We’re about to embark on a stunning period of Rome’s history in the middle Republic. Strap yourself in, this one is going to a take more than a couple of episodes. We are, of course, dealing with the years that were 391/390 BCE. We begin with some of the important details that emerge for the latter part of 391 BCE which will have flow on effects for 390 BCE, which is the big ticket year that we’ll be navigating in this mini-series.

The title may have given a little away, but the Gauls are in Italy. North Italy specifically, but they are going to be travelling south and pretty soon they arrive on the doorstep of Clusium.

Clusium, Rome’s new bestie?

The Etruscan people of the city of Clusium seek support from the Romans. Unusual, yes, good for storytelling, also yes. Clusium is deep in Etruscan territory and yet it seems the Romans are willing to send a delegation to see what the Gaulish fuss is all about. The delegation is made up solely of Fabians, who are apparently meant to be neutral, but that aspect of the situation falls away pretty quickly when one of them kills a leader of the Gauls…

The Battle of the Alia

Rome (and particularly the Fabians) have really upset the Gauls! So much so that the Gauls make a bee-line for Rome moving swiftly through Etruscan territory to arrive at the point where the Tiber meets the Alia, just north of Rome itself. The speed of the Gallic movement catches the Romans off-guard and that’s just the beginning of their woes.

Things to listen out for:

• Who is King Brennus?





• “All things belong to the brave”





• Quintus Fabius gets right out of line





• The Gauls send envoys to Rome





• Diodorus Siculus – more accurate than Livy?





• Did Dionysius of Syracuse hire the Gauls as mercenaries?





• The search for somewhere cool?

Our Players 390 BCE

MILITARY TRIBUNES WITH CONSULAR POWER

• Quintus Fabius M. f. Q. n. Ambustus (Pat) – Interreges in 391





• Kaeso Fabius M. f. Q. n. Ambustus (Pat) Previously Military Tribune with Consular Power in 404, 401; interreges in 391





• Numerius Fabius M. f. Q. n. Ambustus (Pat) Previously military tribune in 406.





• Quintus Sulpicius – f. – n. Longus (Pat)





• Quintus Servilius Q. f. P. n. Fidenas (Pat). Previously military tribune in 402, 398, 395.





• Publius Cornelius P. f. M. n. Maluginensis (Pat) Previously consul in 393 and Military tribune in 397

DICTATOR

• M. Furius L. f. Sp. n. Camillus (Pat). Previously military tribune 401, 398, 394.

MASTER OF THE HORSE

• Lucius Valerius (L. f. L. n. Poplicola) (Pat) – Previously military tribune in 394 OR





• Lucius Valerius (L. f. P. n. Potitus) (Pat) – Consul in 393, 392; military tribune in 414, 406, 403 , 401, and 398.

PONTIFICES

• Marcus Folius (Flaccinator?) (Pat)





• Gaius OR Kaeso Fabius Dorsuo (Pat)

AUGUR / PONTIFEX

• Quintus? Servilius P. f. (Sp. n. Priscus OR Structus Fidenas) (served from 439-390)





• Succeeded by [- – – – Furi]us Q. f. P. n. Fusus – Military tribune 403. (CIL 6.37161; ILS 9338.2)

OTHER NOTABLES

• Quintus Caedicius (commanding Roman forces at Veii)





• Brennus(?) – King of the Senones Gauls





• Cominius Pontius – A Roman with the forces in Veii





• Marcus Manlius (or Marcus Mallius) (on the Capitoline during the siege)

Our Sources

• Dr Rad reads Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 5.34-39.





• Dr G reads Aulus Gellius 17.2.14; Aurelius Victor, De virus illustribus 23; Diodorus Siculus, 14.110.1; 15.20.1; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 13.6-12; Eutropius, 1.20; Fasti Capitolini; Festus 500L; Florus 1.7-8; Orosius 2.19.1-16; Pliny the Elder Natural Histories 33.16; Plutarch, Life of Camillus, 22.4-32; Plutarch De fortuna Romanorum 12, 324e-f.





• Bernard, Seth. “Rome from the Sack of Veii to the Gallic Sack.” In Building Mid-Republican Rome. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878788.003.0003.





• Bradley, G. 2020. Early Rome to 290 BC (Edinburgh University Press).





• Broughton, T. R. S., Patterson, M. L. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume 1: 509 B.C. – 100 B.C. (The American Philological Association)





• Bruun, Patrick. “Evocatio Deorum: Some Notes on the Romanization of Etruria.” Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 6 (1972): 109–20. https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67073.





• Cornell, T. J. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (Taylor & Francis) Forsythe, G. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War (University of California Press) 





• Digital Prosopography of the Roman Republic – https://romanrepublic.ac.uk/





• Duff, T. E. 2010. ‘Plutarch’s Themistocles and Camillus’. In N. Humble, ed., Plutarch’s Lives: parallelism and purpose (Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, 2010), pp. 45-86.





• Eder, W. (. (2006). Triumph, Triumphal procession. In Brill’s New Pauly Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1221100 





• Elvers, K. (., Courtney, E. (. V., Richmond, J. A. (. V., Eder, W. (., Giaro, T. (., Eck, W. (., & Franke, T. (. (2006). Furius. In Brill’s New Pauly Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e416550





• Gowing, Alain M. 2009. “The Roman exempla tradition in imperial Greek historiography: The case of Camillus in Feldherr, A., ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.





• Graf, F. (. O., & Ley, A. (. (2006). Iuno. In Brill’s New Pauly Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e603690





• Kraus, C. S. 2020. ‘Urban Disasters and Other Romes: The Case of Veii’ in Closs, V. M., Keitel, E. eds. Urban Disasters and the Roman Imagination (De Gruyter), 17-31.





• Lomas, Kathryn (2018). The rise of Rome. History of the Ancient World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674919938. ISBN978-0-674-65965-0. S2CID239349186.





• Ogilvie, R. M. 1965. A Commentary on Livy: Books 1-5 (Clarendon Press). 





• Prescendi, F. (. (2006). Mater Matuta. In Brill’s New Pauly Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e726220





• Raaflaub, K. A. 2006. Social struggles in archaic Rome: new perspectives on the conflict of the orders (2^nd ed). (Wiley).





• Smith, Christopher, Jacopo Tabolli, and Orlando Cerasuolo. “Furius Camillus and Veii.” In Veii, 217–24. New York, USA: University of Texas Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7560/317259-030.





• Stevenson, T.R. “Parens Patriae and Livy’s Camillus.” Ramus 29, no. 1 (2000): 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00001673.





• Versnel, H. S. (. (2006). Evocatio. In Brill’s New Pauly Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e407670

Sound Credits

Our music is by Bettina Joy de Guzman.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Évariste-Vital Luminais ‘Fight between Romans and Gauls’. A nineteenth century imagining of the Gauls and Romans facing off. This is not a painting for historical accuracy, but more for mood!</figcaption></figure>

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