The Greatness and Decline of the Celts
THE GREATNESS AND DECLINE OF THE CELTS PART ONE CELTIC EXPANSION IN THE LA TÈNE PERIOD CHAPTER I THE CELTS IN ITALY III HOW THE GAULS ENTERED ITALY The Gauls came in, according to Livy, [Livy, v, 34 - 5. Cf. Homo, CCCXLI, English, pp. 165 ff.; Jullian, CCCXLVII, i, pp. 289 ff.] in several bands, crossing the Alps in succession or by different routes. Bellovesus, who, according to the same author, directed the whole venture, had with him only the Insubres. [Livy, v, 34, 9.] They arrived first. When their movement had been accomplished, a force of the Cenomani under a leader named Elitovius [Livy, v, 35, 1.] followed them by the same pass, and Bellovesus assisted them on the way down. Livy then mentions, in vague terms, an advance on the part of the Libui and the Salluvii, [Livy, v, 35, 2.] but it is doubtful whether they arrived so early. The Boii and Lingones came over together by the Pennine Alps, that is by the Simplon or the St. Gothard, and, passing the first two bodies hustled the Etruscans and Umbrians on the other side of the Po. The Senones arrived last and, passing the leading bodies in the same manner, provided the army of about thirty thousand men which crossed the Apennines and took Rome. Livy does not assert this positively; he says that he believes it. [Livy, v, 35, 2 - 3.] To transport over the Alps, without any scientific disposition of supply-posts, a mass of men large enough to form a whole nation, with women and children, flocks and herds, a great number of chariots, and an indefinitely large train of very primitive little waggons and pack-animals, was an extremely difficult undertaking.
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