The Roman Forces
The Gaesatae, then, having collected their forces, crossed
note
the Alps and descended into the valley of the Padus with a
formidable army, furnished with a variety of
armour, in the eighth year after the distribution
of the lands of Picenum. The Insubres and
Boii remained loyal to the agreement they had
made with them: but the Venĕti and Cenomani being induced
by embassies from Rome to take the Roman side, the Celtic
kings were obliged to leave a portion of their forces behind, to
guard against an invasion of their territory by those tribes.
They themselves, with their main army, consisting of one hundred and fifty thousand foot, and twenty thousand horse and
chariots, struck camp and started on their march, which was
to be through Etruria, in high spirits. As soon as it was
known at Rome that the Celts had crossed the Alps, one of
the Consuls, Lucius Aemilius Papus, was sent with an army to
Ariminum to guard against the passage of the enemy, and one
of the Praetors into Etruria: for the other Consul, Gaius
Atilius Regulus, happened to be in Sardinia with his legions.
There was universal terror in Rome, for the danger threatening
them was believed to be great and formidable. And naturally
so: for the old fear of the Gauls had never been eradicated from
their minds. No one thought of anything else: they were
incessantly occupied in mustering the legions, or enrolling new
ones, and in ordering up such of the allies as were ready
for service. The proper magistrates were ordered to give in
lists of all citizens of military age; that it might at once be
known to what the total of the available forces amounted.
And such stores of corn, and darts, and other military equipments
-- 121 -- were collected as no one could remember on any
former occasion. From every side assistance was eagerly
rendered; for the inhabitants of Italy, in their terror at the
Gallic invasion, no longer thought of the matter as a question
of alliance with Rome, or of the war as undertaken to support
Roman supremacy, but each people regarded it as a danger
menacing themselves and their own city and territory. The
response to the Roman appeal therefore was prompt.
