38.16
A
large body of Gauls, induced either by want of room or desire for plunder
and convinced that none of the nations through whom they intended to pass
was a match for them in arms, marched under the leadership of Brennus into
the country of the Dardani. Here a quarrel arose, and as many as 20,000 of
them left Brennus and went off under two of their chiefs, Lonorius and
Lutarius, into Thrace. Fighting with those who opposed their progress and
exacting tribute from those who asked for peace, they reached Byzantium.
Here they remained for some time in occupation of the coast of the
Propontis, all the cities in that region being tributary to them. When reports
from those acquainted with Asia of the fertility of its soil reached their ears,
they were seized with the desire of crossing over to it, and after capturing
Lysimachia by treachery and making themselves masters of the whole of the
Chersonese, they moved down to the Hellespont. They were all the more
eager to make the passage when they saw that there was only a narrow strait
which separated them, and they sent to Antipater, the governor of the
coastal district, asking him to arrange for their transport. The matter took
longer than they expected, and a fresh quarrel broke out between the chiefs.
Lonorius, with the greater part of the host, returned to Byzantium; Lutarius
took two decked ships and three light barques from some Macedonians who
had been sent by Antipater, ostensibly as negotiators, but really as spies, and
in these vessels he transported one detachment after another, night and day,
until he had carried his whole force across. Not long afterwards, Lonorius,
with the assistance of Nicomedes king of Bithynia, sailed across from
Byzantium. The re-united Gauls assisted Nicomedes in his war against
Ziboetas, who was holding a part of Bithynia, and it was mainly owing to
them that Ziboetas was defeated and the whole of Bithynia brought under
the rule of Nicomedes.
From Bithynia they went further into Asia. Out of the 20,000 men
not more than 10,000 were carrying arms, yet so great was the terror they
inspired in all the nations west of the Taurus, that those who had no
experience of them, as well as those who had come into contact with them,
the most remote as well as their next neighbours, all alike submitted to them.
They were made up of three tribes, the Tolostobogii, the Trocmi and the
Tectosagi, and in the end they divided the conquered territory of Asia into
three parts, each tribe retaining its own tributary cities. The coast of the
Hellespont was given to the Trocmi, the Tolostobogii took Aeolis and Ionia,
and the Tectosagi received the inland districts. They levied tribute on the
whole of Asia west of the Taurus, but fixed their own settlement on both
sides of the Halys. Such was the terror of their name and the growth of their
numbers that at last even the kings of Syria did not dare to refuse the
payment of tribute. The first man in Asia to refuse was Attalus the father of
Eumenes, and contrary to universal expectation, fortune favoured his
courageous action; he proved himself superior in a pitched battle. The Gauls,
however, were not so far disheartened as to renounce their supremacy in
Asia; their power remained unimpaired down to the war between Antiochus
and Rome. Even then, after the defeat of Antiochus, they quite expected that
owing to their distance from the sea the Romans would not advance so far.
