They levied tribute throughout every part of Asia on this side Mount Taurus; but chose their own residence on the banks of the river Halys; and so great was the terror of their name, their numbers, too, increasing by a rapid population, that at last even the kings of Syria did not refuse to pay them tribute. The first of all the inhabitants of Asia who refused, was Attalus, the father of king Eumenes; and beyond the expectation of all, fortune favoured his bold resolution, and he defeated them in a pitched battle; yet he did not so effectually break their spirits, as to make them give up their pretensions to empire. Their power continued the same until the war between Antiochus and the Romans; and, even then, after Antiochus was expelled the country, they still entertained a hope, that, as they lived remote from the sea, the Roman army would not come so far. 17. As the troops were about to act against this enemy, so terrible to all in that part of the world, the consul, in an assembly, addressed the soldiers for the most part to this effect: “It does not escape me, that, of all the nations inhabiting Asia, the Gauls are pre-eminent for military fame. A fierce nation, after overrunning the face of the earth with its arms, has fixed its abode in the midst of a race of men the gentlest in the world. Their tall persons, their long red hair, their vast shields, and swords of enormous length; their songs also, when they are advancing to action, their yells and dances, and the horrid clashing of their armour, while they brandish their shields in a peculiar manner, practised in their original country; all these circumstances are preconcerted to inspire terror. But let Greeks, and Phrygians, and Carians, to whom these things are unusual and strange, be frightened by such acts: to the Romans, accustomed to Gallic tumults, even these vain efforts to strike terror are known. Once our ancestors fled from them, but it was long ago, when they first met them at the Allia. Ever since that time, for, now, two hundred years, the Romans drive them before them in dismay, and kill them like cattle; there have, indeed, been more triumphs celebrated over the Gauls, than over almost all the rest of the world. It is now well known by experience, that if you sustain their first onset, which they make with fiery eagerness and blind fury, their limbs are unnerved with sweat and fatigue; their arms flag; and, though you should not employ a weapon on them, the sun, dust, and thirst prostrate their enervated bodies and minds when their fury has ceased. We have tried them, not only with our legions against theirs, but in single combat, man to man. Titus Manlius and Marcus Valerius have demonstrated how far Roman valour surpasses Gallic fury. Marcus Manlius, singly, thrust back the Gauls who were mounting the Capitol in a body. Our forefathers had to deal with genuine Gauls, born in their own lands; but they are now degenerate, a mongrel race, and, in reality, what they