74 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME the beginning of the fourth, the period of the Peloponnesian War and the Spartan ascendency in Greece, have to be extracted
- ™ « « from a crowd of legends for which there is no doubt
Circa400B.C. , , ... „ & . : , that deliberate fiction was largely responsible. It is clear, however, that the Etruscan city of Veil, which had long been a rival of Rome, was finally overthrown by the great captain, Camillus ; also the Sabellian tribe were extending their power to the southward under the name of Samnites. But now a new alien force appeared on the scene. A horde of Celts, Galli, or Gauls poured into the northern plains of Italy The Celtic beyond the Apennines, descended through the Invasion. mountains into Etruria, swept over that province, and captured and sacked the city of Rome itself. The legend tells how, when the Gauls attempted by night to scale the Roman citadel called the Capitol, the clamour raised by the sacred geese aroused the sentinel, and the Capitol was saved for the time ; how, after long siege, the Gauls were attacked and utterly routed at the moment when the city was in the very act of surrender. It is not probable that the story is true ; but, at any rate, the Gauls, having sacked Rome, did retire, and settled down in the valley of the Po, the region which was subsequently named Cisalpine Gaul (that is, ' Gaul on this side of the Alps '). From this time legend plays a smaller part in the history. The Etruscan power was almost ruined by the Gallic invasion, History be- but Rome recovered from the disaster with extra comes clearer, ordinary rapidity. Almost immediately afterwards she defeated a combination of her old enemies, the Aequi, the Volsci, and the Etruscans. Hitherto, she had been merely maintaining her position as the strongest of the Italian cities ; from this time she began to extend her dominion. It is time for us then to examine the constitution of the Roman city-state which was destined to accomplish what 3. The Roman the Greek states failed to achieve. When the Constitution, kings were expelled the state consisted, in accord- ance with the unfailing rule, of three classes : the Nobles or Patricians, the Free Commons or Plebeians, and the Slaves. There was a governing council called the Senate, besides a general assembly of the Nobles, who alone enjoyed complete
