The second was, that, just before Camillus went into
exile, Marcus Caedicius, a person of no great distinction, nor of
the rank of senator, but esteemed a good and respectable man,
reported to the military tribunes a thing worthy their
consideration: that, going along the night before in the street
called the New Way, and being called by somebody in a loud voice,
he turned about, but could see no one, but heard a voice greater
than human, which said these words, "Go, Marcus Caedicius, and
early in the morning tell the military tribunes that they are
shortly to expect the Gauls." But the tribunes made a mock and
sport with the story, and a little after came Camillus's
banishment.
The Gauls are of the Celtic race, and are reported to have been
compelled by their numbers to leave their country, which was
insufficient to sustain them all, and to have gone in search of
other homes. And being, many thousands of them, young men able to
bear arms, and carrying with them a still greater number of women
and young children, some of them, passing the Riphaean mountains,
fell upon the Northern Ocean, and possessed themselves of the
farthest parts of Europe; others, seating themselves between the
Pyrenean mountains and the Alps, lived there a considerable time,
near to the Senones and Celtorii; but, afterwards tasting wine,
which was then first brought them out of Italy, they were all so
much taken with the liquor, and transported with the hitherto
unknown delight, that, snatching up their arms and taking their
families along with them, they marched directly to the Alps, to
find out the country which yielded such fruit, pronouncing all
others barren and useless.
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