Allia is a small river in Lazio , Italy . It is a left tributary of the Tiber with confluence about 18 kilometres (11 mi) from Rome . The Allia's source is located in the mountains near the location of Crustumerium and it flows near Monterotondo towards the Tiber.
139-707: The confluence of Allia and the Tiber is the site of the Battle of the Allia , where Romans were defeated by the Gallic tribe Senones under Brennus in 387 BC. This Lazio location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Italy is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Battle of the Allia The Battle of
278-478: A Gaul plucked up his courage and stroked the long beard of Papirius Marcus, who hit him hard on the head with his staff. The Gauls then killed all men and sacked and burned the houses for many days. The defenders of Capitoline Hill did not surrender and repulsed an attack. The Gauls killed everyone they captured, including women, children and the elderly. The Gauls entered Rome shortly after the Ides of July and withdrew from
417-437: A Gaul, who began to stroke his beard – which in those days was universally worn long – by smiting him on the head with his ivory staff. He was the first to be killed, the others were butchered in their chairs. After this slaughter of the magnates, no living being was thenceforth spared; the houses were rifled, and then set on fire. Despite the above statement, Livy wrote that the fires were not as widespread as one could expect on
556-761: A breakdown of her alliances with the Latin League and the Hernici and rebellions by several Latin cities. Rome spent the next 32 years fighting the Volsci, the Etruscans and the rebel Latin cities. In 389 BC, the Volsci took up arms and encamped near the Latin city of Lanuvium . Camillus defeated them and laid "waste all the Volscian countryside, which forced the Volsci to surrender." Livy wrote that with this Rome "acquired undisputed control" of
695-678: A colony with 2000 colonists at Satricum. In 383 BC, the Latin city of Lanuvium rebelled. The Roman senate decided to found a colony at Nepet in southern Etruria and allot land in the Pomptine Marshes to the Roman poor to gain popular support for a war. An epidemic, however, prevented any war. That prompted the Romans at Velitrae and Circeii to sue for pardon, but they were dissuaded by the rebels, who also encouraged pillaging in Roman territory. The Latin city of Praeneste also became rebellious and attacked
834-474: A destruction-level of this date suggests that [this] sack of Rome was superficial only." The date of the battle has been traditionally given as 390 BC in the Varronian chronology , based on an account of the battle by the Roman historian Livy . Plutarch noted that the battle took place "just after the summer solstice when the moon was near the full [...] a little more than three hundred and sixty years from
973-458: A few people who were not good fighters. He advised them to drive the people out of their land and enjoy the fruit as their own. He persuaded them to come to Italy, go to Clusium, and make war. Dionysius' account presumes that those Gauls had not invaded Italy and were in Gaul. When Quintus Fabius, one of the Roman ambassadors, killed a Gallic leader, they wanted the brothers to be handed over to them to pay
1112-542: A few years earlier, had gone when he was exiled because of accusations of embezzlement. Camillus rallied the people of Ardea to fight. He marched at night, caught the camp of the Gauls by surprise, and massacred the enemy in their sleep. Some Gallic fugitives got near Antium and were surrounded by its townsmen. Meanwhile, in Rome, both sides were quiet. The Senones conducted the siege "with great slackness" and concentrated on preventing
1251-431: A further 100 senators. They were chosen from the minor leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium . Rome's seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus , executed many of the leading men in the senate, and did not replace them, thereby diminishing their number. However, in 509 BC Rome's first and third consuls , Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius Publicola chose from amongst
1390-510: A law ( lex ) that was passed by an assembly , the law overrode the senatus consultum because the senatus consultum had its authority based on precedent and not in law. A senatus consultum , however, could serve to interpret a law. Through these decrees, the senate directed the magistrates , especially the Roman Consuls (the chief magistrates), in their prosecution of military conflicts. The senate also had an enormous degree of power over
1529-466: A longer period. Senators were entitled to wear a toga with a broad purple stripe, maroon shoes, and an iron (later gold) ring. The Senate of the Roman Republic passed decrees called senatus consulta , which in form constituted "advice" from the senate to a magistrate. While these decrees did not hold legal force, they usually were obeyed in practice. If a senatus consultum conflicted with
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#17328371360081668-455: A magisterial office without the emperor's approval, senators usually did not vote against bills that had been presented by the emperor. If a senator disapproved of a bill, he usually showed his disapproval by not attending the senate meeting on the day that the bill was to be voted on. While the Roman assemblies continued to meet after the founding of the empire, their powers were all transferred to
1807-399: A nation they are by no means inattentive to the claims of religion". In the meantime, the survivors of the battle who had fled to Veii began to regroup. Led by Quintus Caedicius, the centurion they chose as their leader, they routed a force of Etruscans who looted the territory of Veii and intended to attack this city. They made some prisoners lead them to another Etruscan force, which was at
1946-451: A place on either side of the chamber. Senate membership was controlled by the censors . By the time of Augustus , ownership of property worth at least one million sesterces was required for membership. The ethical requirements of senators were significant. In contrast to members of the Equestrian order , senators could not engage in banking or any form of public contract. They could not own
2085-399: A sacrifice to the gods was made, and a search for divine omens (the auspices ) was taken. The senate was only allowed to assemble in places dedicated to the gods. Meetings usually began at dawn, and a magistrate who wished to summon the senate had to issue a compulsory order. The senate meetings were public and directed by a presiding magistrate (usually a consul ). While in session,
2224-430: A senator. Under the first method, the emperor manually granted that individual the authority to stand for election to the quaestorship, while under the second method, the emperor appointed that individual to the senate by issuing a decree. Under the empire, the power that the emperor held over the senate was absolute. The two consuls were a part of the senate, but had more power than the senators. During senate meetings,
2363-655: A series of wars against nearby peoples. Rome, in conjunction with the Latin League , a coalition of other Latin cities, and the Hernici , had spent much of the 5th century fighting against the Volsci and Aequi , who lived to the south, in response to the latter's attacks on their territory. Immediately after the sack, there were attacks by the Volsci and the Etruscan city-states in southern Etruria . Rome responded aggressively. That led to
