A Complete Good Works Translation from Ab Urbe Condita 38.16-27
This complete source-unit gives Livy's continuous Galatian narrative in Book 38: the Gauls' crossing into Asia, the Tolostobogii, Trocmi, and Tectosages, Manlius' speech, the march through Gallograecia, the battles on Mount Olympus and Mount Magaba, the captive queen of Orgiago, and the request for peace.
Translation
Section 16
The Gauls, a great mass of people, either because of lack of land or in hope of plunder, thinking no people through whose lands they would pass equal to them in arms, came under Brennus' leadership into the country of the Dardani. There a quarrel arose. About twenty thousand people, with the petty kings Lonorius and Lutarius, separated from Brennus and turned their road into Thrace. Fighting those who resisted and laying tribute on those who asked for peace, they came to Byzantium and for some time held the shore of the Propontis, keeping the cities of that region tributary. From there desire seized them to cross into Asia, as they heard from nearby how fertile that land was. After Lysimachia had been taken by trickery and the whole Chersonese possessed by arms, they came down to the Hellespont. When they saw Asia divided from them by a narrow strait, their spirits were kindled all the more to cross. They sent messengers to Antipater, governor of that shore, about the crossing. Since this matter dragged on more slowly than they had hoped, another new quarrel arose among the petty kings. Lonorius went back to Byzantium with the larger part of the people. Lutarius took from Macedonians, who had been sent by Antipater under the appearance of an embassy to spy, two decked ships and three light boats. Carrying some over on one day and others on another, by night and day, he transported all his forces within a few days. Not long afterward Lonorius crossed from Byzantium with the help of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia. Then the Gauls came together again and gave aid to Nicomedes in his war against Ziboetas, who held part of Bithynia. By their help especially Ziboetas was defeated, and all Bithynia passed under Nicomedes' power. Leaving Bithynia, they advanced into Asia. Of twenty thousand people no more than ten thousand were armed. Yet they struck such terror into all the peoples who live on this side of Taurus that those they approached and those they did not approach, the farthest and the nearest alike, obeyed their command. At last, since there were three peoples, the Tolostobogii, Trocmi, and Tectosages, they divided into three parts the Asia that was to pay tribute to each of their peoples. The shore of the Hellespont was given to the Trocmi; Aeolis and Ionia to the Tolostobogii; inland Asia fell by lot to the Tectosages. They exacted tribute from all Asia on this side of Taurus, while they took their own seat around the river Halys. So great was the terror of their name, and so increased by the size of their offspring, that in the end even the kings of Syria did not refuse to pay tribute. Attalus, father of King Eumenes, was the first of the inhabitants of Asia to refuse. Fortune favored that bold undertaking beyond everyone's expectation, and in pitched battle he was superior. Still he did not so break their spirit that they gave up their power; the same strength remained until the war of Antiochus with the Romans. Then too, after Antiochus had been driven out, they had great hope, because they lived far from the sea, that the Roman army would not come to them.
Section 17
Because war had to be waged with this enemy, so terrifying to all the peoples of that region, the consul addressed the soldiers in an assembly. He said that he knew well the Gauls surpassed all the peoples of Asia in the reputation of war. A fierce nation, wandering in war through almost the whole world, had taken its seat among the gentlest kind of people. Tall bodies, long red hair, huge shields, very long swords; besides these, songs as they entered battle, howling, stamping, and the dreadful crash of shields shaken in a certain native fashion: all had been deliberately arranged for terror. But let Greeks, Phrygians, and Carians fear these things, he said, for they are unfamiliar and unused to them. Romans are used to Gallic alarms, and know even their empty shows. Once, at the first encounter by the Allia, our ancestors fled from them; from that time, through two hundred years now, Romans have cut them down and driven them like frightened cattle, and nearly more triumphs have been celebrated over Gauls than over the whole world besides. This, he said, has been learned by experience: if you withstand their first charge, which they pour out with hot temper and blind anger, their limbs run down with sweat and weariness, their weapons droop, and the sun, dust, and thirst overthrow soft bodies and soft spirits once the anger has settled, even if you do not bring iron against them. We have tested them not only legion against legion, but one man against one man: Titus Manlius and Marcus Valerius taught how much Roman courage could overcome Gallic frenzy. Marcus Manlius alone threw the Gauls down as they climbed in line up to the Capitol. Our ancestors dealt with real Gauls, born in their own land; these are already degenerate, mixed people, truly Gallo-Greeks, as they are called. As with crops and herds, seed does not preserve the native character so much as the property of the land and the climate under which they are nourished changes it. Macedonians who hold Alexandria in Egypt, Seleucia and Babylon, and other colonies scattered through the world have degenerated into Syrians, Parthians, and Egyptians. Massilia, set among Gauls, has drawn something from the spirits of its neighbors. What remains to the Tarentines of that hard and rugged Spartan discipline? Whatever is born in its own seat is stronger; what is planted in foreign earth is turned by nature into that by which it is fed. Therefore, he said, you will cut down Phrygians loaded with Gallic arms, defeated men though you are victors, just as you cut them down in Antiochus' line of battle. I fear more that there will be too little glory from it than too much war. King Attalus often routed and scattered them. Do not think that wild beasts newly captured keep only at first that woodland fierceness and then grow tame when they have long been fed by human hands, and that the same nature does not exist for softening human savagery. Do you believe these are the same men their fathers and grandfathers were? They left home as exiles through lack of land, fought their way along the roughest edge of Illyricum, then through Paeonia and Thrace among the fiercest peoples, and took these lands. A land that fattened them with abundance received them hardened and sharpened by so many evils. By the richest soil, the mildest sky, and the gentle characters of the people around them, all that fierceness with which they had come was made tame. You, by Hercules, men of Mars, must beware and flee the pleasantness of Asia as soon as possible: so much can these foreign pleasures do to extinguish the vigor of spirits; so powerful is the contagion of the discipline and customs of neighbors. Yet this has happened happily: as they have no force against you, so among the Greeks they keep a reputation equal to that ancient one with which they came, and as victors you will have the same glory among the allies as if you had defeated Gauls preserving the old pattern of their spirits.
