ἐν δὲ Ῥώμῃ τῆς βουλῆς συναχθείσης ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ τοῦ Φαβίου κατηγόρουν, καὶ τῶν ἱερέων οἱ καλούμενοι Φητιαλεῖς ἐνῆγον ἐπιθειάζοντες καὶ κελεύοντες τὸ τῶν πεπραγμένων ἄγος τήν σύγκλητον εἰς ἕνα τὸν αἴτιον τρέψασαν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἄλλων ἀφοσιώσασθαι. τούτους τοὺς Φητιαλεῖς Πομπίλιος Νομᾶς, βασιλέων ἡμερώτατος γενόμενος καὶ δικαιότατος, κατέστησε φύλακας μὲν εἰρήνης, ἐπιγνώμονας δὲ καὶ βεβαιωτὰς αἰτιῶν, αἳ σὺν δίκῃ πόλεμον συνάπτουσι.
When the Senate convened in Rome, many denounced the Fabii, and especially the priests called Fetiales were instant in calling upon the Senate in the name of all the gods to turn the curse of what had been done upon the one guilty man, and so to make expiation for the rest. These Fetiales were instituted by Numa Pompilius, gentlest and justest of kings, to be the guardians of peace, as well as judges and determiners of the grounds on which war could justly be made.
τῆς δὲ βουλῆς ἐπὶ τὸν δῆμον ἀνενεγκαμένης τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ τῶν ἱερέων ὅμοια τοῦ Φαβίου κατηγορούντων, οὕτω περιύβρισαν οἱ πολλοὶ τὰ θεῖα καὶ κατεγέλασαν, ὥστε καὶ χιλίαρχον ἀποδεῖξαι τὸν Φάβιον μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν, οἱ δὲ Κελτοὶ πυθόμενοι ταῦτα καὶ χαλεπῶς φέροντες οὐδὲν ἐμποδὼν ἐποιοῦντο τῆς σπουδῆς, ἀλλʼ
The Senate referred the matter to the people, and although the priests with one accord denounced Fabius, the multitude so scorned and mocked at religion as to appoint him military tribune, along with his brothers. The Gauls, on learning this, were wroth, and suffered nothing to impede their haste, but advanced with all speed.
ἐχώρουν παντὶ τάχει· καὶ πρὸς τὸ πλῆθος αὐτῶν καὶ τήν λαμπρότητα τῆς παρασκευῆς καὶ βίαν καὶ θυμὸν ἐκπεπληγμένων τῶν διὰ μέσου, καὶ τήν τε χώραν ἀπολωλέναι πᾶσαν ἤδη καὶ τὰς πόλεις εὐθὺς ἀπολεῖσθαι δοκούντων, παρʼ ἐλπίδας οὐδὲν ἠδίκουν οὐδʼ ἐλάμβανον ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ τὰς πόλεις ἐγγὺς παρεξιόντες ἐβόων ἐπὶ τήν Ῥώμην πορεύεσθαι καὶ μόνοις πολεμεῖν Ῥωμαίοις, τοὺς δʼ ἄλλους φίλους ἐπίστασθαι.
What with their numbers, the splendour of their equipment, and their furious violence, they struck terror wherever they came. Men thought the lands about their cities lost already, and their cities sure to follow at once. But contrary to all expectation the enemy did them no harm, nor took aught from their fields, but even as they passed close by their cities shouted out that they were marching on Rome and warred only on the Romans, but held the rest as friends.
τοιαύτῃ δὲ χρωμένων ὁρμῇ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐξῆγον οἱ χιλίαρχοι τοὺς Ῥωμαίους ἐπὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα, πλήθει μὲν οὐκ ἐνδεεῖς ἐγένοντο γὰρ ὁπλῖται τετρακισμυρίων οὐκ ἐλάσσους, ἀνασκήτους δὲ τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ τότε πρῶτον ἁπτομένους ὅπλων. ἔτι δʼ ἐξημέλητο τὰ τῶν θεῶν αὐτοῖς οὔτε καλλιερήσασιν οὔτε μάντεις ἃ πρὸ κινδύνου καὶ μάχης εἰκὸς ἦν ἐρομένοις.
