a retreat, (as the Greeks by now pressed them hard on all sides), and killed those of their comrades who could not retreat with them owing to their wounds or weakness. These fugitive Galati bivouacked where they had got to when night came on them, and during the night were seized with panic fear, that is a fear arising without any solid cause. This panic came upon them late in the night, and was at first confined to a few, who thought they heard the noise of horses galloping up and that the enemy was approaching, but soon it ran through the host. They therefore seized their arms, and getting separated in the darkness mutually slew one another, neither recognizing their native dialect, nor discerning one another’s forms or weapons, but both sides in their panic thinking their opponents Greeks both in language and weapons, so that this panic sent by the god produced terrific mutual slaughter. And those Phocians, who were left in the fields guarding the flocks and herds, were the first to notice and report to the Greeks what had happened to the barbarians in the night: and this nerved them to attack the Celts more vigorously than ever, and they placed a stronger guard over their cattle, and would not let the Galati get any articles of food from them without a fierce fight for it, so that throughout the barbarian host there was a deficiency of corn and all other provisions. And the number of those that perished in Phocis was nearly 6,000 slain in battle, and more than 10,000 in the savage wintry night and in the panic, and as many more from starvation. Some Athenians, who had gone to Delphi to reconnoitre, brought back the news of what had happened to the barbarians, and of the panic that the god had sent. And when they heard this good news they marched through Bœotia, and the Bœotians with them, and both in concert followed the barbarians, and lay in ambush for them, and cut off the stragglers. And Acichorius’ division had joined those who fled with Brennus only the previous night: for the Ætolians made their progress slow, hurling javelins at them and any other missile freely, so that only a small part of the barbarians got safe to the camp at Heraclea. And Brennus, though his wounds were not mortal, yet either from fear of his comrades, or from shame, as having been the instigator of all these woes that had happened to them in Greece, committed suicide by drinking neat wine freely.[114] And subsequently the barbarians got to the river Sperchius with no little difficulty, as the Ætolians attacked them fiercely all the way, and at that river the Thessalians and Malienses set on them with such vigour that none of them got home again.