to his victors, and ordered the Gauls to take the scales and the beam,
and depart, "for," said he, "it is the custom of the Romans to defend
their country not with gold but with iron." At this Brennus became
angry, and said that he was being wronged by the treaty being broken;
and Camillus answered that the negotiations were illegal, because when
they began he was already dictator, and therefore, as no one else had
any authority, the treaty had been made by the Gauls with persons who
were not authorized to treat. But now, if they wished, they might make
fresh proposals, for he was come with full legal powers to pardon such
as made their submission, and to punish unrepentant evil-doers. Enraged
at this, Brennus began to skirmish, and the two parties, mixed up as
they were, in houses and lands where no military formation was
possible, did go so far as to draw their swords and push one another
about; but Brennus soon recovered his temper, and drew off the Gauls,
with but little loss, in their camp.

During the night he got them all under arms, left the city, and, after a
march of about eight miles, encamped by the side of the Gabinian Road.
But at daybreak, Camillus was upon him, in glittering armour, leading on
the Romans who had now recovered their courage. After a long and
fiercely contested battle they routed the Gauls and took their camp.
Some of the fugitives were at once pursued and slain, but most of them
straggled about the country, and were put to death by the people of the
neighbouring towns and villages who sallied out upon them.

XXX. Thus was Rome strangely taken, and yet more strangely preserved,
after having been for seven months in the possession of the Gauls, for
they entered it a few days after the Ides of Quintilis, and left it
about the Ides of February. Camillus, as we may easily imagine, entered
the city in a triumph, as the saviour of his lost country, and the