No less did the multitude of commanders
distract and confound their proceedings; frequently before, upon
less occasions, they had chosen a single leader, with the title of
dictator, being sensible of what great importance it is in
critical times to have the solders united under one general with
the entire and absolute control placed in his hands. Add to all,
the remembrance of Camillus's treatment, which made it now seem a
dangerous thing for officers to command without humoring their
solders. In this condition they left the city, and encamped by the
river Allia, about ten miles from Rome, and not far from the place
where it falls into the Tiber; and here the Gauls came upon them,
and, after a disgraceful resistance, devoid of order and
discipline, they were miserably defeated. The left wing was
immediately driven into the river, and there destroyed; the right
had less damage by declining the shock, and from the low ground
getting to the tops of the hills, from whence most of them
afterwards dropped into the city; the rest, as many as escaped,
the enemy being weary of the slaughter, stole by night to Veii,
giving up Rome and all that was in it for lost.
This battle was fought about the summer solstice, the moon being
at full, the very same day in which the sad disaster of the Fabii
had happened, when three hundred of that name were at one time cut
off by the Tuscans.
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