Section 18
After the assembly was dismissed, envoys were sent to Eposognatus, the only one of the petty kings who had remained in friendship with Eumenes and had denied aid to Antiochus against the Romans. Manlius moved camp. On the first day they came to the river Alander, on the next to a village called Tyscon. Envoys of the Oroandenses came there seeking friendship; two hundred talents were imposed on them, and when they begged leave to report home, permission was given. From there the consul intended to lead the army to Plitendos; then camp was set at Alyatti. Those sent to Eposognatus returned there, and envoys of that ruler begged him not to make war on the Tectosages; Eposognatus himself would go to that people and persuade them to do what was commanded. Leave was given to the ruler, and from there the army began to be led through the land called Axylon. It has its name from the fact that it bears not only no wood, but not even thorns or any other fuel for fire; they use cattle dung instead of wood. When the Romans had camp at Cuballum, a fortress of Gallograecia, enemy cavalry appeared with great tumult. They not only threw the Roman outposts into confusion by their sudden charge, but also killed some men. When the disturbance was carried into camp, Roman cavalry suddenly poured out through every gate, routed and scattered the Gauls, and killed some as they fled. From there the consul advanced with careful scouting and a carefully gathered column, since he saw that he had now reached the enemy. When, by continuous marches, he had come to the river Sangarius, he set about making a bridge, because there was nowhere a fordable crossing. The Sangarius rises from Mount Adoreus and flows through Phrygia, joining the Tymbris in Bithynia; from there, enlarged by their joined waters, it runs through Bithynia and pours itself into the Propontis. It is remembered not so much for its size as because it gives a great abundance of fish to those who live beside it. After the bridge was completed and they had crossed, as they were moving along the bank, Gauls of the Great Mother came from Pessinus with their emblems, prophesying in frenzied song that the goddess gave the Romans a road to war and victory and command of that region. When the consul said that he accepted the omen, he set camp in that very place. On the next day he came to Gordium. It was not a large town, but, more than most inland towns, it was famous and busy. It has three seas at almost equal distance: the Hellespont, the shore at Sinope, and the other coast where the Cilicians live by the sea. The borders of many great peoples also meet it, and their commerce gathered most of all at that place for mutual use. At that time it was deserted by the flight of its inhabitants, but filled with abundance of every kind. While the Romans were encamped there, envoys from Eposognatus came, reporting that he had gone to the petty kings of the Gauls and obtained nothing reasonable. The people were leaving the open villages and fields in crowds; with wives and children, driving and carrying before them what they could bear and move, they were seeking Mount Olympus, so that from there they might defend themselves by arms and by the position of the place.
Section 19
Later the envoys of the Oroandenses brought more certain news: the state of the Tolostobogii had seized Mount Olympus; the Tectosages, going in another direction, had sought another mountain called Magaba; and the Trocmi, after placing their wives and children with the Tectosages, had decided to carry armed help to the Tolostobogii. The rulers of the three peoples at that time were Ortiago, Combolomarus, and Gaulotus. Their chief reason for taking up this kind of war was this: since they held the highest mountains of that region and had brought together everything sufficient for the use of even a long time, they thought they would wear out the enemy by delay. The Romans, they believed, would not dare climb through such steep and unfavorable places; or, if they tried, they could be held off or thrown down by even a small force. Nor would they endure cold or lack of supplies while sitting idle at the roots of the cold mountains. Since the height of the places itself protected them, they also drew a ditch and other defenses around the summits they had occupied. They gave very little care to preparing missile weapons, because they believed the roughness of the places would itself supply stones in abundance.
Section 20
Because the consul had understood beforehand that the fight would not be hand to hand but from a distance in the attack on the places, he had prepared a huge supply of javelins, light-armed spears, arrows, sling-bullets, and small stones that could be thrown by sling. Equipped with this store of missiles, he led to Mount Olympus and set camp about five miles away. On the next day, when he advanced with four hundred cavalry and Attalus to examine the nature of the mountain and the position of the Galatian camp, enemy cavalry, twice their number, poured from the camp and turned them to flight; a few of the fugitives were killed and more were wounded. On the third day, when he went out with all the forces to reconnoiter the places, because no enemy came out beyond the defenses, he rode safely around the mountain. He noticed that on the southern side the hills were earthy and gently sloped up to a certain point, while on the north there were steep rocks almost straight up; with nearly all other approaches impassable, there were three routes, one through the middle of the mountain where the ground was earthy, and two difficult routes, one from the winter sunrise and one from the summer sunset. After observing these things, he set camp that day at the very roots of the mountain. The next day, after sacrifice had been made and he had obtained favorable omens with the first victims, he set out toward the enemy with the army divided in three. He himself went with the largest part of the forces by the way where the mountain offered the fairest approach.