2502-533: A ship that was large enough to participate in foreign commerce, they could not leave Italy without permission from the rest of the senate and they were not paid a salary. Election to magisterial office resulted in automatic senate membership. After the fall of the Roman Republic , the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman senate to the Roman Emperor . Though retaining its legal position as under
2641-419: A single tribe. The Roman army was led by the tribune Quintus Sulpicius Longus . There are only two ancient accounts that provide details of the battle. One is by Livy, and the other is by Diodorus Siculus . According to Livy, no special measures were taken in Rome, and the levy "was not larger than had been usual in ordinary campaigns". The Gauls marched on Rome so quickly that "Rome was thunderstruck by
2780-417: A vote could be held, and since all meetings had to end by nightfall, a dedicated group or even a single senator could talk a proposal to death (a filibuster or diem consumere ). When it was time to call a vote, the presiding magistrate could bring up whatever proposals he wished, and every vote was between a proposal and its negative. Despite dictators holding nominal power, the senate could veto any of
2919-407: Is 25,000-40,000. The seminal work by Fraccaro gives a pool of military manpower of 9,000 men of military age (between 17 and 47), which would require a minimum population of 30,000. Archaeological evidence shows that in the 5th century BC, there was an economic downturn that would have precluded considerable population growth. The territory of Rome had increased by 75% by the early 4th century, but
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#17328371360083058-500: Is in 296 BC. In 295 BC, the Romans deployed six legions; four led by the two consuls, and fought a coalition of four peoples (the Samnites , Etruscans , Umbrians and Senone Gauls) in the huge Battle of Sentinum . Two were led to another front by a praetor . The Battle of the Allia took place in the early days of Rome when the Roman army was much smaller and its command structure was much simpler. The Roman army had only two legions, and
3197-575: Is no mention in any of the accounts of wives and children, who would have been present if the Gauls had been a migrating people in search of land. Cornell thinks that they were mercenaries. A few months after the sack of Rome, Dionysius I of Syracuse , the tyrant of the Greek city of Syracuse , in Sicily, hired Gallic mercenaries for a war in the south of Italy. It may well be that was why the Senones were on their way to
3336-528: The praetor , who had been instituted in 366 BC, and the proconsul , who was a consul who received an extension of his term of military command (the practice started in 327 BC). The first historical hints of the consuls leading more than one legion were for 299 BC (during a war with the Etruscans) and 297 BC, during the Third Samnite War (298-290 BC). The first explicit mention of a consul with two legions
3475-615: The Commune of Rome attempted to establish a new senate in opposition to the temporal power of the nobles and the pope ; as part of this plan, the Commune constructed a new senate house (the Palazzo Senatorio [ it ] ) on the Capitoline Hill (apparently in the mistaken belief that this was the site of the ancient senate house). Most sources state that there were 56 senators in
3614-548: The Etruscan town of Clusium (now Chiusi , Tuscany ) by Aruns, an influential young man of the city who wanted to take revenge against Lucumo, whose son had "debauched his wife". When the Senones appeared, the Clusians felt threatened and asked Rome for help. The Romans sent the three sons of Marcus Fabius Ambustus , one of Rome's most powerful aristocrats, as ambassadors. They told the Gauls not to attack Clusium and that if they did,
3753-528: The Pomptine Marshes in the southern part of the Volscian territory. However, the Volsci subsequently continued to fight. Camillus then moved against the Aequi who were preparing for war and defeated them, too. The Etruscans captured the Roman colony of Sutrium in southern Etruria and Camillus repelled them. In 388 BC, the Romans laid waste the territory of the Aequi to weaken them and carried out incursions into
3892-433: The 3rd century BC the senate also played a pivotal role in cases of emergency. It could call for the appointment of a dictator (a right resting with each consul with or without the senate's involvement). However, after 202 BC, the office of dictator fell out of use (and was revived only two more times) and was replaced with the senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate"), a senatorial decree that authorised
4031-569: The Allia was fought c. 387 BC between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus , who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic . The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber River and Allia brook , 11 Roman miles (16 km, 10 mi) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome was sacked by the Senones. According to scholar Piero Treves, "the absence of any archaeological evidence for
4170-436: The Allia and the sack of Rome were written centuries after the events, and their reliability is questionable. That may also account for the discrepancies between Livy and Diodorus Siculus concerning the sack of the city. The rescue of the city by Camillus is seen by many modern historians as an addition to the story since he was not mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and Polybius , another ancient Greek historian. Diodorus said that
4309-562: The Capitoline and went through the streets for plunder. They did not meet anybody. People moved to other houses. The Gauls returned to the area of the Forum. Livy memorably described Gauls' encounter with the elderly patricians : The houses of the plebeians were barricaded, the halls of the patricians stood open, but they felt greater hesitation about entering the open houses than those which were closed. They gazed with feelings of real veneration upon
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4448-410: The Capitoline by scaling "a precipitous rock which, owing to its steepness, the enemy had left unguarded". The Senate decreed that the popular assembly was to pass a law that annulled the banishment of Camillus and appointed him dictator (commander-in-chief). Camillus was escorted from Ardea to Veii. The Senones either found footprints left by Cominius Pontius or discovered a relatively-easy ascent up
4587-448: The Etruscans seized Sutrium and Nepet , two Roman colonies in southern Etruria. The Romans asked the Latins and Hernici why they did not provide Rome with soldiers, as they were supposed to, under their alliances. Both replied that it was because of "their constant fear of the Volsci." They also said that their men who had fought with the Volsci had done so of their own volition and not under
4726-424: The Gauls to return to render aid. They then ravaged the territories of Labici, Tusculum, and Alba Longa. The Romans kept an army at Tusculum and fought the Gauls with another one, not far from Rome's Colline gate. After a tough battle, the Gauls went to Tibur again. The two allies were defeated by the two Roman armies. A third Roman army defeated the Hernici in a major battle. In 359, a small force from Tibur arrived at
4865-562: The Gauls were defeated at the Trausian Plain, an unidentified location, by an Etruscan army when they were on the way back from southern Italy. Strabo wrote that they were defeated by Caere (the Etruscan city, allied to Rome, to which the Vestal priestesses had fled) and that the Caerites recovered Rome's ransomed gold. That runs counter to the notion that Camillus stopped the payment of a ransom to
