The Gauls at the Allia

The Battle of the Allia was fought about eleven Roman miles north of Rome, where the small Allia stream runs into the Tiber. Livy dates it to 18 July, a day the Romans afterward kept as the dies Alliensis, the Day of the Allia, an unlucky day on which no public business was done. By the traditional Roman count the year was 390 BC; the Greek historian Polybius puts it a few years later, around 387 BC.

The attackers were the Senones, Gauls who had crossed the Alps and settled on Italy's Adriatic coast. Livy describes a Roman army caught off guard by their speed and numbers. The left wing broke at the sound of the Gallic war cry, many of the fleeing men drowned in the Tiber, and most survivors fled to Veii, the rest to Rome. The Gauls then entered an almost undefended Rome, and by tradition only the Capitol held out. Their leader, Brennus, is said to have thrown his sword onto the scales as the ransom gold was weighed, crying 'Vae victis,' woe to the conquered.