Section 21
The Gauls, trusting that the two sides were sufficiently impassable, sent about four thousand armed men to occupy a mound overlooking the road, less than a mile from the camp, on the side that faced south, so that they could close the way with arms. They thought that from there, as from a small fortress, they would block the route. When the Romans saw this, they made themselves ready for battle. A little before the standards went the velites, and with Attalus came Cretan archers, slingers, Trallians, and Thracians. The infantry standards were led up the steep ground at a slow pace, the men holding their shields in front of them so that they seemed likely only to avoid missiles, not to fight foot to foot. The battle began at a distance with missiles; at first it was equal, the Gauls helped by the place and the Romans by the variety and supply of weapons. As the fight went on, there was no longer anything equal. The Galatians' shields, though long, were too narrow for the size of their bodies, and being flat, covered them badly. They now had no weapons except swords, which were of no use when the enemy did not close hand to hand. They used stones, not of moderate size as if prepared, but whatever each frightened man happened to find at hand; and being untrained, they did not help the blow by skill or strength. Arrows, sling-bullets, and javelins struck them from every side while they were unguarded. Blinded in spirit by anger and fear, they could not see what to do. They had been caught in the kind of fight for which they were least suited. For just as anger sets their spirits on fire at close quarters, where it is possible to receive and give wounds in turn, so when they are wounded from concealment and from far off by light missiles, and have no place to rush with blind charge, they run at random into their own men like pierced beasts. Their wounds were exposed because they fight naked, and their bodies are broad and white, since they are never stripped except in battle. Therefore more blood flowed from much flesh, the gashes lay open more hideously, and the whiteness of their bodies was more stained with dark blood. Yet they are not moved so much by open wounds; sometimes, when the skin is cut and the wound is wider than deep, they even think they are fighting more gloriously. But when the point of an arrow or a hidden sling-bullet burns inward in a wound slight to the eye, and when, searching for a way to pull it out, the weapon does not come, then, turned to rage and shame that so small a thing is destroying them, they throw their bodies to the ground. So they were falling everywhere then. Others rushed against the enemy and were struck from every side; when they came near, they were cut down by the swords of the velites. This soldier carries a three-foot shield and in his right hand the spears he uses from a distance; he is girded with a Spanish sword. If he must fight foot to foot, he shifts the spears into his left hand and draws the sword. Few of the Gauls now remained. When they saw that they had been overcome by the light-armed troops and that the legion standards were pressing on, they fled in a rush back to the camp, already full of fear and confusion, since women, children, and the rest of the noncombatant crowd were mixed there. The Romans as victors took possession of the mounds deserted by the enemy's flight.
Section 22
At about the same time Lucius Manlius and Gaius Helvius, after climbing as long as the slanting hills gave a road, turned their course, when they came to impassable ground, toward the part of the mountain that alone had a path. Each began to follow the consul's column at a small distance, as if by arrangement, forced by necessity into what would have been best to do from the beginning. For reserves are often of the greatest use in such inequalities of ground: if the first line happens to be thrown down, the second can both cover those who have been driven back and take up the fight fresh. When the first standards of the legions reached the mounds taken by the light-armed troops, the consul ordered the soldiers to breathe and rest a little. At the same time he showed them the bodies of the Gauls strewn over the mounds and said that, if the light-armed troops had produced such a battle, what should be expected from legions, from proper arms, and from the courage of the bravest soldiers? They had to take the camp into which the enemy, driven by light-armed men, had fled in terror. Still, he ordered the light-armed troops to go ahead; while the column was halted, they had spent that very time actively collecting weapons across the mounds so that the missiles would suffice. They were now approaching the camp. The Gauls, lest their defenses seem too little protection, stood armed before the rampart. Then they were overwhelmed by every kind of missile, and because the more numerous and densely packed they were, the less any thrown weapon fell without effect, they were driven inside the rampart in a moment, leaving only strong guards at the very approaches of the gates. A huge force of missiles was thrown into the crowd driven into the camp, and the shout mixed with the weeping of women and children showed that many were being wounded. Against those who had closed the gates with their guard-posts, the men before the legion standards threw pila. These did not wound them, but, with their shields pierced through, most of them were fastened together, locked among themselves; and they did not endure the Roman attack any longer.
Section 23
With the gates now open, before the victors could burst in, flight from the Galatian camp went in every direction. They rushed blindly through paths and pathless places. No sheer stones, no cliffs stopped them; they feared nothing except the enemy. Therefore most of them, falling headlong down the vast height, died crushed or crippled. After the camp was taken, the consul kept the soldiers from plunder and booty; he ordered each man to follow, press on, and add fear to the already stricken. The other column with Lucius Manlius also came up. He did not allow them to enter the camp, but sent them at once to pursue the enemy; and he himself, after handing the custody of the prisoners to the military tribunes, followed a little later, thinking the war would be finished if as many as possible were killed or captured in that panic. After the consul had gone out, Gaius Helvius arrived with the third column and could not keep his men from plundering the camp; by a most unjust share, the booty went to those who had not taken part in the battle. The cavalry stood for a long time ignorant both of the battle and of their own side's victory. Then they too, as far as they could climb on horseback, pursued the Galatians scattered in flight around the roots of the mountain, and cut them down or captured them. The number of the slain could not easily be reckoned, because flight and slaughter spread widely through every winding of the mountains, and a large part fell from pathless cliffs into valleys of deep height, while another part was killed in woods and thickets. Claudius, who writes that there were two battles on Mount Olympus, is authority for about forty thousand killed; Valerius Antias, who is usually more excessive in increasing numbers, gives no more than ten thousand. The number of prisoners undoubtedly reached forty thousand, because they had dragged along a crowd of every kind and age, more like people migrating than going to war. The consul ordered the enemy's arms burned in one heap. The rest of the spoil he ordered gathered together, and he either sold what had to be turned into public money or divided it among the soldiers with care that the share should be as fair as possible. In an assembly all were praised and rewarded each according to merit, above all Attalus with the highest agreement of the rest; for that young man had shown not only singular courage and energy in every labor and danger, but also modesty.
