Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and RomansPlutarch
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Plutarch
Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
Others think that they who say this are misled by the fact that the
virgins put most of their holy things into two barrels at this time of
the Gaulish invasion, and hid them underground in the temple of
Quirinus; and that from hence that place to this day bears the name of
Barrels.
However it be, taking the most precious and important things they had,
they fled away with them, shaping their course along the river side,
where Lucius Albinius, a simple citizen of Rome, who among others was
making his escape, overtook them, having his wife, children, and goods
in a cart; and, seeing the virgins dragging along in their arms the holy
things of the gods, in a helpless and weary condition, he caused his
wife and children to get down, and, taking out his goods, put the
virgins in the cart, that they might make their escape to some of the
Greek cities. This devout act of Albinius, and the respect he showed
thus signally to the gods at a time of such extremity, deserved not to
be passed over in silence. But the priests that belonged to other gods,
and the most elderly of the senators, men who had been consuls and had
enjoyed triumphs, could not endure to leave the city; but, putting on
their sacred and splendid robes, Fabius the high-priest performing the
office, they made their prayers to the gods, and, devoting themselves,
as it were, for their country, sat themselves down in their ivory
chairs in the forum, and in that posture expected the event.
On the third day after the battle, Brennus appeared with his army at the
city, and, finding the gates wide open and no guards upon the walls,
first began to suspect it was some design or stratagem, never dreaming
that the Romans were in so desperate a condition. But when he found it
to be so indeed, he entered at the Colline gate, and took Rome, in the
three hundred and sixtieth year, or a little more, after it was built;
if, indeed, it can be supposed probable that an exact chronological
statement has been preserved of events which were themselves the cause
of chronological difficulties about things of later date; of the
calamity itself, however, and of the fact of the capture, some faint
rumors seem to have passed at the time into Greece. Heraclides
Ponticus, who lived not long after these times, in his book upon the
Soul, relates that a certain report came from the west, that an army,
proceeding from the Hyperboreans, had taken a Greek city called Rome,
seated somewhere upon the great sea. But I do not wonder that so
fabulous and high-flown an author as Heraclides should embellish the
truth of the story with expressions about Hyperboreans and the great
sea. Aristotle the philosopher appears to have heard a correct
statement of the taking of the city by the Gauls, but he calls its
deliverer Lucius; whereas Camillus's surname was not Lucius, but Marcus.
But this is a matter of conjecture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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