Brennus the Gaul.
This bust of Brennus, chieftain of the Senones, was originally the figurehead of the French battleship Brennus laid down (i.e. construction began) in 1891. According to Diodorus and Livy, the Senones from the Seine basin (between Paris and Sens to the southeast) were the Gallic tribe that sacked Rome in 390 BC under the leadership of Brennus. The parent tribe in Gaul was still flourishing when Julius Caesar was there in 58-51 BC.
Part 1 of 2
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. (57 / 60 words)
Part Two
Brennus, the Gallic chieftain, weighing out Roman gold.
Brennus, chieftain of Senones, weighs out gold for himself as payment for quitting Rome. The bargain did not please Marcus Furius Camillus, whose men are seen to the right, menacing Brennus with swords. “It is the custom with Romans” Camillus informed him coldly “to ransom their country with iron, and not with gold.” Brennus took his Gallic tribe and settled in Italy on the Adriatic coast. There they remained for the next hundred years, until subjugated to Rome in 283 BC.
The infuriated Gauls then rushed upon them and slew them without mercy; then setting fire to the city, they burned every house to the ground.* Nothing now remained but the Capitol, which was strongly fortified, and which the Gauls next besieged.
The Romans at length gave themselves up for lost; when they were revived by the intelligence that Camillus, the man they had treated so unjustly, was marching to their assistance at the head of the citizens of Ardea and Veii. They were thus enabled to come to terms with Brennus, who consented to quit the city upon the payment of a thousand pounds weight in gold. But Camillus would not permit of this agreement, exclaiming, “It is the custom with Romans to ransom their country with iron, and not with gold.” He then compelled Brennus, with his army, to leave Rome.
* Brennus is credited with the famous saying Vae victis!, ‘woe to the vanquished!’, meaning that those who have been defeated should not expect any mercy.
Précis
The bearded Roman’s blow sparked a riot of slaughter and looting by the Gauls, until news came that Furius Camillus, the exiled general, was approaching with a relief force. Brennus promised to leave for a heavy ransom, but Camillus would not hear of it. He dealt not in gold but iron, he said, and soon afterwards drove the Gauls out. (60 / 60 words)
