A Band of Gallic Mercenaries
That men, in the infirmity of human nature, should fall
into misfortunes which defy calculation, is the fault not of the
sufferers but of Fortune, and of those who do the wrong; but
that they should from mere levity, and with their eyes open,
thrust themselves upon the most serious disasters is without
dispute the fault of the victims themselves. Therefore it is
that pity and sympathy and assistance await those whose
failure is due to Fortune: reproach and rebuke from all men
of sense those who have only their own folly to thank for it.
It is the latter that the Epirotes now richly deserved at the
The career of a body of Gallic mercenaries, |
hands of the Greeks. For in the first place, who in his senses,
knowing the common report as to the character of the Gauls,
would not have hesitated to trust to them a
city so rich, and offering so many opportunities
for treason? And again, who would not
have been on his guard against the bad character of this
particular body of them? For they had originally been
driven from their native country by an outburst of popular
indignation at an act of treachery done by them to their
own kinsfolk and relations.
Then having been received
by the Carthaginians, because of the exigencies of the war
in which the latter were engaged, and being
drafted into
Agrigentum to garrison it (being at
the time more than three thousand strong), they seized the
opportunity of a dispute as to pay, arising between the soldiers
and their generals, to plunder the city; and again being brought
by the Carthaginians into
Eryx to perform the
same duty, they first endeavoured to betray the
city and those who were shut up in it with them to the
Romans who were besieging it; and when they failed in that
treason, they deserted in a body to the enemy: whose trust
they also betrayed by plundering the temple of Aphrodite in
Eryx.
Thoroughly convinced, therefore, of their abominable
character, as soon as they had made peace with
Carthage the
Romans made it their first business to disarm them, put them
on board ship, and forbid them ever to enter
any part of
Italy. These were the men whom the
Epirotes made the protectors of their democracy
and the guardians of their laws! To such men as these they
entrusted their most wealthy city! How then can it be denied
that they were the cause of their own misfortunes?
My object, in commenting on the blind folly of the
Epirotes, is to point out that it is never wise to introduce a
foreign garrison, especially of barbarians, which is too strong
to be controlled.
