tented with blockading the city as before, but began a mine which was to open into the citadel; and when this was ready for springing, he sent for all citizens who chose to come from Rome and share in the plunder.

As the Romans stood in the mine, so runs the Legend, the King of Veii was offering a sacrifice to Juno in the citadel; and they heard the soothsayer declare that whoever completed that sacrifice should prevail. Then Camillus gave the sign, and the Veientines were astounded to see armed Romans rise from the floor beneath their feet. So they and their king were slain, and the Romans completed the sacrifice. And Camillus sent a band of young men dressed in white, with hands clean from blood, to carry the statue of the great goddess Juno to Rome. But they, not daring to touch her, asked whether she were willing to go; and then (it is said) she nodded assent, and the statue was placed in a new temple dedicated to her upon the Aventine.

Thus fell Veii, like Troy, in the tenth year of the war, and the people obtained a great booty. And Camillus entered Rome and descended the Sacred Way, and went up to the Capitol in a car drawn by four white horses, like the chariot of the sun. Never had general so triumphed before, and old men feared that the vengeance of the gods might come upon his pride.

§ 8. Veii had fallen, and her few allies were not left unpunished. First, the Romans attacked and utterly destroyed Capena; then Camillus, who was now a Military Tribune, went against Falerii, the chief city of the Falisci," which also fell an easy prey to the Roman arms. The story goes that when he appeared before this city a certain schoolmaster, who taught the sons of all the chief men, brought them out by stealth and offered to put them into the hands of the Romans. But Camillus, scorning the baseness of the man, ordered that his hands should be tied behind him, and that the boys should flog him back again into the town; "for Romans," said he, "war not with boys, but with men." Then the Faliscans, won by his noble conduct, willingly surrendered their city (B.c. 394).

8 These Faliscans, though in Etruria, were not Etruscans. Virgil calls them Equi Falisci (Aen. vii. 695). Probably they were of the Opican race, which inhabited the country before the incoming of the Etruscans.

Soon after Sutrium and Nepeté also surrendered, and as Caré was an ancient ally of Rome, her power was paramount in all the district south of the Ciminian forest. Nor was this all. Three years later they came in collision with the powerful city of Volsinii (Bolsena), north of the Ciminian range, and won a battle. A peace of twenty years was then concluded. Doubtless the same reasons had prevented the northern Etruscans from aiding their southern compatriots, and now hastened this peace. The Gauls ere this had crossed the Apennines.

§ 9. The conquest of Veii very nearly proved the ruin of Rome. It was a large and beautiful city, well and regularly built, lying on a plain, with a citadel of great natural strength overhanging the town. All the plain country round, up to the hills of the Ciminian forest, was now subject to Rome. The Veientines themselves, according to the barbarous practice of ancient times, had all been put to the sword or sold into slavery. There stood the goodly city empty, inviting people to come and dwell in her.

On the other hand, Rome with her seven hills presented a series of ascents and descents; in the ancient city there was hardly a level street. The streets themselves were much less regular and handsome than those of Veii, and the climate was even then bad, as has been said above.h

It is not wonderful then that men should turn their thoughts towards Veii, especially those poor Plebeians who had no lands at Rome. Some called for an agrarian law, to divide the lands of Veii among the people; but T. Sicinius and some of his brother Tribunes proposed that half the people should go and settle in Veii, so that she should form another state equal to Rome. At first this proposal was stopped by the veto of two Tribunes, who opposed their colleagues; but they gave way, and it was brought before the People. In this extremity the Patricians put forth all their strength and used all their influence. They were successful. Eleven Tribes out of twenty-one voted against the bill, and thus the Tribunes were defeated even in their own Assembly.

Happy for Rome that her people were so moderate and reasonable. Separation such as was proposed might have conSee Chapt. vi. §§ 5 and 6.

demned both Rome and Veii to become obscure Latin towns, like Tusculum or Prænesté, and the sovereignty of Italy might have fallen to the Samnites or to Pyrrhus of Epirus. But Providence had determined that Rome was to be the mistress of the world, and she remained unbroken by the will of her own people.

