The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books. Livy

dismissed the assembly, and having despatched ambassadors to Eposognatus, (who alone of all the petty princes had remained in friendship with Eumenes, and refused to assist Antiochus against the Romans,) he proceeded on his march. He came the first day to the river Alander, and the next to a village called Tyscos. When ambassadors of the Oroandensians had come to that place, seeking amity, two hundred talents28 were levied on them; and on their requesting that they might bear this announcement home, permission to do so was given. The consul then led the army to Plitendos; then the Roman camp was pitched at Alyatti. The persons sent to Eposognatus returned to him here, and with them ambassadors from that chieftain, who entreated him not to make war on the Tolistoboians, for that Eposognatus himself would go among that people and persuade them to submit. This request of the prince was complied with. The army then began to march through the country called Axylos:29 which derives its name from the nature of the place; for it not only does not produce timber, but not even brambles, or any species of fire-wood. The inhabitants, instead of wood, use cow dung. While the Romans were encamped at Cuballum, a fort of Gallogræcia, the enemy’s cavalry appeared with great tumult. They not only disordered by their sudden charge the advanced guards of the Romans, but killed several of the men; and when this alarm was spread to the camp, the Roman cavalry, pouring out hastily by all the gates, routed and dispersed the Gauls, and killed many as they fled. The consul, now perceiving that he had reached the enemy’s country, marched henceforth exploring his route and carefully bringing up his rear. When by continued marches he had arrived at the river Sangarius, he set about constructing a bridge, because no where was there a passage by a ford. The Sangarius, running from the mountain of Adoreus, through Phrygia, joins the river Thymbris at the confines of Bithynia. After doubling its quantity of water by this junction, it proceeds in a more copious stream through Bithynia, and empties itself into the Euxine Sea. Yet it is not so remarkable for the size of its current, as for the vast quantity of fish which it supplies to the people in its vicinity. When the bridge was finished, and the army had passed the river, as they were marching along the bank, the Gallic priests of the Great Mother, coming from Pessinus with the symbols of their office, met them; who, in inspired rhymes, foretold that the goddess would grant the Romans a safe passage, success in the war, and the empire over that country. When the consul had said that he embraced the omen, he pitched his camp on that very spot. On the following day he arrived at Gordium. This is not a large town, but a mart more frequented and noted than an inland town generally is. It has three seas nearly at equal distances from it, that at the Hellespont, that at Sinope, and that at the shore of the opposite coast, in which the maritime Cilicians dwell. It is also contiguous to the borders of many and great nations, the commerce of which has been centred by mutual convenience principally in this place. The Romans found the town deserted owing to the flight of the inhabitants, yet at the same time filled with plenty of every thing. While they halted here, ambassadors came from Eposognatus, with information that “he had applied to the petty princes of the Gauls, and had been unable to bring them to reason; that they were removing in crowds from the villages and lands in the open country; and, with their wives and children, carrying and driving whatever could be carried or driven, were going to Mount Olympus, that there they might defend themselves by their arms and the nature of the ground.”

      19 Deputies from the Oroandensians afterwards brought more particular intelligence; that “the state of the Tolistoboians had seized Mount Olympus, but that the Tectosagians, taking a different route, were gone to another mountain called Magaba; and that the Trocmians, leaving their wives and children in charge with the Tectosagians, had resolved to carry their armed force to the assistance of the Tolistoboians.” The chieftains of the three states were at that time, Ortiagon, Combolomarus, and Gaulotus; and this was their reason in particular for choosing this mode of warfare, because as they had possession of the highest mountains in that part of the world, and had conveyed thither stores of every kind, sufficient for their consumption during the time, although long, they thought that they would weary out the enemy by the tediousness of the enterprise: “for neither would they dare to climb over places so steep and uneven; and if they should attempt it, they could be prevented and driven down, even by a small band; nor would they, sitting in inactivity at the foot of the frosty mountains, endure cold and hunger.” Although the height of their posts was in itself a strong defence, yet they drew, besides, a trench and other fortifications round the summits which they occupied. The least part of their care was employed in providing a stock of missile weapons; for they trusted that the rocky ground itself would furnish stones in abundance.