Against this onset of the Barbarians the military tribunes led the Romans forth to battle. They were not inferior in numbers, being no fewer than forty thousand men-at-arms, but most of them were untrained, and had never handled weapons before. Besides, they had neglected all religious rites, having neither sacrificed with good omens, nor consulted the prophets as was meet before the perils of battle.
οὐδενὸς δὲ ἧττον ἐπετάραττεν ἡ πολυαρχία τὰ πραττόμενα. καίτοι πρότερόν γε καὶ πρὸς ἐλάττονας ἀγῶνας εἵλοντο πολλάκις μονάρχους, οὓς δικτάτορας καλοῦσιν, οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντες, ὅσον ἐστὶν εἰς ἐπισφαλῆ καιρὸν ὄφελος μιᾷ χρωμένους γνώμῃ πρὸς ἀνυπεύθυνον ἀρχὴν ἐν χερσὶ τήν δίκην ἔχουσαν εὐτακτεῖν.
But what most of all confounded their undertakings was the number of their commanders. And yet before this, and on the brink of lesser struggles, they had often chosen a single commander, with the title of Dictator, not unaware how great an advantage it is, when confronting a dangerous crisis, to be of one mind in paying obedience to an authority which is absolute, and holds the scales of justice in its own hands.
οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ καὶ Κάμιλλος ἀγνωμονηθεὶς ἔβλαψε τὰ πράγματα, τοῦ μὴ πρὸς χάριν μηδὲ κολακεύοντας ἄρχειν φοβεροῦ γενομένου. προελθόντες οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως σταδίους ἐνενήκοντα παρὰ τὸν Ἀλίαν ποταμὸν ηὐλίσθησαν, οὐ πόρρω τοῦ στρατοπέδου τῷ Θύμβριδι συμφερόμενον. ἐνταῦθα δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐπιφανέντων αἰσχρῶς ἀγωνισάμενοι διʼ ἀταξίαν ἐτράποντο.
Moreover, their unfair treatment of Camillus was in no slight degree fatal to discipline, since it was now dangerous to hold command without paying regard to the pleasure and caprice of the people. They advanced from the city about eleven miles, and encamped along the river Allia, not far from its confluence with the Tiber. There the Barbarians came suddenly upon them, and after a disorderly and shameful struggle, they were routed.
καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀριστερὸν κέρας εὐθὺς ἐμβαλόντες εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν οἱ Κελτοὶ διέφθειραν τὸ δὲ δεξιὸν ὑπεκκλῖναν τήν ἐπιφορὰν ἐκ τοῦ πεδίου πρὸς τοὺς λόφους ἧττον ἐξεκόπη καὶ διεξέπεσον ἀπὸ τούτων εἰς τήν πόλιν οἱ πολλοί, τοῖς δʼ ἄλλοις, ὅσοι τῶν πολεμίων ἀπειπόντων πρὸς τὸν φόνον ἐσώθησαν, εἰς Οὐηΐους αἱ φυγαὶ διὰ νυκτὸς ἦσαν, ὡς τῆς Ῥώμης οἰχομένης καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ πάντων ἀπολωλότων.
Their left wing was at once driven into the river by the Gauls and destroyed; their right wing was less cut up, because it withdrew before the enemy’s onset from the plain to the hills, from which most of them made their way back to the city. The rest, as many as escaped the enemy’s hands, which were weary with slaughter, fled by night to Veii. They thought that Rome was lost and all her people slain.
ἐγένετο δʼ ἡ μάχη μετὰ τροπὰς θερινὰς περὶ τήν πανσέληνον, ᾗ καὶ πρότερον ἡμέρᾳ μέγα πάθος συνέβη τὸ περὶ τοὺς Φαβίους· τριακόσιοι γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ γένους ἄνδρες ὑπὸ Τυρρηνῶν ἀνῃρέθησαν. ἐκράτησε δὲ τήν ἡμέραν ἀπὸ τῆς δευτέρας ἥττης Ἀλιάδα μέχρι νῦν καλεῖσθαι διὰ τὸν ποταμόν. περὶ δʼ ἡμερῶν ἀποφράδων εἴτε χρὴ τίθεσθαί τινας, εἴτε ὀρθῶς Ἡράκλειτος ἐπέπληξεν Ἡσιόδῳ τὰς μὲν ἀγαθὰς ποιουμένῳ, τὰς δὲ φαύλας, ὡς ἀγνοοῦντι φύσιν ἡμέρας ἁπάσης μίαν οὖσαν, ἑτέρωθι διηπόρηται.