Section 24
A whole war still remained with the Tectosages. Marching against them, the consul reached Ancyra, a famous city in that region, in three camps; the enemy was a little more than ten miles away. While they were in fixed quarters there, a memorable deed was done by a captive woman. The wife of the petty king Orgiago, a woman of remarkable beauty, was being guarded among many captives. The centurion in charge of that guard had both the lust and the greed of a soldier. First he tried her mind; when he saw that she shrank from voluntary violation, he used force against a body that fortune had made a slave. Then, to soften the indignity of the injury, he gave the woman hope of return to her own people, and not even this as a lover gives freely. After bargaining for a fixed weight of gold, and so that none of his own men would know, he allowed her to send any one captive she wished as a messenger to her people. He appointed a place near the river where not more than two of the captive woman's kinsmen should come on the following night with the gold to receive her. By chance the woman's own slave was among the captives under the same guard. The centurion led him outside the stations in the first darkness as messenger. On the following night both the woman's two kinsmen came to the appointed place, and the centurion came with the captive. When they showed the gold, which made up the weight of an Attic talent, for he had bargained for that much, the woman commanded them in her own language to draw steel and kill the centurion while he was weighing the gold. After he was cut down, she herself carried his severed head wrapped in a garment and came to her husband Orgiago, who had fled home from Olympus. Before she embraced him, she threw the centurion's head before his feet. When he wondered whose head it was, and what deed this was, hardly womanly, she confessed to her husband both the injury to her body and the vengeance for chastity violated by force. By the holiness and gravity of the rest of her life, as the tradition says, she preserved the honor of this matronly deed to the end.
Section 25
While the Romans were in fixed quarters at Ancyra, envoys of the Tectosages came to the consul asking that he not move camp from Ancyra before he had spoken with their kings; no conditions of peace, they said, would not be preferable to war. A time was set for the next day, and a place that seemed most nearly midway between the camp of the Gauls and Ancyra. When the consul came there at the appointed time with a guard of five hundred cavalry and, seeing no Galatians there, returned to camp, the same envoys came back, excusing the kings because an omen prevented them from coming; chiefs of the nation, through whom the matter could equally be settled, would come. The consul said that he too would send Attalus. Both sides came to this meeting. Since Attalus had brought three hundred cavalry for protection, terms of peace were discussed. Because the end of the matter could not be fixed while the leaders were absent, it was agreed that the consul and the kings should meet at that place on the next day. The Galatians' deception aimed at this: first, to wear away time until they could move the possessions they did not want to risk, with their wives and children, across the river Halys; second, because they were laying an ambush for the consul himself, who was not careful enough against fraud under cover of a conference. They chose for this purpose a thousand horsemen from the whole number, tried in boldness. The trick would have succeeded, had not fortune stood for the law of nations, which they had planned to violate. Roman foragers and woodcutters were led toward the area where the conference was to take place, the tribunes thinking this would be safer because they would have the consul's own guard facing the enemy like an outpost; nevertheless they placed another guard of their own, six hundred cavalry, nearer the camp. The consul, with Attalus affirming that the kings would come and that the matter could be settled, set out from the camp. When he had advanced about five miles with the same cavalry guard as before, and was not far from the appointed place, he suddenly saw Galatians coming with horses driven on in hostile charge. He halted the column, ordered the cavalry to ready weapons and courage, and at first met the beginning of the fight steadily and did not give ground. Then, when the crowd pressed too heavily, he began to withdraw gradually, with the order of the squadrons not at all confused. Finally, when there was now more danger in delay than protection in preserving the ranks, all poured out everywhere in flight. Then the Galatians pressed the scattered men and cut them down; a great part would have been overwhelmed, had not the foragers' guard, six hundred cavalry, come to meet them. Hearing from far off the frightened shout of their own men, they had made ready their weapons and horses, and fresh men received the broken fight. So fortune immediately turned, and terror turned from the defeated onto the victors. At the first attack the Galatians were routed. The foragers also ran together from the fields, and the enemy met the Galatians from every side, so that even flight was neither safe nor easy, because the Romans on fresh horses pursued tired men. Therefore few escaped; no one was captured; by far the greater part paid with death the penalty for violating trust in a conference. On the next day the Romans, their spirits burning with anger, came with all their forces to the enemy.
Section 26
The consul spent two days examining the nature of the mountain by himself, so that nothing would be unknown. On the third day, after attending to the auspices and then sacrificing, he led out the forces divided into four parts: two to lead up the middle of the mountain, two to rise from the sides against the wings of the Gauls. The strength of the enemy, the Tectosages and Trocmi, held the middle of the line, fifty thousand people. Their cavalry, because horses had no use among the uneven rocks, dismounted to the number of ten thousand and were placed on the right wing. The Cappadocians of Ariarathes and the auxiliaries of Morzi filled out about four thousand on the left. As on Mount Olympus, the consul placed the light-armed troops in the first line and made sure that an equally great supply of every kind of missile weapon was at hand. When they approached, everything on both sides was the same as in the earlier battle, except for the spirits: those of the victors had been increased by success, and those of the enemy had been broken, because, though they had not themselves been defeated, they counted the disaster of men of their own race as their own. And so, though the matter began from equal beginnings, it had the same ending. A cloud, as it were, of light missiles was thrown and overwhelmed the Galatian line. No one dared run out from his own ranks, lest he expose his body to blows from every side; and standing still, the more densely packed they were, the more wounds they received, as though men were aiming at a fixed mark. The consul, thinking that if he showed the legion standards to men already shaken by themselves they would all immediately turn to flight, drew the velites and the other crowd of auxiliaries back among the ranks and advanced the battle line.
