Brennus
- a leader of the Gauls who defeated the Romans at the river Allia, Liv. 5, 38, 3; Serv. ad Verg. A. 6, 826.
- —Hence, Brennĭcus, a, um, adj., of Brennus: signa, Sid. Carm. 7, 561.—
- II A king of the Gauls who invaded Greece in the second century B.C. and attacked Delphi, Cic. Div. 1, 37, 81; Just. 24, 5 sqq.; Val. Max. 1, 1, 18; Prop. 3, 13 (4, 12), 51.
1. The leader of the Gauls, who in B. C. 390 crossed the Apennines, took Rome, and overran the centre and the south of Italy. His real name was probably either Brenhin, which signifies in Kymrian "a king," or Bran, a proper name which occurs in Welsh history. (Arnold's Rome, vol. i. p. 524.) This makes it probable that he himself, as well as many of the warriors whom he led, belonged to the Kymri of Gaul, though the mass of the invaders are said by Livy (5.35) and by Diodorus (14.13) to have been Senones, from the neighbourhood of Sens, and must therefore, according to Caesar's division (B. G. 1.1) of the Gallic tribes, have been Kelts.
Little is known of him and his Gauls till they came into immediate contact with the Romans, and even then traditionary legends have very much obscured the facts of history.
It is clear, however, that, after crossing the Apennines (Diod. 14.113; Liv. 5.36), Brennus attacked Clusium, and unsuccessfully. The valley of the Clanis was then open before him, leading down to the Tiber, where the river was fordable; and after crossing it he passed through the country of the Sabines, and advanced along the Salarian road towards Rome. His army now amounted to 70,000 men. (Diod. 14.114.) At the Allia, which ran through a deep ravine into the Tiber, about 12 miles from the city, he found the Roman army, consisting of about 40,000 men, strongly posted. Their right wing, composed of the proletarians and irregular troops, was drawn up on high ground, covered by the ravine in front and some woody country on the flank; the left and centre, composed of the regular legions, filled the ground between the hills and the Tiber (Diod. 14.114), while the left wing rested on the river itself. Brennus attacked and carried this position, much in the same way as Frederick of Prussia defeated the Austrians at Leuthen. He fell with the whole strength of his army on the right wing of the Romans, and quickly cleared the ground. He then charged the exposed flank of the legions on the left, and routed the whole army with great slaughter. Had he marched at once upon the city, it would have fallen, together with the Capitol, into his hands, and the name and nation of Rome might have been swept from the earth. But he spent the night on the field. His warriors were busy in cutting off the heads of the slain (Diod. l.c.), and then abandoned themselves to plunder, drunkenness, and sleep. He delayed the whole of the next day, and thus gave the Romans time to secure the Capitol. On the third morning he burst open the gates of the city. Then followed the massacre of the eighty priests and old patricians (Zonar, 2.23), as they sat, each in the portico of his house, in their robes and chairs of state; the plunder and burning of all the city, except the houses on the Palatine, where Brennus established his quarters (Diod. 14.115); the famous night attack on the Capitol, and the gallant exploit of Manlius in saving it.
For six months Brennus besieged the Capitol, and at last reduced the garrison to offer 1000 pounds of gold for their ransom. The Gaul brought unfair weights to the scales, and the Roman tribune remonstrated. But Brennus then flung his broadsword into the scale, and told the tribune, who asked what it meant, that it meant " vae victim ease," that the weakest goes to the wall.
Polybius says (2.18), that Brennus and his Gauls then gave up the city, and returned home safe with their booty. But the vanity of the Romans and their popular legends would not let him so escape. According to some, a large detachment was cut off in an ambush near Caere (Diod. 14.117); according to others, these were none others than Brennus and those who had besieged the Capitol. (Strab. v. p.220.) Last of all, Camillus and a Roman army are made to appear suddenly just at the moment that the gold is being weighed for the Capitol, Brennus is defeated in two battles, he himself is killed, and his whole army slain to a man. (Liv. 5.49.)
2. The leader of a body of Gauls, who had settled in Pannonia, and who moved southwards and broke into Greece B. C. 279, one hundred and eleven years after the taking of Rome.
Pyrrhus of Epeirus was then absent in Italy. The infamous Ptolemy Ceraunus had just established himself on the throne of Macedon. Athens was again free under Olympiodorus (Paus. 1.26), and the old Achaean league had been renewed, with the promise of brighter days in the Peloponnesus, when the inroad of the barbarians threatened all Greece with desolation.
Brennus entered Paeonia at the same time that two other divisions of the Gauls invaded Thrace and Macedonia. On returning home, the easy victory which his countrymen had gained over Ptolemy in Macedon, the richness of the country, and the treasures of the temples, furnished him with arguments for another enterprise, and he again advanced southward with the enormous force of 150,000 foot and 61,000 horse. (Paus. 10.19.)