5004-462: The Initiates and the Latins. The former were inclined to give up, but the latter did not and left. The Initiates surrendered their city and lands. The Latins burned Satricum in revenge. Then, they attacked Tusculum, which was rescued by the Romans. In 370 BC, the Roman colonists of Velitrae made several incursions into Roman territory and besieged Tusculum, knowing that Rome did not have an army because
5143-513: The Ostrogothic leader Theodahad found himself at war with Emperor Justinian I and took the senators as hostages. Several senators were executed in 552 as revenge for the death of the Ostrogothic king, Totila . After Rome was recaptured by the imperial ( Byzantine ) army, the senate was restored, but the institution (like classical Rome itself) had been mortally weakened by the long war. Many senators had been killed and many of those who had fled to
5282-507: The Romans at the battle of Allia had four legions, two for each of the two consuls, is doubly anachronistic. Moreover, the Roman legions had 6,000 men on only a few exceptional occasions. In the early days of the republic, when the Battle of the Allia took place, it was 4,200. Later, it was 5,200 when at full strength, which was often not the case. Accordingly, the Roman force at the battle was likely substantially smaller than estimated. The size of
5421-619: The Romans from slipping through their lines. The patrician clan of the Fabii held an annual sacrifice on the Quirinal Hill . Gaius Fabius Dorsuo came down the Capitoline carrying the sacred vessels, passed through the enemy pickets and went to the Quirinal. He duly performed the sacred rites and returned the Capitoline. Livy commented, "Either the Gauls were stupefied at his extraordinary boldness, or else they were restrained by religious feelings, for as
5560-482: The Romans had 15,000 men and the Gauls 30,000 to 70,000. Peter Berresford Ellis gives an estimate of a minimum of 24,000 based on the assumption that "the Romans had... four legions – for each consul had two legions under his command – and given that each legion had 6,000 men". He also thinks that there may have been a contingent of allied troops. He thinks that the "Senones' tribal army could scarcely number more than 12,000". The figures given by ancient historians for
5699-503: The Romans suddenly. There was a "disorderly and shameful battle". The Roman left wing was pushed into the river and destroyed while the right-wing withdrew before the Gauls' attack from the plain to the hills and most of them fled to Rome. The rest of the survivors escaped to Veii at night. "They thought that Rome was lost and all her people slain." Livy provides a detailed account of the sack of Rome. The Gauls were dumbfounded by their sudden and extraordinary victory and did not move from
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5838-508: The Romans would fight to defend the town. They then asked to negotiate peace. The Senones accepted peace if the Clusians would give them some land. There was a quarrel and a battle broke out. The Roman ambassadors joined in. One of them killed a Senone chieftain. That was a violation of the rule that ambassadors had to be neutral. The brothers had taken sides and one of them had also killed a Senone. The Gauls withdrew to discuss what action to take. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus , Lucumo
5977-504: The Senate of Constantinople was made up of all current or former holders of senior ranks and official positions, plus their descendants. At its height during the 6th and 7th centuries, the Senate represented the collective wealth and power of the Empire, on occasion nominating and dominating individual emperors. In the second half of the 10th century a new office, proedros ( Greek : πρόεδρος ),
6116-414: The Senones were "distressed and eager to move" because they had settled to a place (the ager Gallicus ) that was too hot. They armed their younger men and sent them out to seek a territory where they might settle. Therefore, they invaded Etruria , the 30,000 sacked the territory of Clusium . However, Cornell finds that to be unconvincing. Throughout the story, the Senones appear to be a warrior band. There
6255-545: The Senones. As has been noted, Plutarch wrote that Aristotle said that Rome was saved by "a certain Lucius". That could be Lucius Albinus, who was said to have given the priestesses a lift to Caere. The role of Caere in the saga of the Gallic sack is unclear, and it may be that it played a more important role than in the Roman tradition. There is also the question of what the Senones were doing in central Italy. Diodorus Siculus wrote that
6394-549: The State" away and continue to perform their sacred cults. The situation was so dire that the elderly were left behind in the city and former consuls stayed with them to reconcile them with their fate. However, many of them followed their sons to the Capitoline. No one had the heart to stop them. Many people fled to the Janiculum Hill just outside the city and then dispersed to the countryside and other towns. The Flamen of Quirinus and
6533-565: The Vestal Virgins could take only some of the sacred objects and decided to bury the rest under the chapel next to the Flamen's house. They set off to the Janiculum with what they could carry. Lucius Albinus, who was leaving the city on a wagon, saw them walking. He ordered his wife and children to get off and gave them and the sacred vessels of Rome a lift to Caere , an Etruscan city on the coast that
6672-445: The Volsci ravaged the borders of Roman territory. The Romans sent an army to Antium on the coast and another to Electra and the mountains and applied a scorched earth policy. In 377 BC, a joint Latin and Volscian force encamped near Satricum. The Romans levied three armies: one was a reserve legion, one defended the city and the third, the largest, marched on Satricum. The enemy was routed and fled to Antium. A quarrel now broke out between
6811-426: The Volsci. The joint force took the Roman colony of Satricum despite strong resistance by the Roman colonists. In 381 BC, the Romans levied four legions and marched on Satricum. There was a fierce battle that the Romans won. There were men from Tusculum among the prisoners. After Tusculum broke its alliance with the Romans, Rome declared war on it. However, when the Romans entered its territory, Tusculum did not fight and
6950-636: The Younger , mother of Nero , had been listening to Senate proceedings, concealed behind a curtain, according to Tacitus ( Annales , 13.5). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , the senate continued to function under the Germanic chieftain Odoacer , and then under Ostrogothic rule. The authority of the senate rose considerably under barbarian leaders, who sought to protect the institution. This period
7089-401: The above factors that give further reasons to doubt the figures given about the size of the Roman forces at the Battle of the Allia, the Romans did not have much time to prepare for the battle properly since, after their embassy was rebuffed by the Romans, the Gauls immediately marched on Rome, only a few days' marches away. The Roman army was then a part-time militia of peasant farmers levied for
