Roman Conquest of Italy (505-264 BC): Gallic Invasion of Rome (390/387 BC)

In the eighth and seventh centuries BC Celtic-speaking peoples advanced from central Europe across France and into Spain. During the sixth and fifth centuries BC the Celts, whom the Romans called Gauls, crossed the Alps into Northern Italy where they clashed with the Ligurians, Etruscans and Veneti. In the fourth century BC the Gallic invasions from the north continued and a tribe called the Insubres settled in the western part of the Po Valley and founded Mediolanum (=Milan).

In 390 BC a horde of Senones (1) led by Brennus crossed the Apennines and reached the gates of the Etruscan city of Clusium. The Etruscans are said to have appealed to Rome for help, who certainly sent envoys, perhaps to negotiate on behalf of the Etruscans but more likely to warn the Gauls against making further inroads. The response anyway was predictable, the army of thirty thousand Gauls turned away from Clusium and swept down to the centre of Italy.

Brennus crossed the Tiber and on 18 July the Romans met the Gauls in the valley of the Allia River, a tributary of the Tiber north of Fidenae. The lightly-armed Celtic line surged forwards at great speed and the slower-moving Roman (Greek-like) phalanx was pushed back to the Tiber and overwhelmed in the Romans’ first and never to be forgotten major disaster. Survivors on the left flank crossed the river to Veii, while those on the right flank fled back to Rome.

Rome at this time was almost undefended. Its circuit wall was dilapidated and anyway too long to be held by the depleted forces remaining in the city. As the Gauls approached, the citizens retreated to Capitoline Hill, where they improvised a breastwork at the top of the cliffs. They held out until hunger compelled them to seek terms. Brennus was content to be bought off with gold. The Gauls sacked the city before they departed, but the damage they did has left no archaeological trace and was probably less great than tradition claims.

Other stories were later told about the Gallic invasion: of how the Gauls found senators too old to fight, sitting on their ivory seats awaiting their fate with dignity; of how ⁰¹Pontius Cominus swam the Tiber and climbed the Capitoline to ask the Senate to recall ⁰²Furius Camillus (exiled for embezzlement); of how the Gauls followed the marks of Cominus and would have taken the Capitol by surprise had not the sacred geese of Juno aroused ⁰²Manlius Capitolinus; and of how Brennus was bought off with one hundred pounds of gold plus the weight of his sword which he had thrown on the scales with the cry of Vae Victis! (‘Woe to the conquered!’) in response to Roman complaints that they were fixed.