A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

BRENNUS. BRENNUS. 50,3
retreat, perhaps the greatest of his exploits, from Little is known of him and his Gauls till they
Lyncestis; and a third before the battle of Am- came into immediate contact with the Romans, and
phipolis. His own opinion of him seems to have even then traditionary legends have very much obbeen very high, and indeed we cannot well over- scured the facts of history.
estimate the services he rendered his country. It is clear, however, that, after crossing the
Without his activity, even the utmost temerity in Apennines (Diod. xiv. 113; Liv. v. 36), Brennus
their opponents wouldhardlyhave brought Spartaout attacked Clusium, and unsuccessfully. The valley
of the contest without the utmost disgrace. He is of the Clanis was then open before him, leading
in fact the one redeeming point of the first ten down to the Tiber, where the river was fordable;
years; and had his life and career been prolonged, and after crossing it he passed through the country
the war would perhaps have come to an earlier of the Sabines, and advanced along the Salarian
conclusion, and one more happy for all parties. road towards Rome. His army now amounted to
As a commander, even our short view of him leads 70,000 men. (Diod. xiv. 114.) At the Allia,
us to ascribe to him such qualities as would have which ran through a deep ravine into the Tiber,
placed his above all other names in the war, though about 12 miles from the city, he found the Roman
it is true that we see him rather as the captain army, consisting of about 40,000 men, strongly
than the general. To his reputation for " justice, posted. Their right wing, composed of the proleliberality, and wisdom," Thucydides ascribes not tarians and irregular troops, was drawn up on high
only much of his own success, but also the eager- ground, covered by the ravine in front and some
ness shewn for the Spartan alliance after the woody country on the flank; the left and centre,
Athenian disasters at Syracuse. This character composed of the regular legions, filled the ground
was no doubt mainly assumed from motives of between the hills and the Tiber (Diod. xiv. 114),
policy, nor can we believe him to have had any while the left wing rested on the river itself.
thought except for the cause of Sparta and his own Brennus attacked and carried this position, much
glory. Of unscrupulous Spartan duplicity he had in the same way as Frederick of Prussia defeated
a full share, adding to it a most unusual dexterity the Austrians at Leuthen. He fell with the whole
and tact in negotiation; his powers, too, of elo- strength of his army on the right wing of the Roquence were, in the judgment of Thucydides, very mans, and quickly cleared the ground. He then
considerable for a Spartan. Strangely united with charged the exposed flank of the legions on the
these qualities we find the highest personal left, and routed the whole army with great slaughbravery; apparently too (in Plato's Symposium ter. Had he marched at once upon the city, it
le is compared to Achilles) heroic strength and would have fallen, together with the Capitol, into
beauty. He, too, like Archidamus, was a suc- his hands, and the name and nation of Rome
cessful adaptation to circumstances of the un- might have been swept from the earth. But he
wieldy Spartan character: to make himself fit to spent the night on the field. His warriors were
cope with them he sacrificed, far less, indeed, than busy in cutting off the heads of the slain (Diod.
was afterwards sacrificed in the age of Lysander, 1. c.), and then abandoned themselves to plunder,
yet too much perhaps to have permitted a return drunkenness, and sleep. He delayed the whole of
to perfect acquiescence in the ancient discipline, the next day, and thus gave the Romans time to
Such rapidity and versatility, such enterprise and secure the Capitol. On the third morning he burst
daring, were probably felt at Sparta (comp. Thuc. open the gates of the city. Then followed the
i. 70) as something new and incongruous. His massacre of the eighty priests and old patricians
successes, it is known, were regarded there with (Zonar, ii. 23), as they sat, each in the portico of
so much jealousy as even to hinder his obtaining his house, in their robes and chairs of state; the
reinforcements. (Thuc. iv. 108.) [A. H. C.] plunder and burning of all the city, except the
BRAURON (Bpaupwv), an ancient hero, from houses on the Palatine, where Brennus established
whom the Attic demos of Brauron derived its his quarters (Diod. xiv. 115); the famous night
name. (Steph. Byz. s. v.) [L. S.] attack on the Capitol, and the gallant exploit of
BRAURO'NIA (Bpavpwvia), a surname of Manlius in saving it.
Artemis, derived from the demos of Brauron in For six months Brennus besieged the Capitol,
Attica. Under this name the goddess had a sane- and at last reduced the garrison to offer 1000
tuary on the Acropolis of Athens, which contained pounds of gold for their ransom. The Gaul brought
a statue of her made by Praxiteles. Her image at unfair weights to the scales, and the Roman triBrauron, however, was believed to be the most bune remonstrated. But Brennus then flung his
ancient, and the one which Orestes and Iphigeneia broadsword into the scale, and told the tribune,
had brought with them from Tauris. (Paus. i. who asked what it meant, that it meant " vae victis
23. ~ 8; Diet. of Ant. s.v. Bpavpwcoa.) [L. S.] esse," that the weakest goes to the wall.
BRENNUS. 1. The leader of the Gauls, who Polybius says (ii. 18), that Brennus and his
in B. c. 390 crossed the Apennines, took Rome, Gauls then gave up the city, and returned home
and overran the centre and the south of Italy. His safe with their booty. But the vanity of the Roreal name was probably either Brenhin, which sig- mans and their popular legends would not let him
nifies in Kymrian " a king," or Bran, a proper so escape. According to some, a large detachment
name which occurs in Welsh history. (Arnold's was cut off in an ambush near Caere (Diod. xiv.
Rome, vol. i. p. 524.) This makes it probable that 117); according to others, these were none others
he himself, as well as many of the warriors whom than Brennus and those who had besieged the
he led, belonged to the Kymri of Gaul, though the Capitol. (Strab. v. p. 220.) Last of all, Camillus
mass of the invaders are said by Livy (v. 35) and and a Roman army are made to appear suddenly
by Diodorus (xiv. 13) to have been Senones, from just at the moment that the gold is being weighed
the neighbourhood of Sens, and must therefore, ac- for the Capitol, Brennus is defeated in two battles,
cording to Caesar's division (B. G. i. 1) of the he himself is killed, and his whole army slain to a
Gallic tribes, have been Kelts. man. (Liv. v. 49.)