their javelins against those who were posted to guard the gate; these, however, were not wounded, but most of them, having their shields pierced through, were entangled and fastened together, nor did they longer withstand the attack. 23. The gates being now open, a flight of the Gauls in every direction from the camp took place before the victors could burst in. They rushed on blindly through passable and impassable places; no craggy cliffs, nor even perpendicular rocks, stopped them; they feared nothing but the enemy. Great numbers, therefore, falling down precipices of vast height, were either maimed or killed. The consul, taking possession of the camp, restrained the soldiers from plunder and booty; he orders every one to pursue with his utmost speed, to press on the enemy, and to increase their panic while they were in dismay. The other party, under Lucius Manlius, now came up. These he did not suffer to enter the camp, but sent them forward in the pursuit, and followed shortly in person, after committing the guard of the prisoners to some military tribunes: for he thought that the war would be finished, if in that consternation the greatest possible number should be slain or taken prisoners. After the consul’s departure, Caius Helvius arrived, with the third division: he was not able to prevent their sacking the camp; and, by a most unjust dispensation, the booty fell into the hands of men who had not had any concern in the action. The cavalry stood for a long time ignorant of the fight, and of the success of their army. At last, they also, as far as they could ascend the hills on horseback, pursuing the Gauls, (who were now dispersed round the foot of the mountain,) either killed or made prisoners of them. The number of the slain could not easily be ascertained because the flight and slaughter were widely extended through all the windings of the mountains; and a great number fell from impassable cliffs into cavities of prodigious depth; others were killed in the woods and thickets. Claudius, who mentions two battles on Mount Olympus, asserts, that forty-thousand fell in them; yet Valerius Antias, who is generally addicted to great exaggeration on the point of numbers, says, not more than ten thousand. The number of prisoners undoubtedly amounted to forty thousand, because the Gauls had dragged along with them a crowd of people of all descriptions and of all ages, like men removing to another country, rather than going out to war. The consul, having burnt the arms of the enemy collected in one heap, then ordered all to bring together the rest of the booty, and either sold that portion which was to be applied to the use of the public, or distributed the remainder among the soldiers, taking care that the shares should be as just as possible. They were all praised in a public assembly, and presented with gifts each according to his merit; Attalus was distinguished above all, with the general approbation of the rest. For