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#17328371360087228-524: The account of Diodorus Siculus. Pontius swam across the River Tiber and went up a cliff, which was difficult to climb. After giving his message, he returned to Veii. The Gauls noticed the track left by Pontius and ascended the same cliff. The Roman guards were neglectful of their watch and the Gauls escaped detection. When the geese made a noise, the guards rushed against the attackers. Diodorus called Manlius Capitolinus Marcus Mallius and wrote that he cut off
7367-453: The ancient Roman Kingdom . The word senate derives from the Latin word senex , which means "old man"; the word thus means "assembly of elders". The prehistoric Indo-Europeans who settled Italy in the centuries before the founding of Rome in 753 BC were structured into tribal communities, and these communities often included an aristocratic board of tribal elders. The early Roman family
7506-446: The bank further downstream with great effort. As the Gauls kept killing the Romans, the soldiers then threw their arms away and swam across the river. The Gauls threw javelins at them. Most of the survivors fled to the city of Veii. Some returned to Rome and reported that the army had been destroyed. Plutarch wrote that the Gauls encamped near the confluence of the Allia with the Tiber, some 18 km (11 mi) from Rome, and attacked
7645-492: The battle is not known for sure. Plutarch writes that the Romans were not outnumbered and had 40,000 men but that most were untrained and unaccustomed to weapons. Dionysius of Halicarnassus writes that the Romans had four well-trained legions and a levy of untrained citizens that was larger in number. That would give a rough figure of some 35,000. Diodorus Siculus writes that the Romans had 24,000 men. Livy gives no figures. The modern historians Cary and Scullard estimate that
7784-473: The booty, and took a large number of weapons. The Romans reconstituted an army, gathered men who had dispersed in the countryside when they fled Rome and then decided to relieve the siege of the Capitoline Hill. Cominius Pontius was sent as a messenger to the Capitoline Hill to tell the besieged about the plan and that the men at Veii were waiting for an opportunity to attack. There is no mention of Camillus in
7923-418: The bulk of the increase was caused by the recent conquest of the city of Veii and its territory, and its population did not have Roman citizenship, a requirement to serve in the Roman army. Such considerations make it unlikely that the size of the population of Roman citizens would have been large enough to provide a military pool of 24,000 or more soldiers at the time of the Battle of the Allia. In addition to
8062-610: The case of Eugenius , who was later defeated by forces loyal to Theodosius I . The senate remained the last stronghold of the traditional Roman religion in the face of the spreading Christianity, and several times attempted to facilitate the return of the Altar of Victory (first removed by Constantius II ) to the senatorial curia. According to the Historia Augusta ( Elagabalus 4.2 and 12.3) emperor Elagabalus had his mother or grandmother take part in Senate proceedings. "And Elagabalus
8201-405: The city about the Ides of February (February 13), the siege lasting seven months. Plutarch also notes that some Gauls reached Ardea and that Camillus rallied the city against them and attacked them. On hearing the news, the neighbouring cities called to arms the men of military age, especially the Romans who had fled to Veii. They wanted Camillus to be their commander but refused to do so before he
8340-403: The civil government in Rome. This was especially the case with regard to its management of state finances, as only it could authorize the disbursal of public funds from the treasury. As the Roman Republic grew, the senate also supervised the administration of the provinces, which were governed by former consuls and praetors , in that it decided which magistrate should govern which province. Since
8479-408: The cliff. They climbed it and reached the summit of the Capitoline at night. They were heard not by the guards and the dogs but by the geese sacred to the goddess Juno , which woke up the Romans. Marcus Manlius Capitolinus , a former consul, knocked down a Gaul who had reached the top. He fell on those behind him. Manlius also killed some Gauls who had laid aside their weapons to cling to the rocks. He
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#17328371360088618-430: The coming year." The Gauls were enraged that those who had violated the law of nations had been honoured and marched on Rome, 130 km (81 mi) from Clusium. Livy wrote that "in response to the tumult caused by their swift advance, terrified cities rushed to arms and the country folk fled, but the Gauls signified by their shouts wherever they went that their destination was Rome." The number of fighters involved in
8757-406: The consuls to employ any means necessary to solve the crisis. While senate meetings could take place either inside or outside the formal boundary of the city (the pomerium ), no meeting could take place more than a mile (in the Roman system of measurement, now approx. 1.48 km) outside it. The senate operated while under various religious restrictions. For example, before any meeting could begin,
8896-497: The decline of the prestigious institution, suggesting that by this date, the senate had officially ceased to function as a body. Although the Gregorian register of 603 mentions the senate in reference to the acclamation of new statues of Emperor Phocas and Empress Leontia , scholars such as Ernst Stein and André Chastagnol have argued that this mention was likely nothing more than a ceremonial flourish. In 630, any remnants of
9035-418: The dictator's decisions. At any point before a motion passed, the proposed motion could be vetoed, usually by a tribune . If there was no veto, and the matter was of minor importance, it could be put to either a voice vote or a show of hands. If there was no veto and no obvious majority, and the matter was of a significant nature, there was usually a physical division of the house, with senators voting by taking
9174-517: The early 7th century, when Rome was under the dominion of the Exarchate of Ravenna . Records that in both 578 and 580, the politically-impotent senate of Rome sent envoys to Constantinople along with pleas for help against the Lombards , who had invaded Italy ten years earlier. Later, in 593, Pope Gregory I would give a sermon in which he bemoaned the almost complete disappearance of the senatorial order and
9313-479: The east chose to remain there, thanks to favorable legislation passed by Emperor Justinian, who, however, abolished virtually all senatorial offices in Italy. The importance of the Roman senate thus declined rapidly, and it likely ceased to function as an institution with any real legislative power shortly after this time. It is not known exactly when the Roman senate disappeared in the West, but it appears to have been in
9452-432: The emperor sat between the two consuls, and usually acted as the presiding officer. Senators of the early empire could ask extraneous questions or request that a certain action be taken by the senate. Higher ranking senators spoke before those of lower rank, although the emperor could speak at any time. Besides the emperor, consuls and praetors could also preside over the senate. Since no senator could stand for election to
9591-506: The episode of the geese of Juno, the Gauls were less hopeful. They were short of provisions but did not go foraging because they feared Camillus. They were also affected by the disease because they were encamped amid ruins, and there were dead bodies scattered everywhere. The wind scattered ash, which made breathing difficult. They were also suffering from the Mediterranean heat to which they were not accustomed. The Gauls "were now whiling away
