Gauls Attack the Military Colonies
While Hannibal was thus engaged in effecting a passage
over the
Pyrenees, where he was greatly alarmed
at the extraordinary strength of the positions
occupied by the Celts; the Romans, having
heard the result of the embassy to
Carthage,
and that Hannibal had crossed the Iber earlier
than they expected, at the head of an army, voted
to send Publius Cornelius Scipio with his legions
into
Iberia, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus
into
Libya. And while the Consuls were engaged in hastening on the enrolment of their legions and other
military preparations, the people were active in bringing to
completion the colonies which they had already voted to send
into
Gaul. They accordingly caused the fortification of these
towns to be energetically pushed on, and ordered the colonists
to be in residence within thirty days: six thousand having been
assigned to each colony.
One of these colonies was on the
south bank of the
Padus, and was called
Placentia; the other on the north bank, called
Cremona. But no sooner had these colonies
been formed, than the Boian Gauls, who had long been
lying in wait to throw off their loyalty to
Rome, but had
up to that time lacked an opportunity, encouraged by the
news that reached them of Hannibal's approach, revolted;
thus abandoning the hostages which they had given at the end
of the war described in my last book. The ill-feeling still
remaining towards
Rome enabled them to induce the Insubres
to join in the revolt; and the united tribes swept over the
territory recently allotted by the Romans, and following close
upon the track of the flying colonists, laid siege to the Roman
colony of
Mutina, in which the fugitives had taken refuge.
Among them were the
triumviri or three commissioners who
had been sent out to allot the lands; of whom one—Gaius
Lutatius—was an ex-consul, the other two ex-praetors.
Outrage by Boii and Insubres. |
These
men having demanded a parley with the
enemy, the Boii consented: but treacherously
seized them upon their leaving the town,
hoping by their means to recover their own hostages. The
praetor Lucius Manlius was on guard in the district with an
army; and as soon as he heard what had happened, he advanced
with all speed to the relief of
Mutina. But the Boii, having got
intelligence of his approach, prepared an ambuscade; and as
soon as his army had entered a certain wood, they rushed out
upon it from every side and killed a large number of his men.
The survivors at first fled with precipitation: but having gained
some higher ground, they rallied sufficiently to enable them
with much difficulty to effect an honourable retreat. Even so,
the Boii followed close upon their heels, and besieged them
in a place called the village of Tannes.
1 When the news
arrived at
Rome, that the fourth legion was surrounded and
closely besieged by the Boii, the people in all haste despatched
the legions which had been voted to the Consul Publius, to
their relief, under the command of a Praetor; and ordered the
Consul to enrol two more legions for himself from the allies.
