demanded that the Fabii should be given up to him. Instead of this, the
Romans made them all three military tribunes, and as the Gauls came
nearer the whole army marched out to meet them in such haste that they
did not wait to sacrifice to the gods nor consult the omens. The
tribunes were all young and hot-headed, and they despised the Gauls; so
out they went to attack them on the banks of the Allia, only seven and
a-half miles from Rome. A most terrible defeat they had; many fell in
the field, many were killed in the flight, others were drowned in trying
to swim the Tiber, others scattered to Veii and the other cities, and a
few, horror-stricken and wet through, rushed into Rome with the sad
tidings. There were not men enough left to defend the walls! The enemy
would instantly be upon them! The only place strong enough to keep them
out was the Capitol, and that would only hold a few people within it! So
there was nothing for it but flight. The braver, stronger men shut
themselves up in the Capitol; all the rest, with the women and children,
put their most precious goods into carts and left the city. The Vestal
Virgins carried the sacred fire, and were plodding along in the heat,
when a plebeian named Albinus saw their state, helped them into his
cart, and took them to the city of Cumæ, where they found shelter in a
temple. And so Rome was left to the enemy.




CHAPTER XII.

THE SACK OF ROME.

B.C. 390.