The Gauls In Asia
During this period Prusias also did a thing which
note
deserves to be recorded. The Gauls, whom
King Attalus had brought over from Europe to
assist him against Achaeus on account of their
reputation for courage, had separated from that monarch on
account of the jealous suspicions of which I have before spoken,
and were plundering the cities on the Hellespont with gross
licentiousness and violence, and finally went so far as actually
to besiege Ilium. In these circumstances the inhabitants of
the Alexandria in the Troad acted with commendable spirit.
They sent Themistes with four thousand men and forced the
Gauls to raise the siege of Ilium, and drove them entirely out of
the Troad, by cutting off their supplies and frustrating all their
designs. Thereupon the Gauls seized Arisba, in the territory
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of Abydos, and thenceforth devoted themselves to forming
designs and committing acts of hostility against the cities
built in that district. Against them Prusias led out an army;
and in a pitched battle put the men to the sword on the field, and
slew nearly all their women and children in the camp, leaving
the baggage to be plundered by his soldiers. This achievement of Prusias delivered the cities on the Hellespont from
great fear and danger, and was a signal warning for future
generations against barbarians from Europe being over-ready
to cross into Asia.
Such was the state of affairs in Greece and Asia. Meanwhile the greater part of Italy had joined the Carthaginians note
after the battle of Cannae, as I have shown before. I will
interrupt my narrative at this point, after having detailed
the events in Asia and Greece, embraced by the 140th
Olympiad. In my next book after a brief
recapitulation of this narrative, I shall fulfil
the promise made at the beginning of my work by recurring
to the discussion of the Roman constitution.
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