9730-448: The first day of the capture of a city and speculated that the Gauls wanted not to destroy the city but only to intimidate the men on the Capitoline Hill into surrender to save their homes. Despite the anguish at hearing "the shouts of the enemy, the shrieks of the women and boys, the roar of the flames, and the crash of houses falling in", the men were resolved to continue to defend the hill. As that continued day after day, "they became as it
9869-754: The first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC) as the Senate of the Roman Kingdom , to the Senate of the Roman Republic and Senate of the Roman Empire and eventually the Byzantine Senate of the Eastern Roman Empire , existing well into the post-classical era and Middle Ages . During the days of the Roman Kingdom , the Senate was generally little more than an advisory council to
10008-495: The founding [of Rome]," or shortly after 393 BC. The Greek historian Polybius used a Greek dating system to derive the battle as having taken place in 387 BC, which is the most probable. Tacitus listed the date as 18 July. The Senones were one of the various Gallic tribes that had recently invaded northern Italy. They settled on the Adriatic Coast around what is now Rimini . According to Livy , they were called to
10147-466: The gods, as they were supposed to. They extended the wings to avoid being outflanked, but that made their line so thin and weakened that the centre could hardly be kept together. They placed the reserves on a hill on the right. Brennus, the Senone chieftain, suspected that to be a ruse and that the reservists would attack him from the rear while he was fighting the Roman army on the plain. He, therefore, attacked
10286-424: The gold from the scales and said that it was the Roman custom to deliver the city with iron, not gold. He then said that the agreement to pay a ransom had not been made legally since it was made without him, who had been made the legal ruler, and so it was not binding. The Gauls now had to say what they wanted because "he [had] come with legal authority to grant pardon to those who asked it, and to inflict punishment on
10425-441: The guilty, unless they showed repentance". Brennus began a skirmish. The two sides could not fight a battle because no battle array was possible "in the heart of the ruined city". Brennus led his men to their camp and then left the city during the night. At dawn, Camillus caught up with them and routed them "[of] the fugitives, some were at once pursued and cut down, but most of them scattered abroad, only to be fallen upon and slain by
10564-405: The hand of the first Senone climber with his sword and pushed him down the hill. Since the hill was steep, all enemy soldiers fell and died. Then, the Romans negotiated peace and persuaded the Gauls "upon receipt of one thousand pounds of gold, to leave the city and to withdraw from Roman territory". Plutarch painted a greater picture of destruction and killings than Livy. The Gauls went to Rome on
10703-428: The heads of the dead, which he claimed was their custom, and then encamped by the city for two days. Meanwhile, the despairing inhabitants of Rome thought that the whole army had been wiped out and that there was no chance of resistance. Many of them fled to other towns. The leaders of the city ordered food, gold, silver and other possessions to be taken to Capitoline Hill, which was then fortified. The Senones thought that
10842-407: The hill again. Instead, they prepared a siege. They divided their forces into two. One division besieged the hill, and the other went foraging in the territories of the neighbouring cities because all the grain around Rome had been taken to Veii by the Roman soldiers who had fled there. Some Gauls arrived at Ardea , where Marcus Furius Camillus , a great Roman military commander who had seized Veii
10981-407: The hill. The Romans panicked. The left-wing threw their arms down and fled to the bank of the River Tiber. The Gauls killed the soldiers who were blocking one another's paths in the disorderly flight. Those who could not swim or were weak were weighed down by their armour and drowned. Still, the majority of the men reached Veii , an Etruscan city that had recently been conquered by Rome and was near
11120-442: The hills, which had been scorched by the fires and there was malaria. Many of them died because of disease and the heat. They started to pile the dead bodies and burn them, instead of burying them, started negotiations with the Romans and called on them to surrender because of the famine. They also hinted that they could be bought off. The Roman leaders, who were waiting for Camillus to arrive with an army from Veii, refused. Eventually,
11259-465: The king could make new laws, although he often involved both the senate and the curiate assembly (the popular assembly) in the process. When the Republic began, the Senate functioned as an advisory council. It consisted of 300–500 senators who served for life. Only patricians were members in the early period, but plebeians were also admitted before long, although they were denied the senior magistracies for
11398-468: The king. However, as Rome was an electoral monarchy , the Senate also elected new Roman kings . The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus , was overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus , who founded the Roman Republic . During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the various executive Roman magistrates who appointed the senators for life (or until expulsion by Roman censors ) were quite powerful. Since
11537-401: The leading equites new men for the senate, these being called conscripti , and thus increased the size of the senate to 300. The senate of the Roman Kingdom held three principal responsibilities: It functioned as the ultimate repository for the executive power, it served as the king's council, and it functioned as a legislative body in concert with the people of Rome . During the years of
11676-400: The men who were seated in the porticoes of their mansions, not only because of the superhuman magnificence of their apparel and their whole bearing and demeanour but also because of the majestic expression of their countenances, wearing the very aspect of gods. So they stood, gazing at them as if they were statues, till, as it is asserted, one of the patricians, M. Papirius, roused the passion of
11815-506: The military campaigning season and then returning to their farms. Not all men of military age were drafted every year. Some of the soldiers would have lived some distance from Rome and so needed time to walk there, the main means of travel for peasants. The size of the Senone force should not be overestimated, either. The estimate given by Cary and Scullard of 30,000-70,000 (see above) is highly unlikely. Berresford Ellis rightly points out that his figure of 12,000 would have been quite large for
11954-459: The monarchy, the senate's most important function was to elect new kings. While the king was nominally elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king. The period between the death of one king and the election of a new king was called the interregnum , during which time the Interrex nominated a candidate to replace the king. After the senate gave its initial approval to
12093-427: The need for a single leader, and so they elected a king ( rex ), and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that sovereign power naturally reverted to the patres . The senate is said to have been created by Rome's first king, Romulus , initially consisting of 100 men. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class. Rome's fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus , chose