The battle took place just after the summer solstice when the moon was near the full, on the very day of a former great disaster, when three hundred men of the Fabian gens had been cut to pieces by the Tuscans. But the second defeat was so much the worse that the day on which it fell is called down to the present time dies Alliensis, from the river. Now concerning dies nefasti, or unlucky days, whether we must regard some as such, or whether Heracleitus was right in rebuking Hesiod for calling some days good and some bad, in his ignorance that the nature of every day is one and the same,—this question has been fully discussed elsewhere.
τῇ δʼ ὑποκειμένῃ γραφῇ τὸ μνημονεῦσαι παραδειγμάτων ὀλίγων ἴσως ἂν ἁρμόσειε. τοῦτο μὲν τοίνυν Βοιωτοῖς Ἱπποδρομίου μηνός, ὡς δʼ Ἀθηναῖοι καλοῦσιν Ἑκατομβαιῶνος, ἱσταμένου πέμπτῃ δύο λαβεῖν συνέβη νίκας ἐπιφανεστάτας, αἷς τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἠλευθέρωσαν, τήν τε περὶ Λεῦκτρα καὶ τήν ἐπὶ Κερησσῷ ταύτης πρότερον ἔτεσι πλείοσιν ἢ διακοσίοις, ὅτε Λατταμύαν καὶ Θεσσαλοὺς ἐνίκησαν.
Still, even in what I am now writing, the mention of a few examples may not be amiss. To begin with, then, it was on the fifth day of the month of Hippodromius (which the Athenians call Hecatombaeon) that the Boeotians won two illustrious victories which set the Greeks free: that at Leuctra, and that at Ceressus more than two hundred years earlier, when they conquered Lattamyas and the Thessalians.
τοῦτο δʼ αὖ πάλιν Πέρσαι μηνὸς Βοηδρομιῶνος ἕκτῃ μὲν ἐν Μαραθῶνι, τρίτῃ δʼ ἐν Πλαταιαῖς ἅμα καὶ περὶ Μυκάλην ἡττήθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, πέμπτῃ δὲ φθίνοντος ἐν Ἀρβήλοις. οἱ δʼ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ τήν περὶ Νάξον ἐνίκων ναυμαχίαν, ἧς Χαβρίας ἐστρατήγει, τοῦ Βοηδρομιῶνος περὶ τήν πανσέληνον, ἐν δὲ Σαλαμῖνι περὶ τὰς εἰκάδας, ὡς ἡμῖν ἐν τῷ Περὶ ἡμερῶν ἀποδέδεικται.
Again, on the sixth day of the month of Boedromion the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon, on the third day at Plataea and Mycale together, and on the twenty-sixth day at Arbela. Moreover, it was about full moon of the same month that the Athenians won their sea-fight off Naxos, under the command of Chabrias, and about the twentieth, that at Salamis, as has been set forth in my treatise On days.
ἐνήνοχε δὲ καὶ ὁ Θαργηλιὼν μὴν τοῖς βαρβάροις ἐπιδήλως ἀτυχίας· καὶ γὰρ Ἀλέξανδρος ἐπὶ Γρανικῷ τοὺς βασιλέως στρατηγοὺς Θαργηλιῶνος ἐνίκησε, καὶ Καρχηδόνιοι περὶ Σικελίαν ὑπὸ Τιμολέοντος ἡττῶντο τῇ ἑβδόμῃ φθίνοντος, περὶ ἣν δοκεῖ καὶ τὸ Ἴλιον ἁλῶναι, Θαργηλιῶνος, ὡς Ἔφορος καὶ Καλλισθένης καὶ Δαμάστης καὶ Φύλαρχος ἱστορήκασιν.
Further, the month of Thargelion has clearly been a disastrous one for the Barbarians, for in that month the generals of the King were conquered by Alexander at the Granicus, and on the twenty-fourth of the month the Carthaginians were worsted by Timoleon off Sicily. On this day, too, of Thargelion, it appears that Ilium was taken, as Ephorus, Callisthenes, Damastes, and Phylarchus have stated.
