The History of Rome, Book III: From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage and the Greek StatesMommsen, Theodor
History
The History of Rome, Book III: From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage and the Greek States
Mommsen, Theodor
Rome -- History
This was done by the new Roman commander-in-chief, Gnaeus Manlius
Volso, who relieved Lucius Scipio in Asia Minor. He was subjected
to severe reproach on this score; the men in the senate who were
averse to the new turn of policy failed to see either the aim, or
the pretext, for such a war. There is no warrant for the former
objection, as directed against this movement in particular; it
was on the contrary, after the Roman state had once interfered
in Hellenic affairs as it had done, a necessary consequence of this
policy. Whether it was the right course for Rome to undertake the
protectorate over the Hellenes collectively, may certainly be called
in question; but regarded from the point of view which Flamininus
and the majority led by him had now taken up, the overthrow of the
Galatians was in fact a duty of prudence as well as of honour. Better
founded was the objection that there was not at the time a proper
ground of war against them; for they had not been, strictly speaking,
in alliance with Antiochus, but had only according to their wont
allowed him to levy hired troops in their country. But on the other
side there fell the decisive consideration, that the sending of a
Roman military force to Asia could only be demanded of the Roman
burgesses under circumstances altogether extraordinary, and, if once
such an expedition was necessary, everything told in favour of
carrying it out at once and with the victorious army that was now
stationed in Asia. So, doubtless under the influence of Flamininus
and of those who shared his views in the senate, the campaign into
the interior of Asia Minor was undertaken in the spring of 565. The
consul started from Ephesus, levied contributions from the towns and
princes on the upper Maeander and in Pamphylia without measure, and
then turned northwards against the Celts. Their western canton, the
Tolistoagii, had retired with their belongings to Mount Olympus, and
the middle canton, the Tectosages, to Mount Magaba, in the hope that
they would be able there to defend themselves till the winter should
compel the strangers to withdraw. But the missiles of the Roman
slingers and archers--which so often turned the scale against the
Celts unacquainted with such weapons, almost as in more recent times
firearms have turned the scale against savage tribes--forced the
heights, and the Celts succumbed in a battle, such as had often its
parallels before and after on the Po and on the Seine, but here
appears as singular as the whole phenomenon of this northern race
emerging amidst the Greek and Phrygian nations. The number of the
slain was at both places enormous, and still greater that of the
captives. The survivors escaped over the Halys to the third Celtic
canton of the Trocmi, which the consul did not attack. That river was
the limit at which the leaders of Roman policy at that time had
resolved to halt. Phrygia, Bithynia, and Paphlagonia were to
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