12232-521: The noise in the city meant that a trap was being prepared. However, on the fourth day, they broke down the city gates and pillaged the city. They made daily attacks on the Capitoline but did not hurt any civilians. They suffered many casualties. Finding that they could not take it by force, they decided to lay siege. Meanwhile, the Etruscans raided the Roman territory around Veii, capturing prisoners and booty. The Roman soldiers who had fled to Veii ambushed them, put them to flight, seized their camp, regained
12371-456: The nominee, he was then formally elected by the people, and then received the senate's final approval. At least one king, Servius Tullius , was elected by the senate alone, and not by the people. The senate's most significant task, outside regal elections, was to function as the king's council, and while the king could ignore any advice it offered, its growing prestige helped make the advice that it offered increasingly difficult to ignore. Only
12510-455: The only survivors were those who fled back to Rome and that they had only a tiny force. Realising that they were defenceless, they decided to send the men of military age, the able-bodied senators and their families to the Capitoline Hill with weapons and provisions to defend the fortress. The Flamen of Quirinus and the Vestal Virgins , who were priests, were to take "the sacred things of
12649-405: The orders of their councils. However, it was clear that Rome's aggressive actions had caused them to defect and become hostile. In 385 BC, there was another war with the Volsci, who were supported by the rebelling Latins and Hernici as well as the Roman colony of Circeii and Roman colonists from Velitrae . The force was defeated, and most of the prisoners were Latins and Hernici. The Romans planted
12788-447: The other bank. They did not even send a messenger to warn Rome. The right-wing, further from the river and closer to the hill, fled to Rome. The Gauls were surprised at how easy their victory had been. The ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus said the Romans marched and crossed the River Tiber. He is the only ancient historian who placed the battle on the right bank of the river. The Romans lined up their best troops, 24,000 men, on
12927-757: The papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor during the second half of the twelfth century. From 1192 onward, the popes succeeded in reducing the 56-strong senate down to a single individual, styled Summus Senator , who subsequently became the head of the civil government of Rome under the pope's aegis. Although the 56-member senate would be restored soon thereafter in 1197, the institution would come to be composed largely of nobles. The senate continued to exist in Constantinople, although it evolved into an institution that differed in some fundamental forms from its predecessor. Designated in Greek as synkletos , or assembly,
13066-508: The penalty for the men they had killed. When the ambassadors of the Senones arrived in Rome and demanded the three Fabii brothers be handed over to them, the Senate was pressured by favouritism not to express opinions against the powerful Fabia family. To avoid being blamed for a possible defeat if the Gauls attacked, they referred the matter to the people. Livy wrote that "those whose punishment they were asked to decide were elected military tribunes with consular powers [heads of state] for
13205-462: The people of the Latin city of Tibur shut the city gates on them. In 360, the Gauls encamped near the River Anio . After some skirmishes, the conflict was resolved by single combat between Titus Manlius and a Gaul, which the former won. The Gauls left, went to Tibur, and allied with it, receiving supplies from the city. Then, the Gauls went on to Campania. In 360 BC the Romans attacked Tibur, prompting
13344-466: The people of the surrounding villages and cities". News of the Gallic sack reached Greece. Plutarch mentions an inaccurate story by Heracleides Ponticus and that Aristotle wrote about the capture of Rome by the Gauls and said that the saviour of the city was "a certain Lucius", not Camillus. Augustine discusses the causes in De Civitate Dei , part I, book III. The accounts of the battle of
13483-551: The place of the battle, as if they were puzzled. They feared a surprise and despoiled the dead, as was customary for them. When they did not see any hostile action, they set off and reached Rome before sunset. They saw that the city gates were open and that the walls were unmanned. That was another surprise. They decided to avoid a night battle in an unknown town and encamped between Rome and the River Anio . The inhabitants of Rome were in panic and did not know that most of their soldiers had fled to Veii , instead of Rome, and thought that
13622-476: The plain and placed the weakest troops on the hill. The Celts also lined up, placed their best men on the hill, and easily won the clash. The bulk of the Roman soldiers on the plain fled to the river in a disorderly manner and impeded each other. The Celts killed the men in the rear. Some Romans tried to cross the river wearing their armour, which, according to Diodorus, they prized more than their lives, but that weighed them down. Some drowned and some managed to reach
13761-552: The plebeian tribunes had paralysed the Roman state. Thereafter, the tribunes allowed the election of heads of state and the levy on an army, which drove the rebels from the Tusculum and laid a protracted siege on Levitra. Livy did not state when it ended, but it must have been in 366 BC. In 367 BC, the rebels arrived in Latium. An ageing Camillus defeated them near the Alban Hills , and most of
13900-405: The population of Rome also needs to be considered. In its early days, Rome was still a city-state of only regional significance, and its territory did not stretch beyond 50 km (30 mi) from the city. Cornell notes that the estimates of the population of Rome in the late 6th century BC, based on the size of its territory range between 25,000 and 50,000, and thinks that the more likely figure
14039-434: The rebels then fled to Apulia . In 366, there were reports of defection of the Hernici . In 362, Rome declared war on them. The Romans were ambushed and routed. The consul who led the army died in the battle, and the Hernici surrounded the Roman camp. The Romans sent a relief force and the Hernici were defeated in a tough battle. In 361, the Romans seized Ferentinum , a town of the Hernici. When they were on their way back,
14178-415: The republic, in practice the actual authority of the imperial senate was negligible, and the emperor held the true power in the state. As such, membership in the senate came to be sought after by individuals seeking prestige and social standing, rather than actual authority. During the reigns of the first emperors, legislative, judicial, and electoral powers were all transferred from the Roman assemblies to
14317-406: The revived senate, and modern historians have therefore interpreted this to indicate that there were four senators for each of the fourteen regiones of Rome . These senators elected as their leader Giordano Pierleoni , son of the Roman consul Pier Leoni , with the title patrician , since the term consul had been deprecated as a noble styling. The Commune came under constant pressure from
