men entitled to vote in the assemblies, and does not comprise women,
children, slaves, and strangers. If this be correct, the number of
citizens was enormous; but it must not be supposed to include the
inhabitants of the city only, the population of which was doubtless much
smaller. The statement of Diodorus that all men were called to arms to
resist the Gauls, and that the number amounted to forty thousand, is by
no means improbable: according to the testimony of Polybius, Latins and
Hernicans also were enlisted. Another account makes the Romans take the
field against the Gauls with twenty-four thousand men, that is, with
four field legions and four civic legions: the field legions were formed
only of plebeians, and served, according to the order of the classes,
probably in _maniples_; the civic legions contained all those who
belonged neither to the patricians nor to the plebeians, that is, all
the _aerarii, proletarii_, freedmen, and artisans who had never before
faced an enemy. They were certainly not armed with the _pilum_, nor
drawn up in _maniples_; but used pikes and were employed in phalanxes.

Now as for the field legions, each consisted half of Latins and half of
Romans, there being in each _maniple_ one century of Roman and one of
Latins. There were at that time four legions, and as a legion, including
the reserve troops, contained three thousand men, the total is twelve
thousand; now the account which mentions twenty-four thousand men must
have presumed that there were four field legions and four irregular
civic ones. There would accordingly have been no more than six thousand
plebeians, and, even if the legions were all made up of Romans, only
twelve thousand; if in addition to these we take twelve thousand
irregular troops and sixteen thousand allies, the number of forty
thousand would be completed. In this case, the population of Rome would
not have been as large as that of Athens in the Peloponnesian war, and
this is indeed very probable. The cavalry is not included in this
calculation: but forty thousand must be taken as the maximum of the
whole army. There seems to be no exaggeration in this statement, and the
battle on the Alia, speaking generally, is an historical event.

It is surprising that the Romans did not appoint a dictator to command
in the battle; it cannot be said indeed that they regarded this war as
an ordinary one, for in that case they would not have raised so great a
force, but they