The Gauls and the Geese

The Gauls had come! Rome was used to fighting its neighbours in central Italy but had never before faced such a terrifying band of barbarians. The Roman warriors sent to oppose the Gauls had been foolishly led and those warriors had foolishly fled. The Romans not cut down by the Gauls either fled to nearby strongholds or made it to Rome. There was thus no effective resistance when the barbarians reached the city. Its suburbs were plundered and the elderly and infirm killed while the remaining warriors, senators and younger citizens retired to the citadel atop the hill of the Capitol, Rome’s sacred precinct. There they were able to repulse the Gauls and hold out for help.

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If the Romans were defeated, they were still pious, honouring the gods and the omens they sent. As the Gauls were arriving, the Vestal Virgins, keepers of Rome’s holy fire, took what sacred items they could not bury and tried to flee with these to safety to continue their religious duties. A commoner—Lucius Albinus—taking his wife and children to safety on his wagon, came across the Vestals. Such was his piety that he ordered his family off the wagon and carried the priestesses and their sacred burdens to the safety of a nearby town.

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During the siege, the Fabian clan held their annual religious festival on Rome’s Quirinal Hill. Fabius Dorsuo took the sacred objects for this festival from the stronghold on the Capitol and, clad in his toga, descended the hill and walked through the ranks of the amazed Gauls to the Quirinal to celebrate the ancient rituals. It seems that the Gauls were amazed and perhaps even a little awed by the piety of this Roman and by the gods he honoured.

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However, the greatest proof of Rome’s piety came one night when the Gauls found a secret path up the Capitol. They stole past the sentries unawares and did not even wake the guard dogs. However, it seems that one goddess was aware. Housed in the temple of Juno, queen of the gods, were her sacred geese. Far from being used as meat by the beleaguered defenders, the Romans continued to honour the goddess by feeding and maintaining her birds. These began to honk when they heard the ascending Gauls. Alerted by the birds’ din, the Roman noble Marcus Manlius rushed to the scene and flung the leading Gaul down the hill, who took his comrades tumbling down with him. Other Roman warriors rushed to the scene and were able to repel the Gallic assault. The gods, it seems, had chosen these humble geese to preserve Rome.