Brennus

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) the name of two individuals known in history. (1) The first was the hero of an early Roman legend, which relates to the migration of the Gauls into Italy and their march to . In the account given Clusium and Rome (v. 33, etc.), he figures as the by Livy of the Regulus Gallorum, or chieftain Gauls. When he arrived at Clusium, the inhabitants called on the Romans for aid. He engaged with and defeated the Romans on the banks of the Allia, the name of which river they ever after held in detestation. (Vergil's "Eneid," vii, 717). The whole city was afterward plundered and burned, and the capitol would have been taken but for the bravery of Manlius. At last, induced by famine and pestilence, the Romans agreed that the Gauls should receive 1,000 that pounds of gold, on the condition they would quit Rome and its territory altogether; the barbarian brought false weights, but his fraud was detected. The tribune Sulpicius exclaimed against the injustice of Brennus, who immediately laid his sword and belt in the scale, and said, "Woe to the vanquished." The dictator, Camillus, arrived with his forces at this critical time, annulled the him to prepare capitulation, and ordered for battle. The Gauls were defeated; there was a total slaughter, and not a man survived to carry home the news of the defeat. The date of the taking of Rome, assigned by Niebuhr, is the 3d year of the 39th Olympiad, 382 b. c. (2) A king of the Gauls, who, 279 b. c., made an irruption into Macedonia with a force of 150,000 men and 10,000 horse. Proceeding into Greece, he attempted to plunder the temple at Delphi. He engaged in many battles, lost many thousand men, and himself received many wounds. In despair and mortification he killed himself.