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BRENNUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 496 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRENNUS , the name, or perhaps the See also:

official See also:title, of two chiefs of the See also:Celtic Gauls. (1) The first Brennus crossed the See also:Apennines in 391 B.C., ravaged See also:Etruria, and annihilated a See also:Roman See also:army of about 40,000 men on the See also:Allia some 12 M. from See also:Clusium (See also:July 16, 390). See also:Rome thus See also:lay at his See also:mercy, but he wasted See also:time, and the See also:Romans were able to occupy and See also:provision the Capitol (though they had not sufficient forces to defend their walls) and to send their See also:women and See also:children to See also:Veii. When on the third See also:day the Gauls took See also:possession, they found the See also:city occupied only by those aged See also:patricians who had held high See also:office in the See also:state. For a while the Gauls withheld their hands out of See also:awe and reverence, but the ruder passions soon prevailed. The city was sacked and burnt; but the Capitol itself withstood a See also:siege of more than six months, saved from surprise on one occasion only by the wakefulness of the sacred geese and the courage of See also:Marcus See also:Manlius. At last the Gauls consented to accept a See also:ransom of a thousand pounds of See also:gold. As it was being weighed out, the Roman See also:tribune complained of some unfairness. Brennus at once threw his heavy See also:sword into the See also:scale; and when asked the meaning of the See also:act, replied that it meant Vae victis (" woe to the conquered "). The Gauls returned See also:home with their See also:plunder, leaving Rome in a See also:condition from which she took See also:long to recover. A later See also:legend, probably an invention, represents M. Furius See also:Camillus as suddenly appearing with an avenging army at the moment when the gold was being weighed, and defeating Brennus and all his See also:host.

See See also:

Livy v. 33-49; See also:Plutarch, Camillus, 17, 22, 28; See also:Polybius i. 6, ii. 18; See also:Dion. Halic. xiii. 7. (2) The second Brennus is said to have been one of the leaders of an inroad made by the Gauls from the See also:east of the Adriatic into See also:Thrace and See also:Macedonia (280), when they defeated and slew See also:Ptolemy Ceraunus, then See also:king of Macedonia. Whether Brennus took See also:part in this first invasion or not is uncertain; but its success led him to urge his countrymen to a second expedition, when he marched with a large army through Macedonia and See also:Thessaly until he reached See also:Thermopylae. To this point the See also:united forces of the See also:northern Greeks—Athenians, Phocians, Boeotians and Aetolians—had fallen back; and here the Greeks a second time held their See also:foreign invaders in check for many days, and a second time had their See also:rear turned, owing to the treachery of some of the natives, by the same path which had been discovered to the Persians two See also:hundred years before. Brennus and his Gauls marched on to See also:Delphi, of whose sacred treasures they had heard much. But the little force which the Delphians and their neighbours had collected—about 4000 men—favoured by the strength of their position, made a successful See also:defence. They railed down rocks upon their enemies as they crowded into the See also:defile, and showered missiles on them from above.

A See also:

thunder-See also:storm, with See also:hail and intense See also:cold, increased their confusion, and on Brennus himself being wounded they took to See also:flight, pursued by the Greeks all the way back to Thermopylae. Brennus killed himself, " unable to endure the See also:pain of his wounds," says See also:Justin; more probably determined not to return home defeated. See Justin See also:xxiv. 6; Diod. Sic. xxii. 11; See also:Pausanias x. 19-23; L. Contzen, See also:Die Wanderungen der Kelten (See also:Leipzig, 1861).

End of Article: BRENNUS

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