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At the time that Dionysius was besieging Rhegium, the Celts1 who had their homes in the regions beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Apennine mountains and the Alps, expelling the Tyrrhenians who dwelt there. [2] These, according to some, were colonists from the twelve cities of Tyrrhenia; but others state that before the Trojan War Pelasgians fled from Thessaly to escape the flood of Deucalion's time and settled in this region. [3] Now it happened, when the Celts divided up the territory by tribes, that those known as the Sennones received the area which lay farthest from the mountains and along the sea. But since this region was scorching hot, they were distressed and eager to move; hence they armed their younger men and sent them out to seek a territory where they might settle. Now they invaded Tyrrhenia, and being in number some thirty thousand they sacked the territory of the Clusini. [4]

At this very time the Roman people sent ambassadors2 into Tyrrhenia to spy out the army of the Celts. The ambassadors arrived at Clusium, and when they saw that a battle had been joined, with more valour than wisdom they joined the men of Clusium against their besiegers, [5] and one3 of the ambassadors was successful in killing a rather important commander. When the Celts learned of this, they dispatched ambassadors to Rome to demand the person of the envoy who had thus commenced an unjust war. [6] The senate at first sought to persuade the envoys of the Celts to accept money in satisfaction of the injury, but when they would not consider this, it voted to surrender the accused. But the father of the man to be surrendered, who was also one of the military tribunes with consular power, appealed the judgement to the people,4 and since he was a man of influence among the masses, he persuaded them to void the decision of the senate. [7] Now in the times previous to this the people had followed the senate in all matters; with this occasion they first began to rescind decisions of that body.

1 There are two other extended descriptions of the Gallic invasion of Rome, in Livy 5.34-49 and in Plut. Camillus 16-29. The account by Diodorus is by far the most reliable (cp. Beloch, Römische Geschichte, pp. 311 ff.; SchweglerBaur, 3, pp. 234 ff.).

2 Three, all of the Fabian gens.

3 Quintus Fabius Ambustus.

4 An instance of the famous provocatio ad populum.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 5, 34
    • Plutarch, Camillus, 16
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