14456-420: The salt works, and inflicted even greater losses on that force. Caedicius' forces grew, and some Romans who had fled the city went to Veii. Volunteers from Latium also joined them. Caedicius decided to summon Camillus to take the command, but that required approval of the Senate. They sent Cominius Pontius, a soldier, to Rome as a messenger. He went down the River Tiber on a cork float and reached Rome. He reached
14595-477: The senate elected new magistrates, the approval of the emperor was always needed before an election could be finalized. Around 300 AD, the emperor Diocletian enacted a series of constitutional reforms. In one such reform, he asserted the right of the emperor to take power without the theoretical consent of the senate, thus depriving the senate of its status as the ultimate repository of supreme power. Diocletian's reforms also ended whatever illusion had remained that
14734-432: The senate had independent legislative, judicial, or electoral powers. The senate did, however, retain its legislative powers over public games in Rome, and over the senatorial order. The senate also retained the power to try treason cases, and to elect some magistrates, but only with the permission of the emperor. In the final years of the western empire, the senate would sometimes try to appoint their own emperor, such as in
14873-416: The senate had the power to act on its own, and even against the will of the presiding magistrate if it wished. The presiding magistrate began each meeting with a speech, then referred an issue to the senators, who would discuss it in order of seniority. Senators had several other ways in which they could influence (or frustrate) a presiding magistrate. For example, every senator was permitted to speak before
15012-430: The senate now held jurisdiction over criminal trials. In these cases, a consul presided, the senators constituted the jury, and the verdict was handed down in the form of a decree ( senatus consultum ), and, while a verdict could not be appealed, the emperor could pardon a convicted individual through a veto. The emperor Tiberius transferred all electoral powers from the assemblies to the senate, and, while theoretically
15151-454: The senate were swept away when the Curia Julia was converted into a church ( Sant'Adriano al Foro ) by Pope Honorius I . Subsequently, the word "senate" was used by the nobility of Rome to describe themselves as a collective class. This usage was not intended to link them institutionally with the ancient senate, but rather continued the long-standing Roman tradition that the city's nobility
15290-415: The senate, and so senatorial decrees ( senatus consulta ) acquired the full force of law. The legislative powers of the imperial senate were principally of a financial and an administrative nature, although the senate did retain a range of powers over the provinces. During the early Roman Empire, all judicial powers that had been held by the Roman assemblies were also transferred to the senate. For example,
15429-410: The senate. However, since the emperor held control over the senate, the senate acted as a vehicle through which he exercised his autocratic powers. The first emperor, Augustus , reduced the size of the senate from 900 members to 600, even though there were only about 100 to 200 active senators at one time. After this point, the size of the senate was never again drastically altered. Under the empire, as
15568-399: The seventh month in its siege. For all these reasons the mortality was great in their camp; so many were the dead that they could no longer be buried". The defenders of the Capitoline, in turn, could not get news from Camillus because the city was closely guarded by the enemy. Famine worsened, and the city became dejected and agreed to pay a ransom. When Camillus arrived in Rome, he lifted
15707-490: The size of the Roman army engaged in the battle are unlikely since they are notorious for exaggerating figures. Contrary to Berresford Ellis's assertion, the Romans then had only two legions. The number of legions was not increased to four until later in the century, during the Second Samnite War (326-304 BC), and the first record of four legions occurred in 311 BC. The Romans then also had additional military commanders:
15846-411: The south. The story of their defeat on their way back from the south seems to fit with that hypothesis. It could also be that the Senones went to Clusium because they had been hired by one of two political factions at loggerheads to intervene in political struggles in the city, rather than the romanticised story of Aruns's revenge for his wife. The Gallic sack was a humiliation for Rome and set in motion
15985-438: The starving soldiers called for surrender or an agreement on a ransom on the best terms that they could. Quintus Sulpicius and Brennus, the leader of the Senones, held talks. They agreed on a ransom of a thousand pounds of gold. The Senones cheated, using heavier weights to weigh the gold. When the Romans protested, 'Brennus tossed his sword on the scale, uttering words intolerable to the Roman ears, namely ' Vae victis ,' or ‘Woe to
16124-465: The swiftness at which they moved, which is shown both by the haste in mustering the army as if it were meeting a spur-of-the-moment emergency and the difficulty in getting any further than the eleventh milestone." At the eastern juncture of the Tiber River and Allia brook, the parties met; the Romans presumably were outnumbered. They did not set up camp or build a defensive rampart and they did not divine
16263-460: The territories of the Latin towns of Tusculum , Gabii , and Labici , which were Roman allies. In 382 BC, the Romans attacked and defeated a rebel force in which men from Praeneste almost outnumbered the force of the Roman colonists, near Levitra. The Romans did not attack the town because they were unsure about their success and did not think it was right to exterminate the Roman colony. Still, in 382 BC, Rome declared war on Praeneste, which joined
16402-407: The territory of the Etruscan city-state of Tarquinii , capturing and destroying Cortuosa and Cobra. In 386 BC the Volscian of the town of Antium gathered an army which included Hernici and Latin forces near Satricum , not far from Antium. A battle with the Romans was stopped by rain, and the Latins and Hernici then returned home. The Volsci retreated to Satricum, which was taken by storm. In 386 BC,
16541-518: The third day after the battle, where the gates were open, and the walls were unguarded. They marched through the Colline gate. Brennus had the Capitoline Hill surrounded and went to the Forum. He was surprised to see the men sitting outdoors and remaining quiet without fear when they were approached, "leaning on their staves and gazing into one another's faces". The Gauls hesitated to get close to them and touch them and regarded them as superior beings. However,
16680-405: The transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power. The late Republic saw a decline in the Senate's power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus . After
16819-641: The transition of the Republic into the Principate , the Senate lost much of its political power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of Emperor Diocletian , the Senate became politically irrelevant. When the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a purely municipal body. That decline in status was reinforced when Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople . After Romulus Augustulus
