Livy
Translated by J. H. Freese, 1893
This famous story from Livy’s history of Rome reveals how the Roman Capitol was once saved from ruin by the cackling of geese. In the fourth century BC, the Romans and Gauls were in conflict with one another. While the Romans laid siege to the nearby city of Veii, the Gauls overran much of Rome before attempting to conquer its Capitoline Hill. A number of geese, sacred to the goddess Juno, were kept here. When the Gauls began to scale the hill in the middle of the night, the birds began to squawk, alerting the Romans to the approaching danger. Could one of the Romans’ bravest men, Marcus Furius Camillus, ‘the dictator’, having returned from exile, now vanquish the Gauls? The Roman people later founded a temple to Juno on the Capitol to honour her and her geese.
It now seemed high time that their country should be recovered and rescued from the hands of the enemy. But a head was wanting to this strong body. The very place put them in mind of Camillus, and a considerable part of the soldiers were men who had fought successfully under his guidance and auspices. Caedicius declared that he would not give occasion for any one, whether god or man, to terminate his command; but, mindful of his own rank, he would rather himself call for the appointment of a general. With universal consent it was resolved that Camillus should be sent for from Ardea, but that first the senate at Rome should be consulted: so far did a sense of propriety regulate every proceeding, and so carefully did they observe proper distinctions in their almost desperate circumstances. Someone had to pass at great risk through the enemy’s guards. For this purpose a spirited youth, Pontius Cominius, offered his services, and supporting himself on cork was carried down the Tiber to the city. Then, where the distance from the bank was shortest, he made his way into the Capitol over a portion of the rock that rose abruptly and therefore was neglected by the enemy’s guard; and being conducted to the magistrates he delivers the instructions received from the army. Then having received a decree of the senate, that Camillus, recalled from exile by the comitia curiata, should be forthwith appointed dictator by order of the people, and that the soldiers should have the general whom they wished, the messenger passed out the same way and proceeded to Veii. Then deputies were sent to Camillus at Ardea, and conducted him to Veii: or else the law was passed by the curias, and he was nominated dictator in his absence; for I am more inclined to believe that he did not set out from Ardea until he found that the law was passed; because he could neither change the country of his residence without an order from the people, nor hold the auspices in the army until he was nominated dictator.
Meanwhile, whilst these things were going on at Veii, the citadel and Capitol of Rome were in great danger. For the Gauls had either perceived the track of a human foot where the messenger from Veii had passed, or had of themselves remarked the rock with its easy ascent at the temple of Carmentis. So on a starlight night, after they had first sent forward an unarmed man to make trial of the way, they attempted the ascent. Handing over their arms whenever any difficult passage occurred, alternately supported by and supporting each other and drawing each other up according as the ground required, they reached the summit in such silence that they not only escaped the notice of the sentinels, but of the dogs also, an animal extremely vigilant with respect to noises by night. They did not escape the notice of the geese. These, as being sacred to Juno, were spared, though there was the greatest scarcity of food. This circumstance was the cause of their preservation. For Marcus Manlius, who three years before had been consul, a man of great military distinction, being aroused from sleep by their cackling and the clapping of their wings, snatched up his arms, and at the same time calling the others to do the same, proceeds to the spot. Whilst the others were thrown into confusion, he struck with the boss of his shield a Gaul who had already got footing on the summit, and tumbled him down; and since the fall of this man as he tumbled threw down those who were next, Manlius slew others, who in their consternation had thrown away their arms, and were grasping tight the rocks to which they clung. And now the others also having assembled beat down the enemy with javelins and stones, and the whole line of men fell and were hurled down headlong with a crash. The alarm then subsiding, the remainder of the night was given up to repose, as far as could be done considering the disturbed state of their minds, since the danger, even though past, still kept them in a state of anxiety.
Day having appeared, the soldiers were summoned by sound of trumpet to attend the tribunes in assembly, as recompense was due both to merit and to demerit. Manlius was first of all commended for his bravery and presented with gifts, not only by the military tribunes, but by the soldiers with general consent; for they all carried to his house, which was in the citadel, a contribution of half a pound of meal and a gill of wine. This is a matter trifling to relate, but the prevailing scarcity had rendered it a strong proof of esteem, when each man, depriving himself of his own food, contributed in honour of one man a portion subtracted from his own personal requirements. Then the sentinels of the place where the enemy had climbed up unobserved were summoned; and Quintus Sulpicius declared openly that he would punish all according to the usage of military discipline; but being deterred by the unanimous voice of the soldiers, who threw the blame on one sentinel, he spared the rest. The man who was manifestly guilty of the crime he threw down from the rock with general approbation. From this time forth the guards on both sides became more vigilant; on the part of the Gauls because a rumour had spread that messengers passed between Veii and Rome, and on that of the Romans from the recollection of the peril of that night.