Satisfied with this victory, the patrician party consented to an agrarian law on a large scale. The Veientine lands were distributed, and seven jugera were allotted to every householder, with an additional allowance for his children.

§ 10. Meantime the great Camillus had lost favour with his countrymen. His patrician pride all along diminished the popularity which as a conqueror he could not fail to win. He lost favour still more when he called upon every man to refund a tenth of the spoil they had taken at Veii; for in the moment of victory (he said) he had vowed to offer this tenth to Apollo; but the plunder was taken before there had been time to set apart the portion of the god. Poor men ill brook to part with what they think their own; and in this case the whole of the ill-will fell upon the general. "His vow," they said, "was a mere pretence to rob the Plebeians of their hardwon spoil."

Still worse than this, it was not long before men came forward and accused Camillus of taking much of the booty for his own share, which ought to have been fairly divided among all. Especially, it was said, he had appropriated the great bronze gates, which in those days, when all coin was made of bronze, were exceedingly valuable. The general was impeached for corrupt practices by L. Appuleius, Tribune of the Plebs (391 B.C.). His Clients and Tribesmen offered to pay the fine, which probably would have been imposed upon him, but said they could not acquit him. He therefore left the city, and as he left it he tur ed about and prayed that his country might soon have reason to feel his want and call him back again. Ardea, a city of the Latins, was his place of refuge.

§ 11. There can be little doubt that the great Camillus really took these gates. But how far he was guilty of an illegal act we cannot determine. He might think that he was entitled to them, for it was acknowledged that a general had a

VOL. I.

M

right to set apart a portion for himself; and we may well believe that his chief fault was, that in his pride he arrogated to himself more than was generally thought right. All would wish to believe that so great a man was not to be blamed for greed and baseness.

His parting prayer was heard: for "the Gaul was at the gates," and the next year saw Rome in ashes.

CHAPTER XIV,

THE GAULS, (390 B.C.)

§ 1. Introductory. § 2. Who the Gauls were. § 3. Migrations of Celtic nations: occupation of Northern Italy by Gauls. § 4. Who those Gauls were that burnt Rome. § 5. Legend of quarrel with Gauls, and battle of Alia. § 6. Patricians defend Capitol: old Senators in Forum. § 7. Gauls enter Rome: slaughter of Senators: Gauls repulsed from Capitol. § 8. Legends of C. Fabius Dorso and M. Manlius Capitolinus. § 9. Of delivery by Camillus. § 10. Falsehood of last Legend. § 11. Later inroads of Gauls, § 12. Legends of T. Manlius Torquatus and M. Valerius Corvus.

§ 1. THE course of Roman History, hitherto disturbed only by petty border wars, now suffers a great convulsion. Over her neighbours on the east and north the Republic was in the ascendant; on the west, the frail oligarchies of Etruria had sunk before Camillus and his hardy soldiers; when, by an untoward union of events, Rome saw her best general depart from her walls, and heard that a host of barbarians was wasting the fair land of Italy. The Gauls burst upon Latium and the adjoining lands with the suddenness of a thunderstorm; and as the storm, with all its fury and destructiveness, yet clears the loaded air and restores a balance between the disturbed powers of nature, so it was with this Gallic hurricane. It swept over the face of Italy, crushing and destroying. The Etruscans were weakened by it; and if Rome herself was laid prostrate for a season, the Latins also suffered greatly, the Volscians were humbled, and the Equians so shattered that they never recovered from the blow.

§ 2. Before telling the tale of the destruction of Rome by the Gauls, it will be well to ask: Who were these Gauls?

They were a tribe of that large race of mankind who are known under the name of Celts, and who at the time in question peopled nearly the whole of Western Europe, from the heart of Germany to the Ocean. The northern and central parts of the continent were already in the hands of various nations, called