16958-430: The two consuls were the sole military commanders, each heading one legion. In addition, the battle occurred in the early history of the Roman Republic , while the consulship alternated with years in which Rome was headed by military tribunes with consular power , often referred to as "consular tribunes" instead, and 390 BC was a year in which six consular tribunes were in charge. Therefore, Berresford Ellis's assertion that
17097-439: The vanquished!'" Paying off the Senones to leave the city was a humiliation for the Romans. However, as Livy put it, "god and man forbade the Romans to be a ransomed people". Before the weighing of the gold had been completed, Camillus reached Rome and ordered the gold not to be taken away. The Gauls said that an agreement had been made, but Camillus said that since it had been struck by an official of lesser status than he was, it
17236-420: The walls of Rome, but it was repelled easily. In 358, the Etruscan city of Tarquinii was plundered by Roman territory by Etruria. The Romans levied an army against them and one against the Hernici. Roman Senate The Roman Senate ( Latin : Senātus Rōmānus ) was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy . With different powers throughout its existence it lasted from
17375-481: Was an ally of Rome. Those who had been officers of state decided to meet their fate wearing their ceremonial dresses and "the insignia of their former rank and honour and distinctions". They sat on their ivory chairs in front of their houses. The next day, the Senones entered the city. They passed through the open Colline Gate and went to the Roman Forum . They left a small body to guard there against any attack from
17514-416: Was by this point a purely honorific title and does not reflect the continued existence of the classical Senate. The Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople through the 14th century. The Roman Senate was not the ancestor or predecessor of modern parliamentarism and senates of our time in any sense, because the Roman senate was not a de jure legislative body. The senate was a political institution in
17653-409: Was called a gens or "clan", and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater (the Latin word for "father"). When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, the patres from the leading clans were selected for the confederated board of elders that would become the Roman senate. Over time, the patres came to recognize
17792-516: Was characterized by the rise of prominent Roman senatorial families, such as the Anicii , while the senate's leader, the princeps senatus , often served as the right hand of the barbarian leader. It is known that the senate successfully installed Laurentius as pope in 498, despite the fact that both King Theodoric and Emperor Anastasius supported the other candidate, Symmachus . The peaceful coexistence of senatorial and barbarian rule continued until
17931-583: Was created as head of the senate by Emperor Nicephorus Phocas . Up to the mid-11th century, only eunuchs could become proedros, but later this restriction was lifted and several proedri could be appointed, of which the senior proedrus, or protoproedrus ( Greek : πρωτοπρόεδρος ), served as the head of the senate. There were two types of meetings practised: silentium , in which only magistrates currently in office participated and conventus , in which all syncletics ( Greek : συγκλητικοί , senators) could participate. The Senate in Constantinople existed until at least
18070-571: Was deposed in 476, the Senate in the Western Empire functioned under the rule of Odoacer (476–489) and during Ostrogothic rule (489–535). It was restored to its official status after the reconquest of Italy by Justinian I but the Western Senate ultimately disappeared after 603, the date of its last recorded public act. Some Roman aristocrats in the Middle Ages bore the title senator , but it
18209-480: Was equated to its senate. Occasionally in the Early Middle Ages , the title "senator" was used by those in positions of power—for instance, it was held by Crescentius the Younger (d. 998) and, in its feminine form ( senatrix ), by Marozia (d. 937)—but it appears to have been regarded at that time as simply a title of nobility. Usage of the "senator" title in a more traditional sense was revived in 1144, when
18348-598: Was granted peace. In 380 BC, the Praenestines marched into the territory of Gabii and advanced against Rome's walls at the Colline Gate and encamped near the River Allia, where the Gauls had defeated Rome. The Romans defeated them and marched into the territory of Praeneste, seizing eight towns under its jurisdiction and then Levitra. Finally, they confronted Praeneste, the heart of the rebellion, which surrendered. In 378 BC,
18487-413: Was hardened to misery". After a few days, seeing that even though nothing survived "amidst the ashes and ruin" of the city, there was no sign of surrender, the Senones attacked Capitoline Hill at dawn. The defenders let the enemy climb up the steep hill and flung them down the slope. The Gauls stopped halfway up the hill. The Romans charged and inflicted such high casualties that the enemy never tried to take
18626-408: Was invalid. Camillus then offered battle, and the Senones were easily defeated. They were defeated again 13 km (8 mi) east of Rome. Livy wrote the "slaughter was total: their camp was captured and not even the messenger survived to report the disaster". In the account of Diodorus Siculus, which is much less detailed, the Senones spent the first day after the battle by the Allia cutting off
18765-413: Was joined by the other soldiers and the enemy was repulsed. Manlius was commended for his bravery. Quintus Sulpicius wanted to court-martial the guards who had failed to notice the enemy, but the soldiers prevented him from doing so. It was agreed to blame one man, who was thrown down the cliff. Famine began to afflict both armies. The Gauls were also affected by pestilence. They were on low ground between
18904-524: Was legally elected. Plutarch then relayed the story of Pontius Cominius and his mission to Capitoline Hill. Camillus could not cross the bridge over the Tiber because the Gauls were guarding it and so he swam across supported by pieces of cork and went to the Carmental Gate . When he reached the top of the Capitoline, the Senate appointed Camillus as dictator. Camillus gathered soldiers from the allies and went to Veii, where there were 20,000 soldiers. After
19043-429: Was the case during the late republic, one could become a senator by being elected quaestor (a magistrate with financial duties), but only if one were already of senatorial rank. In addition to quaestors, elected officials holding a range of senior positions were routinely granted senatorial rank by virtue of the offices that they held. If an individual was not of senatorial rank, there were two ways for him to become
19182-399: Was the king of the city. He assigned the guardianship of his son to Aruns before he died. When the son became a young man, he fell in love with the wife of Aruns and seduced her. The grieving Aruns went to Gaul to sell wine, olives, and figs. The Gauls had never seen such products and asked Aruns where they were produced. He replied that they came from a large and fertile land, inhabited by only
19321-440: Was the only one of all the emperors under whom a woman attended the senate like a man, just as though she belonged to the senatorial order" (David Magie's translation). According to the same work, Elagabalus also established a women's senate called the senaculum , which enacted rules to be applied to matrons regarding clothing, chariot riding, the wearing of jewelry, etc. ( Elagabalus 4.3 and Aurelian 49.6). Before this, Agrippina
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