Introduction
After Marcus Furius Camillus successfully besieged the Etruscan cities of Veii in 396 BC and Falerii a year later, he returned to Rome in grand style, expecting popular adoration. But he overdid the spectacle, and rivals used the grumbling to contrive his banishment for corruption. He settled in Ardea on the coast, and he was still there in 390 BC when he learnt that Rome was under imminent threat.
SOON after the exile of Camillus, the Gauls, under the command of their king, Brennus,* advanced against Rome; and, defeating the army sent to intercept their progress,* reached the very gates of the city, which they found open, and the walls defenceless. This they concluded was а stratagem to trepan* them: however, they entered and advanced to the Forum, where they beheld the ancient senators sitting unmoved and undaunted, and observing the most profound silence.
The venerable and majestic gravity of these noble men impressed upon the barbarians the idea that they were the tutelar deities of the place. One of them, more bold than his companions, ventured to stroke the beard of Papirius,* one of the number: this the Roman resented by striking the man to the ground.
* Brennus was a chieftain of the Senones, a Gallic tribe from the area around modern-day Sens and the River Seine. Rome would not fall to an invader for another eight centuries, when Alaric the Goth brought his army through the gates in 410.
* At the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC.
* A now very rare word from Old English trepan, meaning ‘trap’.
* Plutarch (on whose account this passage is largely based) identified him as Papirius Marcus. The Papirius family was a venerable name in the politics of the Roman Republic throughout its history (509-27 BC); several of them served as consular tribunes around the time of Brennus’s invasion.
Précis
In 390 BC, Gallic chieftain Brennus, came up against Rome, and much to his own astonishment penetrated as far as the Forum itself. There his men found the leading men of Rome sitting so like graven statues that a Gaulish warrior tested one man’s beard. At this, the Roman ‘statue’ suddenly towered up, and struck the Gaul down. (58 / 60 words)
In 390 BC, Gallic chieftain Brennus, came up against Rome, and much to his own astonishment penetrated as far as the Forum itself. There his men found the leading men of Rome sitting so like graven statues that a Gaulish warrior tested one man’s beard. At this, the Roman ‘statue’ suddenly towered up, and struck the Gaul down.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, if, or, ought, since, until, whereas, who.
Word Games
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