ἀνάπαλιν δʼ ὁ Μεταγειτνιών, ὃν Βοιωτοὶ Πάνεμον καλοῦσιν, τοῖς Ἕλλησιν οὐκ εὐμενὴς γέγονε. τούτου γὰρ τοῦ μηνὸς ἑβδόμῃ καὶ τήν ἐν Κρανῶνι μάχην ἡττηθέντες ὑπʼ Ἀντιπάτρου τελέως ἀπώλοντο, καὶ πρότερον ἐν Χαιρωνείᾳ μαχόμενοι πρὸς Φίλιππον ἠτύχησαν. τῆς δʼ αὐτῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης ἐν τῷ Μεταγειτνιῶνι κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν ἐνιαυτὸν οἱ μετʼ Ἀρχιδάμου διαβάντες εἰς Ἰταλίαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκεῖ βαρβάρων διεφθάρησαν.
Contrary-wise, the month of Metageitnion (which the Boeotians call Panemus) has not been favourable to the Greeks. On the seventh of this month they were worsted by Antipater in the battle of Crannon, and utterly undone; before this they had fought Philip unsuccessfully at Chaeroneia on that day of the month; and in the same year, and on the same day of Metageitnion, Archidamus and his army, who had crossed into Italy, were cut to pieces by the Barbarians there.
Καρχηδόνιοι δὲ τὴν ἐνάτην φθίνοντος ὡς τὰ πλεῖστα καὶ μέγιστα τῶν ἀτυχημάτων αὐτοῖς ἀεὶ φέρουσαν παραφυλάττουσιν. οὐκ ἀγνοῶ δʼ ὅτι περὶ τὸν τῶν μυστηρίων καιρὸν αὖθις Θῆβαί τε κατεσκάφησαν ὑπὸ Ἀλεξάνδρου, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα φρουρὰν Ἀθηναῖοι Μακεδόνων ἐδέξαντο περὶ αὐτὴν τήν εἰκάδα τοῦ Βοηδρομιῶνος, ᾗ τὸν μυστικὸν Ἴακχον ἐξάγουσιν.
The Carthaginians also regard with fear the twenty-second of this month, because it has ever brought upon them the worst and greatest of their misfortunes. I am not unaware that, at about the time when the mysteries are celebrated, Thebes was razed to the ground for the second time by Alexander, and that afterwards the Athenians were forced to receive a Macedonian garrison on the twentieth of Boedromion, the very day on which they escort the mystic Iacchus forth in procession.
ὁμοίως δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμέρας πρότερον μὲν ὑπὸ Κίμβρων τὸ μετὰ Καιπίωνος ἀπέβαλον στρατόπεδον, ὕστερον δὲ Λουκούλλου στρατηγοῦντος Ἀρμενίους καὶ Τιγράνην ἐνίκησαν. Ἄτταλος δʼ ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ Πομπήιος Μᾶγνος ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν γενεθλίοις ἀπέθανον. καὶ ὅλως ἐστὶ πολλοὺς ἐπʼ ἀμφότερα ταῖς αὐταῖς χρησαμένους ἀποδεῖξαι περιόδοις.
And likewise the Romans, on the self-same day, saw their army under Caepio destroyed by the Cimbri, and later, when Lucullus was their general, conquered Tigranes and the Armenians. Both King Attalus and Pompey the Great died on their own birthdays. In short, one can adduce many cases where the same times and seasons have brought opposite fortunes upon the same men.
ἀλλὰ Ῥωμαίοις αὕτη μία τῶν μάλιστα ἀποφράδων ἐστί, καὶ διʼ αὐτὴν ἑκάστου μηνὸς ἕτεραι δύο, τῆς πρὸς τὸ συμβὰν εὐλαβείας καὶ δεισιδαιμονίας ἐπὶ πλεῖον, ὥσπερ εἴωθε, ῥυείσης. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐν τῷ Περὶ αἰτίων Ῥωμαϊκῶν ἐπιμελέστερον διῄρηται.
But this day of the Allia is regarded by the Romans as one of the unluckiest, and its influence extends over two other days of each month throughout the year, since in the presence of calamity, timidity and superstition often overflow all bounds. However, this subject has been more carefully treated in my Roman Questions.
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