A. M. 278. about a century before. Upon this intelligence he had received of the first success of Belgius, and the great booty he had acquired, he envied him the spoils of so rich a country, and immediately formed a resolution to have a part. And when he received the news of that general's defeat, that only served as a new motive to hasten his march; his impatience to avenge his countrymen uniting with his desire to enrich himself. Authors have not informed us what became of Belgius and his troop, but, in all proba. bility he was killed in the second engagement, after which the remains of his army were incorporated into that of Brennus. But however that were, Brennus and Acichorius quitted Pannonia, with an army of an hundred and fifty thousand foot, and fifteen thousand horse, and entered Illyrium, in order to pass into Macedonia and Greece. During a sedition which happened in their march, a body of twenty thousand men drew off from the main army, and marched, under Leonor and Lutarius, into Thrace, where they joined those whom Cerethrius had already marched into that country; after which they made themselves masters of Byzantium, and the western coasts of the Propontis, and then laid the adjacent country under contribution. This desertion did not prevent Brennus and Aci3726. chorius from continuing their march; and they drew Ant. J. C. either from Illyrium, or their countrymen the Gauls, such numerous re-inforcements, as increased their army to an hundred and fifty-two thousand foot, and sixty one thousand two hundred horse. The hopes of booty, and some advantageous settlement, caused a vast number of soldiers to join them in this expedition, and with this army they marched directly to Macedonia, where they overpowered Sosthenes with their multitudes, and ravaged all the country. It will soon appear by the sequel, that Antigonus reigned in Macedonia, after the death of Sosthenes. The Gauls, after their conquests in that country, advanced to the straits of Thermopylæ, with an in tention to enter Greece; but were stopped for some time by the troops who had been posted there, to defend that important pass: till at last they discovered the way which the army of Xerxes had formerly taken in their passage over these mountains; and the Greeks, to avoid being surrounded by the troops detached against them by the Gauls for that purpose, were obliged to retire and leave them a free passage. Brennus advanced with the main body of the army towards Delphos, in order to pillage the immense riches of the temple of Apollo, and ordered Acichorius to follow him with the troops under his com mand; declaring to him, at the same time, with an air of raillery, that "the gods ought in reason to impart some of their riches to men, who had more occasion for them than themselves, and employed them in a better manner." P Authors have here taken an opportunity to relate very astonishing events for they tell us, that when Brennus approached the temple of Delphos, the skies were blackened with a dreadful tempest, and that great numbers of his men were destroyed by hail and thunder. To which they add, that this storm was attended by an earthquake, that rent the mountains, and threw down the rocks, which crushed the Gauls by hundreds at a time; and that the remaining troops were seized with such a panic the ensuing night, as caused them to mistake their own men for the enemies, in consequence of which they destroyed themselves in such a manner, that before the day grew light enough for them to distinguish each other, above half of the army perished in that manner. The Greeks, whom the danger of a temple so revered among them had drawn from all parts to preserve it from being plundered, were animated by an P Justin. 1. xxiv. c. 6-8. Pausan. 1. x. p. 632-634. * The ancients thought these kinds of terrors were infused into the mind by the god Pan. Other reasons are likewise assigned for that name, event in which heaven itself seemed to declare in their favour, and charged the Gauls with so much impetuosity, that though Acichorius had joined Brennus, they were unable to sustain the shock, and were slaughtered in vast numbers. Brennus was wounded in several parts of his body, but not mortally: when he saw that all was lost, and that the design he had formed ended in the destruction of his army, he was seized with such despair, as made him resolve not to survive his losses. He accordingly sent for all the officers that could be assembled, amidst the confu sion which reigned among them, and advised them to kill all the wounded men, and make the best retreat in their power. At the close of those expressions he drank as much wine as he could, plunged his dagger into his own bosom, and expired upon the spot. Acichorius took the command in chief upon himself, and endeavoured to regain the straits of Ther mopylæ, in order to march out of Greece, and conduct the sad remains of that army into their own country. But as he was obliged to pass through a large extent of the enemy's territories, and to hazard a battle every time he wanted provisions for his troops; and as these were always reduced to the necessity of lying on the ground, though it was then the winter season; in a word, as they were constantly harassed from every quarter, by the inhabitants of the countries through which they marched, they were all destroyed, either by famine, cold, distempers, or the sword; and of all that prodigious number of men who engaged in this expedition, not one escaped with life. Some fabulous exaggerations may possibly be blended with the other circumstances of this event; and chiefly with relation to the sudden tempest that arose, when the Gauls approached Delphos, and the miraculous fall of the rocks on the sacrilegious troops. Perhaps the whole might be no more than a thick flight of arrows, shot by the enemies, who might likewise roll down upon the Gauls huge stones from the tops of the mountains. Such events are entirely natural and customary in attacks like this, which the priests, whose interest it was to magnify the power of their god, might represent with an air of prodigy, and as a miraculous interposition: it is certain that any account of this nature might be easily imposed upon the credulity of the people, who are always fond of giving in to the marvellous, and seldom scrupulously examine the truth of such things. On the other hand, we have no sufficient reason to disbelieve any thing history relates of this event, The enterprise of Brennus was undoubtedly a sacrilegious impiety; and injurious to religion, as well as to the Deity himself; for he spoke and acted in the manner already represented, not from any conviction that those gods were the mere offspring of fable (for he did not think better on that article than the Greeks themselves) but from an absolute contempt of a divinity in general. The idea of a God is impressed on the hearts of all men, and they have through all ages, and in all countries, believed it to be their duty to render certain honours to him. The Pagans were deceived in their application of this principle, but all acknowledge the necessity of it. The Deity, therefore, in mere goodness to mankind, may have caused his vengeance to be displayed against those, even among the heathens, who testified an open contempt of a Supreme Being, in order to preserve the traces and principles of religion in their minds, by some extraordinary indications of his anger, till it pleased him to afford them clearer lights by the ministration of the Mediator, at the appointed time, reserved for the instruction of mankind, in that pure worship which the only true God required from them. We likewise see that the Divine Being, in order to preserve among men a due respect for his Providence, and a belief of his peculiar attention to all their actions, has been careful from time to time, to punish perjuries and other crying offences in a singular manner, and even among the Pagans themselves. By which means the belief of that capital point, the first tie of man with God, was maintained amidst all the darkness of Paganism, and the dissolution of manners which then prevailed. But it is now time to return to the Gauls. Leonor and Lutarius, who had established themselves on the Propontis, advanced to the Hellespont, and surprised Lysimachia, after which they made themselves masters of all the Thracian Chersoneses; but a difference arising between the two chiefs, they separated from each other. Lutarius continued his march along the Hellespont, and Leonor returned to Byzantium with the greatest part of the army. The latter having afterwards passed the Bosphorus, and the other the Hellespont, met again in Asia, where a reconciliation being effected between them, they rejoined their forces, and entered into the service of Nicomedes King of Bythinia. Who, after he had reduced his brother Zypetes by their assistance, and acquired the possession of all his father's dominions, assigned to them, for their settlement, that part of Asia Minor, which took from them the denomination of Gallo Græcia, or Galatia. The canonical epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians was written to the descendants of this people, and St. Jerom, above six hundred years after the time we now speak of, declared, that they continued to speak the same language he had heard at Treves. The remainder of those who continued in Thrace engaged afterwards in a war with Antigonus Gonatas, who reigned in Macedonia, and most of them were then destroyed. Those few who escaped, either passed into Asia, and rejoined their countrymen. Galatia; or dispersed themselves into other regions, where no further mention is made of them. In this manner ended that terrible inundation of Barbarians, 9 Liv. 1. xxxviii. n. 16. in |