Section 27
The Gauls, frightened also by the memory of the Tolostobogian defeat, carrying missiles stuck in their bodies, and weary from standing and from wounds, did not endure even the first attack and shout of the Romans. The flight leaned toward the camp; but few went back inside the defenses. The larger part, borne right and left wherever each man's impulse carried him, fled. The victors followed them as far as the camp and cut down their backs; then they stuck in the camp through greed for booty, and no one kept following. On the wings the Gauls stood longer, because the attack reached them later; still they did not endure even the first casting of missiles. Since the consul could not draw those who had entered the camp away from plunder, he immediately sent those who had been on the wings to follow the enemy. Pursuing for some distance, they cut down no more than eight thousand people in flight, for there was no battle; the rest crossed the river Halys. A large part of the Romans stayed that night in the enemy camp; the consul led the others back to their own camp. On the next day he counted the captives and booty, which was as great as the greediest nation for plundering could have piled up after holding by arms for many years everything this side of Mount Taurus. The Gauls, gathered from flight scattered everywhere into one place, a great part wounded or unarmed and stripped of everything, sent envoys to the consul for peace. Manlius ordered them to come to Ephesus; he himself, since it was already mid-autumn, hurried to leave the cold places near Mount Taurus and led the victorious army back to winter quarters on the maritime coast.
Colophon
This page translates Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 38.16-27 from Latin for the Celtic continental expansion of the Good Work Library. Livy's Roman account is hostile and triumphal; the translation preserves that frame as source evidence while giving a continuous view of the Galatian war in Asia Minor.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 38.16-27
Latin source text from The Latin Library's text of Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book 38. This page gives the continuous Galatian campaign narrative from the crossing into Asia through Manlius' battles with the Tolostobogii, Tectosages, and Trocmi.
Section 16
Galli, magna hominum uis, seu inopia agri seu praedae spe, nullam gentem, per quas ituri essent, parem armis rati, Brenno duce in Dardanos peruenerunt. Ibi seditio orta est; ad uiginti milia hominum cum Lonorio ac Lutario regulis secessione facta a Brenno in Thraeciam iter auertunt. Vbi cum resistentibus pugnando, pacem petentibus stipendium imponendo Byzantium cum peruenissent, aliquamdiu oram Propontidis, uectigalis habendo regionis eius urbes, obtinuerunt. Cupido inde eos in Asiam transeundi, audientis ex propinquo, quanta ubertas eius terrae esset, cepit; et Lysimachia fraude capta Chersonesoque omni armis possessa ad Hellespontum descenderunt. Ibi uero exiguo diuisam freto cernentibus Asiam multo magis animi ad transeundum accensi; nuntiosque ad Antipatrum praefectum eius orae de transitu mittebant. Quae res cum lentius spe ipsorum traheretur, alia rursus noua inter regulos seditio orta est. Lonorius retro, unde uenerat, cum maiore parte hominum repetit Byzantium; Lutarius Macedonibus per speciem legationis ab Antipatro ad speculandum missis duas tectas naues et tris lembos adimit. Iis alios atque alios dies noctesque trauehendo intra paucos dies omnis copias traicit. Haud ita multo post Lonorius adiuuante Nicomede Bithyniae rege a Byzantio transmisit. Coeunt deinde in unum rursus Galli et auxilia Nicomedi dant aduersus Ziboetam, tenentem partem Bithyniae, gerenti bellum. Atque eorum maxime opera deuictus Ziboeta est, Bithyniaque omnis in dicionem Nicomedis concessit. Profecti ex Bithynia in Asiam processerunt. Non plus ex uiginti milibus hominum quam decem armata erant. Tamen tantum terroris omnibus quae cis Taurum incolunt gentibus iniecerunt, ut quas adissent quasque non adissent, pariter ultimae propinquis, imperio parerent. Postremo cum tres essent gentes, Tolostobogii Trocmi Tectosages, in tris partis, qua cuique populorum suorum uectigalis Asia esset, diuiserunt. Trocmis Hellesponti ora data; Tolostobogii Aeolida atque Ioniam, Tectosages mediterranea Asiae sortiti sunt. Et stipendium tota cis Taurum Asia exigebant, sedem autem ipsi sibi circa Halyn flumen cepere. Tantusque terror eorum nominis erat, multitudine etiam magna subole aucta, ut Syriae quoque ad postremum reges stipendium dare non abnuerent. Primus Asiam incolentium abnuit Attalus, pater regis Eumenis; audacique incepto praeter opinionem omnium adfuit fortuna, et signis collatis superior fuit. Non tamen ita infregit animos eorum, ut absisterent imperio; eaedem opes usque ad bellum Antiochi cum Romanis manserunt. Tum quoque, pulso Antiocho, magnam spem habuerunt, quia procul mari incolerent, Romanum exercitum ad se non peruenturum.
Section 17
Cum hoc hoste, tam terribili omnibus regionis eius, quia bellum gerendum erat, pro contione milites in hunc maxime modum adlocutus est consul: 'non me praeterit, milites, omnium quae Asiam colunt gentium Gallos fama belli praestare. Inter mitissimum genus hominum ferox natio peruagata bello prope orbem terrarum sedem cepit. Procera corpora, promissae et rutilatae comae, uasta scuta, praelongi gladii; ad hoc cantus ineuntium proelium et ululatus et tripudia, et quatientium scuta in patrium quendam modum horrendus armorum crepitus, omnia de industria composita ad terrorem. Sed haec, quibus insolita atque insueta sunt, Graeci et Phryges et Cares timeant; Romanis Gallici tumultus adsueti, etiam uanitates notae sunt. Semel primo congressu ad Aliam eos olim fugerunt maiores nostri; ex eo tempore per ducentos iam annos pecorum in modum consternatos caedunt fugantque, et plures prope de Gallis triumphi quam de toto orbe terrarum acti sunt. Iam usu hoc cognitum est: si primum impetum, quem feruido ingenio et caeca ira effundunt, sustinueris, fluunt sudore et lassitudine membra, labant arma; mollia corpora, molles, ubi ira consedit, animos sol puluis sitis, ut ferrum non admoueas, prosternunt. Non legionibus legiones eorum solum experti sumus, sed uir unus cum uiro congrediendo T. Manlius, M. Valerius, quantum Gallicam rabiem uinceret Romana uirtus, docuerunt. Iam M. Manlius unus agmine scandentis in Capitolium detrusit Gallos. Et illis maioribus nostris cum haud dubiis Gallis, in sua terra genitis, res erat; hi iam degeneres sunt, mixti, et Gallograeci uere, quod appellantur; sicut in frugibus pecudibusque non tantum semina ad seruandam indolem ualent, quantum terrae proprietas caelique, sub quo aluntur, mutat. Macedones, qui Alexandriam in Aegypto, qui Seleuciam ac Babyloniam, quique alias sparsas per orbem terrarum colonias habent, in Syros Parthos Aegyptios degenerarunt; Massilia, inter Gallos sita, traxit aliquantum ab accolis animorum; Tarentinis quid ex Spartana dura illa et horrida disciplina mansit?
