23.24
The
next day the senate, on being consulted by M. Pomponius, the praetor,
passed a decree to write to the Dictator, asking him, if the interests of the
State permitted, to come to Rome to conduct the election of fresh consuls.
He was to bring with him his Master of the Horse and M. Marcellus, the
praetor, so that the senate might learn from them on the spot in what
condition the affairs of the Republic were, and form their plans accordingly.
On receiving the summons they all came, after leaving officers in command
of the legions. The Dictator spoke briefly and modestly about himself; he
gave most of the credit to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, his Master of the
Horse, and then gave notice of the elections. The consuls elected were L.
Postumius for the third time -he was elected in his absence, as he was then
administering the province of Gaul -and Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, Master
of the Horse, and at that time curule aedile also. Then the praetors were
elected. They were M. Valerius Laevinus, for the second time, Appius
Claudius Pulcher, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, and Q. Mucius Scaevola. After the
various magistrates had been elected the Dictator returned to his army in
winter quarters at Teanum. The Master of the Horse was left in Rome; as he
would be entering upon office in a few days, it was desirable for him to
consult the senate about the enrolment and equipment of the armies for the
year.
While these matters were engrossing attention a fresh disaster was
announced, for Fortune was heaping one disaster upon another this year. It
was reported that L. Postumius, the consul elect, and his army had been
annihilated in Gaul. There was a wild forest called by the Gauls Litana, and
through this the consul was to conduct his army. The Gauls cut through the
trees on both sides of the road in such a way that they remained standing as
long as they were undisturbed, but a slight pressure would make them fall.
Postumius had two Roman legions, and he had also levied a force from the
country bordering on the Upper Sea, sufficiently large to bring the force with
which he entered the hostile territory up to 2s,000 men. The Gauls had
posted themselves round the outskirts of the forest, and as soon as the
Roman army entered they pushed the sawn trees on the outside, these fell
upon those next to them, which were tottering and hardly able to stand
upright, until the whole mass fell in on both sides and buried in one common
ruin arms and men and horses. Hardly ten men escaped, for when most of
them hail been crushed to death by the trunks or broken branches of the
trees, the remainder, panic-struck at the unexpected disaster, were killed by
the Gauls who surrounded the forest. Out of the whole number only very
few were made prisoners, and these, whilst trying to reach a bridge over the
river, were intercepted by the Gauls who had already seized it. It was there
that Postumius fell whilst fighting most desperately to avoid capture. The
Boii stripped the body of its spoils and cut off the head, and bore them in
triumph to the most sacred of their temples. According to their custom they
cleaned out the skull and covered the scalp with beaten gold; it was then
used as a vessel for libations and also as a drinking cup for the priest and
ministers of the temple. The plunder, too, which the Gauls secured was as
great as their victory, for although most of the animals had been buried
beneath the fallen trees, the rest of the booty, not having been scattered in
flight, was found strewn along the whole line where the army lay.
