A Good Works Translation from Ab Urbe Condita 38.16-18
Livy preserves one of the clearest Latin narratives of how Gaulish groups crossed from Europe into Anatolia and became the Galatians. The passage names the Tolostobogii, Trocmi, and Tectosages, explains their settlement around the Halys, and gives Manlius' Roman speech before the Galatian campaign.
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.
Colophon
This page translates Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 38.16-18 from Latin for the Celtic continental expansion of the Good Work Library. The translation preserves Livy's Roman hostility and ethnic rhetoric as source evidence rather than endorsing it.
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 38.16-18
Latin source text from The Latin Library's text of Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book 38. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
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.
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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