders the gold to be removed; and declares to his own soldiers that they must recover their country, not with gold, but with steel. When the Gauls complain of a breach of faith, Camillus says that he is dictator, and that the inferior magistrate could not make a valid treaty without his consent: he therefore tells them to prepare for battle. The conflict takes place on the site of the ruined town; and the Gauls are routed; a second battle is fought on the Gabine road, near the eighth milestone, and the

(124) Livy, v. 48; Plut. Cam. 28; Zon. vii. 23; Florus, i. 13; Dion. Hal. xiii. 13. Dionysius makes the gold amount to twenty-five talents. He says that the false weights, the sword with the sheath and girdle, made the quantity brought by the Romans deficient by one-third. They therefore took time for collecting a large quantity, and they were still ignorant of what had been done by Cædicius and Camillus. This version differs from that of Livy, who represents Camillus as intervening while the gold is weighed. Livy also supposes that the election of Camillus is made in concert with the Senate in the Capitol. Festus, in Væ victis, p. 372, tells the story in a similar manner, but states that Appius Claudius, and not Sulpicius, is the Roman to whom the words are addressed. It is added that Brennus, being afterwards pursued by Camillus, fell into an ambush, and complained of a breach of the treaty, when Camillus retorted upon him with the words, Va victis. This is a contrivance for cancelling the humiliation to the Romans. The annotator to the French translation of Pliny, solicitous about the good faith of his ancestors, in the fourth century before Christ, suggests that the weights were Gallic weights, unknown to the Romans. Les faux poids, apportés par les Gaulois, étaient sans doute des poids en usage de l'autre côté des Alpes, et un peu plus forts que ceux des Romains;' tom. xix. p. 122 (ed. 1833).

L. Lentulus, one of the legates with the army in the Caudine Pass, in 321 B.C., is represented by Livy as saying that he had often heard his father mention that, when the Romans were enclosed in the Capitol, he alone resisted the payment of a ransom to the Gauls, and advised an attempt to break through the enemy, as being possible though dangerous, inasmuch as they had made no lines of circumvallation; ix. 4. If L. Lentulus, the father, was twenty-five years old in 390 B.C., and lived to the age of seventy, he would have been born in 415 B.C., and would have died in 335 B.C. This is quite consistent with Livy's account.