38.17
As it
was this enemy, so much dreaded by all the people in that part of the world,
that was to be met in war, the consul paraded his soldiers and delivered the
following speech to them: "I am quite aware, soldiers, that of all the nations
of Asia the Gauls have the highest military reputation. This fierce people,
after wandering and warring over almost the entire world, have taken up
their abode amongst the gentlest and most peaceable race of men. Their tall
stature, their long red hair, their huge shields, their extraordinarily long
swords; still more, their songs as they enter into battle, their war-whoops
and dances, and the horrible clash of arms as they shake their shields in the
way their fathers did before them -all these things are intended to terrify and
appal. But let those fear them to whom they are strange and startling, such
as the Greeks and Phrygians and Carians. We Romans are familiar with
Gaulish tumults and know how they come to nothing. Once in the old days
when our ancestors met them for the first time, they fled from them at the
Alia; from that time for the last 200 years they have routed and slain them
like so many herds of cattle, and almost more triumphs have been won over
the Gauls than over the rest of the world put together. Our experience has
taught us this -if you withstand their first rush with its wild excitement and
blind fury, their limbs become powerless with sweat and fatigue, their
weapons hang idly; their flabby bodies and, when their fury has spent itself,
their flabby spirits, too, are prostrated by sun and dust and thirst, even
though you did not lift a sword against them. We have made trial of them,
not only legions against legions, but man against man. T. Manlius and M.
Valerius have shown how steady Roman courage can get the better of
Gaulish frenzy. M. Manlius flung down single-handed the Gauls who were
climbing the Capitol. And, besides, those ancestors of ours had to deal with
genuine Gauls bred in their own land; these are degenerates, a mongrel race,
truly what they are called -Gallograeci. Just as in the case of fruits and
cattle, the seed is not so effective in keeping up the strain as the nature of the
soil and climate in which they are reared are in changing it.
"The Macedonians who occupy Alexandria, Seleucia, Babylonia
and their other colonies throughout the world, have degenerated into Syrians
and Parthians and Egyptians. Massilia, situated amongst Gauls, has
contracted something of the temperament of its neighbours. How much of
the rough and stern discipline of Sparta has survived amongst the
Tarentines? Everything grows most vigorously in its own home; when
planted in an alien soil its nature changes and it deteriorates into that from
which it gets its subsistence. As in the battle with Antiochus you slew the
Phrygians in spite of their heavy Gaulish arms, so you will slay them now,
you the victors, they the vanquished. I am more afraid of our gaining too
little glory in this war than of gaining too much. Antiochus has often routed
and scattered them. Do not imagine that it is only wild beasts which preserve
their ferocity when newly-captured but after being fed for some time at the
hands of men grow tame. Nature works in the same way in softening the
savagery of men. Do you suppose that these men are the same as their
fathers and grandfathers were? Driven from their home by want of room they
wandered across the rugged coast of Illyria, and after traversing the whole
length of Paeonia and Thrace and fighting their way through warlike nations
took possession of these countries. After becoming hardened and savage by
all they had to go through, they have found a home in a land which makes
them fat with bountiful supplies of every kind. All the ferocity which they
brought with them has been tamed by a most fertile soil, a most genial
climate and the gentle character of the people amongst whom they have
settled. You, sons of Mars, believe me, will have to be on your guard against
the attractions of Asia and shun them from the very first; such power have
the pleasures of other lands to weaken and destroy your energies, so easily
can the habits and practices of the people round you affect you. It is,
however, fortunate for us that though they cannot oppose you with anything
like the strength they once could, they still enjoy their former reputation
amongst the Greeks. You will therefore gain as much credit with our allies in
conquering as if the Gauls you defeat had retained all the courage of old
days."
