[Sidenote: B. C 364 (_a.u._ 390)] 4. ¶ The Romans who were on the Capitol under siege had no hope of safety unless from heavenly powers. So scrupulously did they observe the mandates of religion, although in every extremity of evil, that when it was requisite for one of the sacred rites to be performed by the pontifices in another part of the city Cæso [Footnote: Very likely the copyist erred here. The sense requires "before sentence was passed upon him."] Fabius, who exercised the office of priest, descended for the purpose from the Capitol after receiving his charge, as he had been accustomed to do, and passing through the enemy performed the customary ceremony and returned the same day. I am led to admire the barbarians on the one hand because either on account of the gods or his bravery they spared him: and far more do I feel admiration for the man himself for two reasons, that he dared to descend alone among the enemy, and that when he might have withdrawn to some place of safety he refused and instead voluntarily returned up the Capitol again to a danger that he foresaw: he understood that they hesitated to abandon the spot which was the only part of their country they still held but saw at the same time that no matter how much they desired to escape it was impossible to do so by reason of the multitude of the besiegers. (Valesius, p.581.) 5. ¶ Camillus, being urged to let the leadership be entrusted to him, would not allow it because he was an exile and could not take the position according to time-honored usage. He showed himself so law-abiding and exact a man that in so great a danger to his native land he made precedent a matter of earnest thought and did not think it right to hand down to posterity an example of lawlessness. (Valesius, p.582. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 23.) 6. When Rome had been sacked by the Gauls, Brennus being at the head of that expedition of theirs, as the Gauls were on the point of capturing the Capitol by ascending secretly to the Acropolis at night, a great outcry of geese arose in that quarter; and one Marcus Manlius roused from sleep saw the enemy creeping up, and by striking some with his oblong shield and slaying others with his sword he repulsed them all and saved the Romans. For this they gave him the title of Capitolinus, and in honor of the geese they have door-keepers as guards in the palace in remembrance of their watch at that time, just as earlier the Greeks in Athens called Pelargikon Geraneia (Crane-ry) from such creatures. (Tzetzes, His. 830-842. Cp. Zonaras, 7, 23.) [Frag. XXV]