5.48
But the greatest of all
the evils arising from the siege and the war was the
famine which began to afflict both armies, whilst
the Gauls were also visited with pestilence. They
had their camp on low-lying ground between the
hills, which had been scorched by the fires and was
full of malaria, and the least breath of wind raised
not dust only but ashes. Accustomed as a nation to
wet and cold, they could not stand this at all, and
tortured as they were by heat and suffocation,
disease became rife among them, and they died off
like sheep. They soon grew weary of burying their
dead singly, so they piled the bodies into heaps and
burned them indiscriminately, and made the locality
notorious; it was afterwards known as the Busta
Gallica. Subsequently a truce was made with the
Romans, and with the sanction of the commanders, the
soldiers held conversations with each other. The
Gauls were continually bringing up the famine and
calling upon them to yield to necessity and
surrender. To remove this impression it is said that
bread was thrown in many places from the Capitol
into the enemies' pickets. But soon the famine could
neither be concealed nor endured any longer. So, at
the very time that the Dictator was raising his own
levy at Ardea, and ordering his Master of the Horse,
L. Valerius, to withdraw his army from Veii, and
making preparations for a sufficient force with
which to attack the enemy on equal terms, the army
of the Capitol, worn out with incessant duty, but
still superior to all human ills, had nature not
made famine alone insuperable by them, were day by
day eagerly watching for signs of any help from the
Dictator. At last not only food but hope failed
them. Whenever the sentinels went on duty, their
feeble frames almost crushed by the weight of their
armour, the army insisted that they should either
surrender or purchase their ransom on the best terms
they could, for the Gauls were throwing out
unmistakable hints that they could be induced to
abandon the siege for a moderate consideration. A
meeting of the senate was now held, and the consular
tribunes were empowered to make terms. A conference
took place between Q. Sulpicius, the consular
tribune, and Brennus, the Gaulish chieftain, and an
agreement was arrived at by which 1000 lbs. of gold
was fixed as the ransom of a people destined ere
long to rule the world. This humiliation was great
enough as it was, but it was aggravated by the
despicable meanness of the Gauls, who produced
unjust weights, and when the tribune protested, the
insolent Gaul threw his sword into the scale, with
an exclamation intolerable to Roman ears, "Woe to
the vanquished!"