5.33
After the expulsion of
that citizen whose presence, if there is anything
certain in human affairs, would have made the
capture of Rome impossible, the doom of the fated
City swiftly approached. Ambassadors came from
Clusium begging for assistance against the Gauls.
The tradition is that this nation, attracted by the
report of the delicious fruits and especially of the
wine -a novel pleasure to them -crossed the Alps
and occupied the lands formerly cultivated by the
Etruscans, and that Arruns of Clusium imported wine
into Gaul in order to allure them into Italy. His
wife had been seduced by a Lucumo, to whom he was
guardian, and from whom, being a young man of
considerable influence, it was impossible to get
redress without getting help from abroad. In
revenge, Arruns led the Gauls across the Alps and
prompted them to attack Clusium. I would not deny
that the Gauls were conducted to Clusium by Arruns
or some one else living there, but it is quite clear
that those who attacked that city were not the first
who crossed the Alps. As a matter of fact, Gauls
crossed into Italy two centuries before they
attacked Clusium and took Rome. Nor were the
Clusines the first Etruscans with whom the Gaulish
armies came into conflict; long before that they had
fought many battles with the Etruscans who dwelt
between the Apennines and the Alps. Before the Roman
supremacy, the power of the Tuscans was widely
extended both by sea and land. How far it extended
over the two seas by which Italy is surrounded like
an island is proved by the names, for the nations of
Italy call the one the "Tuscan Sea," from the
general designation of the people, and the other the
"Atriatic," from Atria, a Tuscan colony. The Greeks
also call them the "Tyrrhene" and the "Adriatic."
The districts stretching towards either sea were
inhabited by them. They first settled on this side
the Apennines by the western sea in twelve cities,
afterwards they founded twelve colonies beyond the
Apennines, corresponding to the number of the mother
cities. These colonies held the whole of the country
beyond the Po as far as the Alps, with the exception
of the corner inhabited by the Veneti, who dwelt
round an arm of the sea. The Alpine tribes are
undoubtedly of the same stock, especially the
Raetii, who had through the nature of their country
become so uncivilised that they retained no trace of
their original condition except their language, and
even this was not free from corruption.