Section 18
Contione dimissa missisque ad Eposognatum legatis, qui unus ex regulis et in Eumenis manserat amicitia et negauerat Antiocho aduersus Romanos auxilia, castra mouit. Primo die ad Alandrum flumen, postero ad uicum quem uocant Tyscon uentum. Eo legati Oroandensium cum uenissent amicitiam petentes, ducenta talenta his sunt imperata, precantibusque, ut domum renuntiarent, potestas facta. Ducere inde exercitum consul ad Pliten intendit; deinde ad Alyattos castra posita. Eo missi ad Eposognatum redierunt, et legati reguli orantes, ne Tectosagis bellum inferret; ipsum in eam gentem iturum Eposognatum persuasurumque, ut imperata faciant. Data uenia regulo, duci inde exercitus per Axylon quam uocant terram coeptus. Ab re nomen habet: non ligni modo quicquam, sed ne spinas quidem aut ullum aliud alimentum fert ignis; fimo bubulo pro lignis utuntur. Ad Cuballum, Gallograeciae castellum, castra habentibus Romanis apparuere cum magno tumultu hostium equites, nec turbarunt tantum Romanas stationes repente inuecti, sed quosdam etiam occiderunt. Qui tumultus cum in castra perlatus esset, effusus repente omnibus portis equitatus Romanus fudit fugauitque Gallos et aliquot fugientis occidit. Inde consul, ut qui iam ad hostis peruentum cerneret, explorato deinde et cum cura coacto agmine procedebat. Et continentibus itineribus cum ad Sangarium flumen uenisset, pontem, quia uado nusquam transitus erat, facere instituit. Sangarius ex Adoreo monte per Phrygiam fluens miscetur ad Bithyniam Tymbri fluuio; inde maior iam geminatis aquis per Bithyniam fertur et in Propontidem sese effundit, non tamen tam magnitudine memorabilis, quam quod piscium accolis ingentem uim praebet. Transgressis ponte perfecto flumen praeter ripam euntibus Galli Matris Magnae a Pessinunte occurrere cum insignibus suis, uaticinantes fanatico carmine deam Romanis uiam belli et uictoriam dare imperiumque eius regionis. Accipere se omen cum dixisset consul, castra eo ipso loco posuit. Postero die ad Gordium peruenit. Id haud magnum quidem oppidum est, sed plus quam mediterraneum celebre et frequens emporium. Tria maria pari ferme distantia interuallo habet, ad Hellespontum, ad Sinopen, et alterius orae litora, qua Cilices maritimi colunt; multarum magnarumque praeterea gentium finis contigit, quarum commercium in eum maxime locum mutui usus contraxere. Id tum desertum fuga incolarum oppidum, refertum idem copia rerum omnium inuenerunt. Ibi statiua habentibus legati ab Eposognato uenerunt nuntiantes profectum eum ad regulos Gallorum nihil aequi impetrasse; ex campestribus uicis agrisque frequentes demigrare et cum coniugibus ac liberis, quae ferre atque agere possint, prae se agentis portantisque Olympum montem petere, ut inde armis locorumque situ sese tueantur.
Section 19
Certiora postea Oroandensium legati attulerunt, Tolostobogiorum ciuitatem Olympum montem cepisse; diuersos Tectosagos alium montem, Magaba qui dicatur, petisse; Trocmos coniugibus ac liberis apud Tectosagos depositis armatorum agmine Tolostobogiis statuisse auxilium ferre. Erant autem tunc trium populorum reguli Ortiago et Combolomarus et Gaulotus. Iis haec maxime ratio belli sumendi fuerat, quod cum montes editissimos regionis eius tenerent, conuectis omnibus, quae ad usum quamuis longi temporis sufficerent, taedio se fatigaturos hostem censebant: nam neque ausuros per tam ardua atque iniqua loca subire eos, et, si conarentur, uel parua manu prohiberi aut deturbari posse, nec quietos in radicibus montium gelidorum sedentes frigus aut inopiam laturos. Et cum ipsa altitudo locorum eos tutaretur, fossam quoque et alia munimenta uerticibus iis, quos insederant, circumiecere. Minima apparatus missilium telorum cura fuit, quod saxa adfatim praebituram asperitatem ipsam locorum credebant.
