f the legend on which we can rely.

[7] The _as_ was a brass coin, about three farthings of our money.

[8] This day was from henceforth marked as unlucky in their calendar,
and called Allien'sis.

[9] Among others, the Vestals fled from the city, carrying with them
the two Palladiums and the sacred fire. They took shelter at Caere, a
town of Etru'ria, where they continued to celebrate their religious
rites; from this circumstance religious rites acquired the name of
ceremonies.

[10] This self-devotion was in consequence of a vow made by these
brave old men, which Fa'bius, the Pontifex Maximus, pronounced in
their names. The Romans believed that, by thus devoting themselves to
the internal gods, disorder and confusion were brought among the
enemy.

[11] These were the footsteps of Pon'tius Comin'ius, who, with great
prudence and bravery, found means to carry a message from Camil'lus to
the Romans in the Capi'tol, and to return with the appointment of
dictator for Camil'lus.

[12] As a reward for this essential service, every soldier gave
Man'lius a small quantity of corn and a little measure of wine, out of
his scanty allowance; a present of no mean value in their then
distressed situation. On the other hand, the captain of the guard, who
ought to have kept the sentinels to their duty, was thrown headlong
from the Capitol. In memory of this event, a goose was annually
carried in triumph on a soft litter, finely adorned; whilst dogs were
held in abhorrence, and were impaled every year on a branch of elder.

[13] As the Gauls suffered the bodies of the Romans, who were slain in
their frequent encounters, to lie unburied, the stench of their
putrefaction occasioned a plague to break out, which carried off great
numbers of the army of Brennus.

[14] The authenticity of this narrative is more than suspicious.
Polyb'ius, the most accurate of the Roman historians, says that the
Gauls carried their old home with them. Sueto'nius confirms this
account, and adds that it was recovered at a much later period from
the Galli Seno'nes, by Liv'ius Dru'sus; and that on this occasion
Dru'sus first became a name in the Livian family, in consequence of
the victorious general having killed Drau'sus, the Gallic leader.

[15] So little taste, however, for order and beauty, did those display
who had the direction of the works, that the city, when rebuilt, was
even less regular than in the time of Romulus.

[16] This account appea