THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ? 383
For " all the Gauls who had marched with Brennus
and survived the rout at Delphi did not cross into Asia.
Some of them after
making their way to the Hellespont
were captivated by the beauty of the district round Bj'zantium,
and settled there. Then after conquering the Thracian tribes
of the district they erected Tyle into a capital, and placed the
Byzantines in exti'eme peril. In their eailier attacks, made
under the command of Comontorius, their first king, the
Byzantines always bought them off
by presents, amounting to
three, or five, or sometimes even ten thousand gold staters, on
condition of their not devastating their territory
: and at last
were compelled to agree to pay them a yearly tribute of eighty
talents, until the time of Cavarus, in whose reign their kingdom
came to an end, and their whole tribe, being in their turn
con([uered by the Thraeians, was entirely annihilated \"
The destruction of these Gauls must have taken place
some time subsequent to 220 B.C., for in that year their king
Cavarus negoeiated the peace between the Byzantines on the
one hand and Prusias and the Rhodians on the other.
The Gauls just then had everywhere fallen upon evil days.
In 225 I5.C. the Insubres and Boii with their allies from the
Alps and the valley of the Rhone had suffered a terrible defeat
the Celtic tribe of the
at the hands of the Romans assisted by
Cenomauni, who were afraid that they themselves might fare
badly and be stripped of their own lands by the hungiy hoi-des
of their brethren from beyond
tlu' mountains. As the immediate
result of this crushing defeat the Celts wei'e almost wholly
driven out of the \all('y of the Po, and only a scanty remnant
retained their hold near the Alj)s.
The J3oii, as we have seen
already (p. .*>7!)), sought a new home in the land of the
Taurisci. It was probably in eousequeiice of these great tfil)al
movements that 'the Aegosagae from Gaul' made their appearance
(ni the Hellesjxiiil.
They we'-e brought into Asia by Attahis to aid him against
Aehaeus'-, l)ut in the end tliey proxcd ilangerous allies. For
after he had with tlieii' aid reduced to submission many cities
384 WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ?
he at last encamped near the river Megistus.
" While he was
here an eclipse of the moon occurred : and the Gauls, who had
all along been much disconcerted at the hardship of the march
which was rendered the more painful for them by the fact of
their being accompanied by their wives and children, who
followed the host in waggons now regarded the eclipse
as an
evil augury, and refused to go on. But king Attains, who got
no effective service out of them, and saw that they sti-aggled
during the march and encamped by themselves, and wholly
declined to obey orders and despised all authority, was in great
doubt as to what to do. He was anxious lest they should desert
to Achaeus, and join in an attack upon himself and was at the
:
same time uneasy at the scandal to which he would give rise if
he caused his soldiers to surround and kill all these men, who
were believed to have crossed into Asia in reliance upon his
honour." He therefore brought them back to the Hellespont \
where they began plundering the cities in that quarter with
gross licentiousness and violence, and finally went so far as
actually to besiege Ilium.
The people of Alexandria Troas however sent Themistes
with 4000 men and thus forced the Gauls to
raise the siege of
Ilium and drove them entirely out of the Troad. The Gauls
and made
thereupon seized Arisba, in the territory of Abydos,
it their base for attacking the cities in that district. Against
them Prusias led out an army, and in a pitched battle put the
men to the sword on the field, and slew nearly all their women
and children in the camp, leaving the baggage to be plundered
by his soldiers. This achievement of Prusias delivered the
cities on the Hellespont from great fear and danger, and was a
signal warning for future generations against
barbarians from
Europe being over-ready to cross into Asia''.
In the story of this tribe we have but a repetition of that of
Brennus and his host. After the defeat at Delphi (27!) JJ.c.)
the I'cmnant had joined a considci'able body, which had refused
to take part in the iin-oad into Phocis. The combined forces
under the connnand of the chiefs Lonorius and Lutarius had
-
I'dlyiMus, IV. K; iShuckliuigh).
V. 77.
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Polybius, V. 7S. -
v. 111.