But beyond all evils of siege and war, famine distressed both armies; pestilence moreover oppressed the Gauls, since they were encamped in a place lying between the hills that was heated by the burning of the houses and full of exhalations, and that sent up clouds not only of dust but also of ashes whenever the wind rose to any degree; and as that race, accustomed to moisture and cold, is most intolerant of these annoyances, and suffered severely from the heat and suffocation, disease spread as if among cattle, and they died. And now becoming weary of burying separately, they heaped up the bodies promiscuously and burned them. A truce was now made with the Romans, and conferences were held with the permission of the commanders. At these the Gauls frequently alluded to the famine, and made the urgency of that a reason for summoning them to surrender. It is said that for the purpose of removing that opinion bread was thrown in many places from the Capitol to the advanced posts of the enemy. But the famine could neither be dissembled nor endured any longer. Accordingly whilst the dictator was engaged in person in holding a levy at Ardea, in ordering his master of the horse, Lucius Valerius, to bring the troops from Veii, and in raising forces and equipping them, so that he might attack the enemy on equal terms, in the mean time the army of the Capitol was wearied out with keeping guard and with watches. They had surmounted all calamities that man could cause, but famine alone nature would not suffer to be overcome. So after looking forward from day to day to see whether there were any signs of succour coming from the dictator, when at length not only food but hope also failed them, and their arms weighed down their debilitated bodies (since there was constant sentinel duty), they insisted that there should be either a surrender, or that they should be ransomed on whatever terms were possible, as the Gauls were intimating in rather plain terms that they could be induced for no very great compensation to relinquish the siege. Then a meeting of the senate was held and instructions were given to the military tribunes to capitulate. Upon this the matter was settled between Quintus Sulpicius, a military tribune, and Brennus, the chieftain of the Gauls, and one thousand pounds’ weight of gold was agreed on as the ransom of a people who were soon after to be the rulers of the world. To a transaction very humiliating in itself insult was added. False weights were brought by the Gauls. On the tribune’s objecting, the insolent Gaul threw his sword in in addition to the weight; and these words were heard—so repulsive to the Romans—“Woe to the vanquished!”
But both gods and men interfered to prevent the Romans from owing their lives to a ransom. For by some chance, before the execrable bargain was completed, all the gold being not yet weighed in consequence of the altercation, the dictator comes up, and orders the gold to be removed from their midst, and the Gauls to clear away. The latter, demurring to this, affirmed that they had concluded a treaty; but he denied that the agreement was a valid one which had been entered into with a magistrate of inferior authority without his orders, after he had been nominated dictator; and he gave notice to the Gauls to get ready for battle. He ordered his men to throw their baggage in a heap, and to get ready their arms, and to recover their country with steel, not with gold, having before their eyes the temples of the gods, and their wives and children, and the site of their native city disfigured by the calamities of war, and all that they were solemnly bound to defend, to recover, and to revenge. He then drew up his army, as the nature of the place admitted, on the site of the half-demolished city, which was naturally uneven; and he secured all those advantages for his own men, which could be selected or acquired by military skill. The Gauls, thrown into confusion by this unexpected event, took up arms, and governed by fury rather than prudence rushed upon the Romans. But now fortune had changed; now the aid of the gods and human skill assisted the Roman cause. At the first encounter therefore the Gauls were routed with no greater difficulty than they had found in gaining the victory at the Allia. They were afterwards beaten when the Romans were again under the conduct and auspices of Camillus, in a more regular engagement at the eighth stone on the Gabine road, whither they had betaken themselves after their defeat. There the slaughter was universal: their camp was taken, and not even one person was left to carry news of the defeat. The dictator, after having recovered his country from the enemy, returned into the city in triumph; and in the soldiers’ rough jests such as they are wont to make, he was styled, with praises by no means undeserved, “Romulus,” and “Parent of the country,” and “Second founder of the city.”