founding the colony of Ariminum. But the greater part of the soil from
which the Senones were ejected became Public Land. In B.C. 232 the
Tribune C. Flaminius carried an Agrarian Law to the effect that this
portion of the public land, known by the name of the "Gallic Land,"[30]
should be distributed among the poorer citizens. This alarmed the Boii,
who dwelt upon the borders of this district. They invoked the
assistance of the powerful tribe of the Insubres, and being joined by
them, as well as by large bodies of Gauls from beyond the Alps, they set
out for Rome.

All Italy was in alarm. The Romans dreaded a repetition of the disaster
of the Allia. The Sibylline Books being consulted, declared that Rome
must be twice occupied by a foreign foe; whereupon the Senate ordered
that two Gauls and a Grecian woman should be buried alive in the forum.
The allies eagerly offered men and supplies to meet a danger which was
common to the whole peninsula. An army of 150,000 foot and 6000 horse
was speedily raised. A decisive battle was fought near Telamon in
Etruria. The Gauls were hemmed in between the armies of the two Consuls.
As many as 40,000 of their men were slain, and 10,000 taken prisoners
(B.C. 225). The Romans followed up their success by invading the country
of the Boii, who submitted in the following year (B.C. 224).

In B.C. 223 the Romans for the first time crossed the Po, and the Consul
C. Flaminius gained a brilliant victory over the Insubres. The Consuls
of the next year, Cn. Cornelius Scipio and M. Claudius Marcellus,
continued the war against the Insubres, who called in to their aid a
fresh body of Transalpine Gauls. Marcellus slew with his own hand
Viridomarus, the chief of the Insubrian Gauls, and thus gained the third
_Spolia Opima_. At the same time Scipio took Mediolanum (Milan), the
chief town of the Insubres. This people now submitted without
conditions, and the war was brought to an end. To secure their recent
conquests, the Romans determined to plant two powerful Latin colonies at
Placentia and Cremona, on opposite banks of the Po. These were founded
in B.C. 218, and consisted each of 6000 men. The Via Flaminia, a road
constructed by C. Flaminius during his consulship (B.C. 220), from Rome
to Ariminum, secured the communication with the north of Italy.

While the Romans were engaged in the Gallic wars, the traitor Demetrius
of Pharos had usurped the chief power in Illyria, and had ventured upon
many ac