Section 20
Consul quia non comminus pugnam sed procul locis oppugnandis futuram praeceperat animo, ingentem uim pilorum, uelitarium hastarum, sagittarum glandisque et modicorum, qui funda mitti possent, lapidum parauerat, instructusque missilium apparatu ad Olympum montem ducit et a quinque ferme milibus castra locat. Postero die cum quadringentis equitibus et Attalo progressum eum ad naturam montis situmque Gallicorum castrorum uisendum equites hostium, duplex numerus, effusi e castris, in fugam auerterunt; occisi quoque pauci fugientium, uulnerati plures. Tertio die cum omnibus ad loca exploranda profectus, quia nemo hostium extra munimenta processit, tuto circumuectus montem, animaduertit meridiana regione terrenos et placide accliues ad quendam finem colles esse, a septentrione arduas et rectas prope rupes, atque omnibus ferme aliis inuiis itinera tria esse, unum medio monte, qua terrena erant, duo difficilia ab hiberno solis ortu et ab aestiuo occasu. Haec contemplatus eo die sub ipsis radicibus posuit castra; postero, sacrificio facto, cum primis hostiis litasset, trifariam exercitum diuisum ducere ad hostem pergit. Ipse cum maxima parte copiarum, qua aequissimum aditum praebebat mons, ascendit; L. Manlium fratrem ab hiberno ortu, quoad loca patiantur et tuto possit, subire iubet; si qua periculosa et praerupta occurrant, non pugnare cum iniquitate locorum neque inexsuperabilibus uim adferre, sed obliquo monte ad se declinare et suo agmini coniungi; C. Heluium cum tertia parte circuire sensim per infima montis, deinde ab occasu aestiuo erigere agmen. Et Attali auxilia trifariam aequo numero diuisit, secum esse ipsum iuuenem iussit. Equitatum cum elephantis in proxima tumulis planitie reliquit; edictum praefectis, ut intenti, quid ubique geratur, animaduertant opemque ferre, quo postulet res, possint.
Section 21
Galli [et] ab duobus lateribus satis fidentes inuia esse, ab ea parte, quae in meridiem uergeret, ut armis clauderent uiam, quattuor milia fere armatorum ad tumulum imminentem uiae minus mille passuum a castris occupandum mittunt, eo se rati ueluti castello iter impedituros. Quod ubi Romani uiderunt, expediunt sese ad pugnam. Ante signa modico interuallo uelites eunt et ab Attalo Cretenses sagittarii et funditores et Tralli
Section 22
Sub idem tempus L. Manlius et C. Heluius, cum, quoad uiam colles obliqui dederunt, escendissent, postquam ad inuia uentum est, flexere iter in partem montis, quae una habebat iter, et sequi consulis agmen modico uterque interuallo uelut ex composito coeperunt, quod primo optimum factu fuisset, in id necessitate ipsa compulsi; subsidia enim in talibus iniquitatibus locorum maximo saepe usui fuerunt, ut primis forte deturbatis secundi et tegant pulsos et integri pugnam excipiant. Consul, postquam ad tumulos ab leui armatura captos prima signa legionum peruenerunt, respirare et conquiescere paulisper militem iubet; simul strata per tumulos corpora Gallorum ostentat, et, cum leuis armatura proelium tale ediderit, quid ab legionibus, quid ab iustis armis, quid ab animis fortissimorum militum expectari? Castra illis capienda esse, in quae compulsus ab leui armatura hostis trepidet. Praecedere tamen iubet leuem armaturam, quae, cum staret agmen, colligendis per tumulos telis, ut missilia sufficerent, haud segne id ipsum tempus consumpserat. Iam castris appropinquabant; et Galli, ne parum se munimenta sua tegerent, armati pro uallo constiterant. Obruti deinde omni genere telorum, cum, quo plures atque densiores erant, eo minus uani quicquam intercideret teli, intra uallum momento temporis compelluntur stationibus tantum firmis ad ipsos aditus portarum relictis. In multitudinem compulsam in castra uis ingens missilium telorum coniciebatur, et uulnerari multos clamor permixtus mulierum atque puerorum ploratibus significabat. In eos, qui portas stationibus suis clauserant, legionum antesignani pila coniecerunt. Iis uero non uulnerabantur, sed transuerberatis scutis plerique inter se conserti haerebant; nec diutius impetum Romanorum sustinuerunt.
Section 23
Patentibus iam portis, priusquam irrumperent uictores, fuga e castris Gallorum in omnis partes facta est. Ruunt caeci per uias, per inuia; nulla praecipitia saxa, nullae rupes obstant; nihil praeter hostem metuunt; itaque plerique, praecipites per uastam altitudinem prolapsi,
Section 24
Supererat bellum integrum cum Tectosagis. Ad eos profectus consul tertiis castris Ancyram, nobilem in illis locis urbem, peruenit, unde hostes paulo plus decem milia aberant. Vbi cum statiua essent, facinus memorabile a captiua factum est. Orgiagontis reguli uxor forma eximia custodiebatur inter plures captiuos; cui custodiae centurio praeerat et libidinis et auaritiae militaris. Is primo animum temptauit; quem cum abhorrentem a uoluntario uideret stupro, corpori, quod seruum fortuna erat, uim fecit. Deinde ad leniendam indignitatem iniuriae spem reditus ad suos mulieri facit, et ne eam quidem, ut amans, gratuitam. Certo auri pondere pactus, ne quem suorum conscium haberet, ipsi permittit, ut, quem uellet, unum ex captiuis nuntium ad suos mitteret. Locum prope flumen constituit, quo duo ne plus necessarii captiuae cum auro uenirent nocte insequenti ad eam accipiendam. Forte ipsius mulieris seruus inter captiuos eiusdem custodiae erat. Hunc nuntium primis tenebris extra stationes centurio educit. Nocte insequenti et duo necessarii mulieris ad constitutum locum et centurio cum captiua uenit. Vbi cum aurum ostenderent, quod summam talenti Attici—tanti enim pepigerat—expleret, mulier lingua sua, stringerent ferrum et centurionem pensantem aurum occiderent, imperauit. Iugulati praecisum caput ipsa inuolutum ueste ferens ad uirum Orgiagontem, qui ab Olympo domum refugerat, peruenit; quem priusquam complecteretur, caput centurionis ante pedes eius abiecit, mirantique, cuiusnam id caput hominis aut quod id facinus haudquaquam muliebre esset, et iniuriam corporis et ultionem uiolatae per uim pudicitiae confessa uiro est, aliaque, ut traditur, sanctitate et grauitate uitae huius matronalis facinoris decus ad ultimum conseruauit.