      20 The consul, as he had foreseen that the fight would not be hand to hand, but at a distance, in the attack of the enemy’s post, had prepared an immense quantity of javelins, light infantry, spears, arrows, balls of lead, and small stones, fit to be thrown with slings. Furnished with this stock of missile weapons, he marched towards Mount Olympus, and encamped within five miles of it. On the next day, as he was advancing with four hundred horse, and Attalus, to examine the nature of the mountain and situation of the camp of the Gauls; a party of the enemy’s cavalry, double in number to his, sallying from the camp, forced him to take to flight. A few of his soldiers were killed in the flight, and several wounded. On the third day, marching to explore the ground at the head of all his cavalry, as none of the enemy advanced beyond their fortifications, he rode round the mountain with safety, and saw that on the south side the hills were composed of earth, and rose to a certain height, with a gentle slope, but that on the north there was nothing but steep and almost perpendicular cliffs; and that there were but three practicable ways, almost all the others being impassable; one at the middle of the mountain, where the ground was earthy, and two others, both very difficult, one on the south-east, and the other on the north-west. After taking a full view of all these places, he pitched his camp that day close to the foot of the mountain. On the day following, after that, offering sacrifice, he had received favourable auspices with the first victims, he proceeds to lead his army, in three divisions, against the enemy. He himself, with the greatest part of the forces, marched up where the mountain afforded the easiest ascent. He ordered his brother, Lucius Manlius, to ascend on the south-east side, as far as the ground allowed him to do so with safety; but if any dangerous and steep precipices should lie in his way, then not to contend with the unfavourable nature of the place, or attempt to conquer insuperable obstacles, but by a slope across the mountain to incline towards him, and join the body under his command; and he directed Caius Helvius, with the third division, to march round leisurely, by the foot of the mountain, and to climb the hill on the north-east. The auxiliary troops of Attalus he distributed equally among the three divisions, ordering the young prince to accompany him. The cavalry and elephants he left in the plain, at the foot of the hills; orders were given to the prefects to watch attentively every thing that should happen, and to be expeditious in bringing succour wherever circumstances should require it.

      21 The Gauls, (thoroughly satisfied that the ground on their two flanks was impassable,) in order to secure, by arms, the ascent on the side which was situated towards the south, sent about four thousand soldiers to keep possession of a hill which hung over the road, at the distance of near a mile from their camp; hoping that they might stop the enemies’ progress by this as by a fortress. Which when the Romans saw, they prepared for battle. The light infantry marched a little in advance of the line, supported by draughts from Attalus’s troops, composed of the Cretan archers and slingers, the Trallians and Thracians. The battalions of infantry, as the ground was steep, marched at a slow pace, holding their shields before them, merely to ward off missile weapons, as they did not seem likely to fight in a close engagement. The fight commenced with the missile weapons, at the proper interval, and was at first equal. as the situation aided the Gauls, the variety and abundance of weapons, the Romans. But, as the contest advanced, there was no longer any equality: their shields, long, but too narrow for the breadth of their bodies, and besides being flat, ill protected the Gauls. Nor had they now any other weapons except their swords, which they had no opportunity of using, as the enemy did not come to close action. They used stones, and these not of a proper size, as they had not previously laid them up, but whatever came to the hand of each in his haste and confusion, as persons unaccustomed generally do, aiding the blow neither by skill nor strength. Incautiously exposing themselves, they were transfixed on all sides by arrows, leaden balls, and darts; nor did they know what to do, their minds being paralysed by rage and fear; and they were engaged in a kind of fight for which they were least of all qualified. For, as in a close encounter, where they can receive