The Gauls take Rome
Having routed the Romans at the Allia, the Gauls of Brennus burn the city; only the Capitol holds out. Rome will remember it for centuries.
The Gallic tribe of the Senones under Brennus comes down from the Po valley and at the little river Allia, some twenty kilometres from Rome, puts the Roman army to flight. The city is left undefended: the Gauls enter, plunder and burn; only the Capitol holds out, where a garrison has shut itself in. By tradition a night assault was foiled by the geese of Juno, whose cackling woke the guard. After seven months the Gauls leave, having taken a ransom in gold; to the Romans’ complaint about false weights Brennus throws his sword onto the scales with the words "woe to the vanquished". Roman tradition puts the year, by its own reckoning, at 390 BCE, the Greek historians at 387; both datings are in use. After the fire Rome is enclosed by a stone wall, called Servian, and the "Gallic terror" stays in Roman memory down to Caesar.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Livy, From the Founding of the City, book V — the Allia, the geese of the Capitol and "woe to the vanquished"
Scholarship
- history of the early Roman Republic — the two datings, 390 and 387 BCE
Basis: documents and evidence.