XXII. On the third day after the battle Brennus appeared, leading his
army to attack the city. At first, seeing the gates open and no guards
on the walls, he feared some ambuscade, as he could not believe that the
Romans had so utterly despaired of themselves. When he discovered the
truth, he marched through the Colline Gate, and captured Rome, a little
more than three hundred and sixty years after its foundation, if we can
believe that any accurate record has been kept of those periods whose
confusion has produced such difficulties in the chronology of later
times. However, an indistinct rumour of the fall of Rome seems at once
to have reached Greece: for Herakleides of Pontus, who lived about that
time, speaks in his book 'On the Spirit,' of a rumour from the west that
an army had come from the Hyperboreans and had sacked a Greek colony
called Rome, which stood somewhere in that direction, near the great
ocean. Now, as Herakleides was fond of strange legends, I should not be
surprised if he adorned the original true tale of the capture of the
city with these accessories of "the Hyperboreans" and "the great ocean."
Aristotle, the philosopher, had evidently heard quite accurately that
the city was taken by the Gauls, but he says that it was saved by one
Lucius: now Camillus's name was Marcus, not Lucius. All this, however,
was pure conjecture.
Brennus, after taking possession of Rome, posted a force to watch the
Capitol, and himself went down to the Forum, and wondered at the men who
sat there silent, with all their ornaments, how they neither rose from
their seats at the approach of the enemy, nor changed colour, but sat
leaning on their staffs with fearless confidence, quietly looking at one
another.
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