After ravaging Macedonia (Just. 24.6) he marched through Thessaly towards Thermopylae. Here an army of above 20,000 Greeks was assembled to dispute the pass, while a fleet of Athenian triremes lay close in shore, commanding the narrow road between the foot of the cliffs and the beach.
On arriving at the Spercheius, Brennus found the bridges broken, and a strong advanced post of the Greeks on the opposite bank. He waited therefore till night, and then sent a body of men down the river, to cross it where it spreads itself over some marshy ground and becomes fordable. On the Gauls gaining the right bank, the advanced post of the Greeks fell back upon Thermopylae. Brennus repaired the bridges and crossed the river, and advanced hastily by Heracleia towards the pass. At daybreak the fight began. But the illarmed and undisciplined Gauls rushed in vain upon the Grecian phalanx, and after repeated attacks of incredible fury they were forced to retire with great loss. Brennus then despatched 40,000 of his men across the mountains of Thesssaly into Aetolia, which they ravaged with horrible barbarity. This had the intended effect of detaching the Aetolians from the allied army at Thermopylae; and about the same time some Heracleots betrayed the pass over the mountains by which, two hundred years before, the Persians had descended on the rear of the devoted Spartans. The Gaul followed the same path. But the Greeks this time, though again surrounded, escaped; for the Athenian fleet carried them safely away before the Gauls attacked them. (Paus. 10.22.)
Brennus, without waiting for those whom he had left on the other side of the pass, pushed on for the plunder of Delphi. Justin says the barbarians laughed at the notion of dedication to the gods (24.6): " The gods were so rich themselves that they could afford to be givers instead of receivers ;" and as he approached the sacred hill, he pointed out the statues, and chariots, and other offerings, which were conspicuous around the temple, and which he promised as the golden prizes of the victory. (Just. 24.8.)
The Delphians had collected about 4000 men on the rock,--a small number to oppose the host of Brennus. But they were strongly posted, and the advantage of the ground, and their own steady conduct, manifestly saved the temple without the supernatural help of Apollo, which is given to them by the Greek and Roman historians. As the Gauls rushed on from below, the Greeks plied their darts, and rolled down broken rocks from the cliff upon them. A violent storm and intense cold (for it was winter) increased the confusion of the assailants. They nevertheless pressed on, till Brennus fainted from his wounds, and was carried out of the fight. They then fled. The Greeks, exasperated by their barbarities, hung on their retreat, through a difficult and mountainous country, and but few of them escaped to their comrades, whom they had left behind at Thermopylae. (Paus. 10.23.)
Brennus was still alive, and might have recovered from his wounds, but according to Pausanias he would not survive his defeat, and put an end to his life with large draughts of strong wine--a more probable account than that of Justin (24.8), who says that being unable to bear the pain of his wounds, he stabbed himself. [A.G]
The Latinized form of the Keltic title bran, “a prince.” (1) A general of the Galli Senones, who entered Italy, defeated the Romans at the river Allia, and entered their city without opposition. The Romans fled into the Capitol, and left the whole city in the possession of their enemies. The Gauls climbed the Tarpeian Rock in the night, and the Capitol would have been taken, had not the Romans been awakened by the noise of the sacred geese in the Temple of Iuno and immediately repelled the enemy. (See Manlius.) Camillus, who was in banishment, marched to the relief of his country, and totally defeated the Gauls, so that not one remained to carry home the news of their destruction.
The destruction of the Gauls by Camillus is the national account given by the Roman writers, and is replete with error and exaggeration. The domination of the Gauls in Italy was certainly of long continuance, and was not terminated in the dramatic manner of the legend. See Camillus; Celtae; Kuno, Vorgeschichte Roms (1878); and Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 427 foll.
(2) Another Gallic leader, who made an irruption into Greece at the head of an army of his countrymen consisting of 152,000 foot and 20,000 horse. After ravaging various parts of northern Greece, they marched against Delphi, and endeavoured to plunder the temple. But the army of the invaders, according to the Grecian account, were seized with a panic terror during the night, and being attacked at daybreak by the Delphians and others of the Greeks, retreated in the utmost confusion. Large numbers perished, the Greeks continually hanging on the skirts of the retreating foe; and Brennus, wounded, and dispirited by his overthrow, killed himself in a fit of intoxication, B.C. 278 (Pausan. x. 19).
- attacks Paeonia: Paus. 10.19.7
- stirs up Gauls against Greece: Paus. 10.19.8
- marches against Greece: Paus. 10.19.12
- his strategy: Paus. 10.20.6, 7
- crosses Spercheus: Paus. 10.21.1
- at Thermopylae: Paus. 10.22.2, 9, 10
- leads Gauls against Delphi: Paus. 10.8.3, Paus. 10.23.1
- wounded: Paus. 10.23.6
- puts an end to himself: Paus. 10.23.12