Section 25
Ancyram in statiua oratores Tectosagum ad consulem uenerunt petentes, ne ante [ab Ancyra] castra moueret, quam collocutus cum suis regibus esset: nullas condiciones pacis iis non bello fore potiores. Tempus in posterum diem constituitur locusque, qui medius maxime inter castra Gallorum et Ancyram est uisus. Quo cum consul ad tempus cum praesidio quingentorum equitum uenisset nec ullo Gallorum ibi uiso regressus in castra esset, oratores idem redeunt, excusantes religione obiecta uenire reges non posse; principes gentis, per quos aeque res transigi posset, uenturos. Consul se quoque Attalum missurum dixit. Ad hoc colloquium utrimque uentum est. Trecentos equites Attalus praesidii causa cum adduxisset, iactatae sunt pacis condiciones; finis rei quia absentibus ducibus imponi non poterat, conuenit, uti consul regesque eo loco postero die congrederentur. Frustratio Gallorum eo spectabat, primum ut tererent tempus, donec res suas, quibus periclitari nolebant, cum coniugibus et liberis trans Halyn flumen traicerent, deinde quod ipsi consuli, parum cauto aduersus colloquii fraudem, insidiabantur. Mille ad eam rem ex omni numero audaciae expertae delegerunt equites; et successisset fraudi, ni pro iure gentium, cuius uiolandi consilium initum erat, stetisset fortuna. Pabulatores lignatoresque Romani in eam partem, in qua colloquium futurum erat, ducti sunt, tutius id futurum tribunis ratis, quia consulis praesidium et ipsum pro statione habituri erant hosti oppositum; suam tamen alteram stationem propius castra sescentorum equitum posuerunt. Consul, adfirmante Attalo uenturos reges et transigi rem posse, profectus e castris, cum eodem quo antea praesidio equitum quinque milia fere processisset nec multum a constituto loco abesset, repente concitatis equis cum impetu hostili uidet Gallos uenientis. Constituit agmen, et expedire tela animosque equitibus iussis primo constanter initium pugnae excepit nec cessit; dein, cum praegrauaret multitudo, cedere sensim nihil confusis turmarum ordinibus coepit; postremo, cum iam plus in mora periculi quam in ordinibus conseruandis praesidii esset, omnes passim in fugam effusi sunt. Tum uero instare dissipatis Galli et caedere; magnaque pars oppressa foret, ni statio pabulatorum, sescenti equites occurrissent. Ii procul clamore pauido suorum audito cum tela equosque expedissent, integri profligatam pugnam acceperunt. Itaque uersa extemplo fortuna est, uersus a uictis in uictores terror. Et primo impetu fusi Galli sunt, et ex agris concurrebant pabulatores, et undique obuius hostis Gallis erat, ut ne fugam quidem tutam aut facilem haberent, quia recentibus equis Romani fessos sequebantur. Pauci ergo effugerunt; captus est nemo maior multo pars per fidem uiolati colloquii poenas morte luerunt. Romani ardentibus ira animis postero die omnibus copiis ad hostem perueniunt.
Section 26
Biduum natura montis per se ipsum exploranda, ne quid ignoti esset, absumpsit consul; tertio die, cum auspicio operam dedisset, deinde immolasset, in quattuor partes diuisas copias educit, duas, ut medio monte duceret, duas ab lateribus, ut aduersus cornua Gallorum erigeret. Hostium quod roboris erat, Tectosagi et Trocmi, mediam tenebant aciem, milia hominum quinquaginta; equitatum, quia equorum nullus erat inter inaequales rupes usus, ad pedes deductum, decem milia hominum, ab dextro locauerunt cornu; Ariarathis Cappadoces et Morzi auxiliares in laeuo quattuor ferme milium numerum explebant. Consul, sicut in Olympo monte, prima in acie locata leui armatura, telorum omnis generis ut aeque magna uis ad manum esset, curauit. Vbi appropinquarunt, omnia eadem utrimque, quae fuerant in priore proelio, erant praeter animos et uictoribus ab re secunda auctos et hostibus
Section 27
Galli et memoria Tolostobogiorum cladis territi et inhaerentia corporibus gerentes tela fessique et stando et uulneribus ne primum quidem impetum et clamorem Romanorum tulerunt. Fuga ad castra inclinauit; sed pauci intra munimenta sese recepere; pars maior dextra laeuaque praelati, qua quemque impetus tulit, fugerunt. Victores usque ad castra secuti ceciderunt terga; deinde in castris cupiditate praedae haeserunt, nec sequebatur quisquam. In cornibus Galli diutius steterunt, quia serius ad eos peruentum est; ceterum ne primum quidem coniectum telorum tulerunt. Consul quia ingressos in castra ab direptione abstrahere non poterat, eos, qui in cornibus fuerant, protinus ad sequendos hostis misit. Per aliquantum spatium secuti non plus tamen octo milia hominum in fuga—nam pugna nulla fuit—ceciderunt; reliqui flumen Halyn traiecerunt. Romanorum pars magna ea nocte in castris hostium mansit; ceteros in sua castra consul reduxit. Postero die captiuos praedamque recensuit, quae tanta fuit, quantam auidissima rapiendi gens, cum cis montem Taurum omnia armis per multos annos tenuisset, coaceruare potuit. Galli ex dissipata passim fuga in unum locum congregati, magna pars saucii aut inermes, nudati omnibus rebus, oratores de pace ad consulem miserunt. Eos Manlius Ephesum uenire iussit; ipse—iam enim medium autumni erat —locis gelidis propinquitate Tauri montis excedere properans uictorem exercitum in hiberna maritimae orae reduxit.
Source Colophon
The Latin source was captured from The Latin Library on 2026-05-13 and inspected on disk at Tulku/Tools/celtic/sources/continental_batch_2026-05-13/livy_38_latin_library.html. The English translation is a New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Translation made from the Latin source.
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