As Dictator, the supreme power was his, and he had the right to forbid even what the Senate had allowed.
He looked at the gold ornaments lying in the scales, and bade the Romans take them back, for, said Camillus proudly, 'It is usual with Romans to pay their debts, not in gold, but in iron.' By these words the Dictator meant that the Romans used their weapons to settle their quarrels.
Then, forcing the Gauls out of the city which they had ruined, Camillus and his army fought so fiercely against their enemy that not a single man was left alive to tell the tidings to his countrymen.
King Brennus himself was slain, and as he fell he heard the Romans shout in triumph the words he himself had so lately used, 'Væ Victis,' 'Woe to the conquered.'
