The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End / with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books

by Livy

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.