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CHAPTER XXIII.
So Brennus and the Greeks gathered together at Delphi drew up against one another in battle-array. And the god showed in the plainest possible way his enmity to the barbarians. For the whole ground occupied by the army of the Galati violently rocked most of the day, and there was continuous thunder and lightning, which astounded the Celts and prevented their hearing the orders of their officers, and the lightning hit not only some particular individual here and there, but set on fire all round him and their arms. And appearances of heroes, as Hyperochus and Laodocus and Pyrrhus, and Phylacus - a local hero at Delphi - were seen on the battle field. And many Phocians fell in the action and among others Aleximachus, who slew more barbarians with his own hand than any other of the Greeks, and who was remarkable for his manly vigour strength of frame and daring, and his statue was afterwards placed by the Phocians in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Such was the condition and terror of the barbarians all the day, and during the night things were still worse with them, for it was bitterly cold and snowed hard, and great stones came tumbling down from Parnassus, and whole crags broke off and seemed to make the barbarians their mark, and not one or two but thirty and even more, as they stood on guard or rested, were killed at once by the fall of one of these crags. And the next day at daybreak the Greeks poured out of Delphi and attacked them, some straight in front, but the Phocians, who had the best acquaintance with the ground, came down the steep sides of Parnassus through the snow, and fell on the Celtic rear unexpectedly, and hurled javelins at them, and shot at them with perfect security. At the beginning of the battle the Galati, especially Brennus' body-guard who were the finest and boldest men in their army, fought with conspicuous bravery, though they were shot at on all sides, and suffered frightfully from the cold, especially such as were wounded : but when Brennus was wounded, and taken off the field in a fainting condition, then the barbarians sorely against their will beat a retreat, (as the Greeks by now pressed them hard on all sides), and killed those of their comrades who could not retreat with them owing to their wounds or weakness. These fugitive Galati bivouacked where they had got to when night came on them, and during the night were seized with panic fear, that is a fear arising without any solid cause. This panic came upon them late in the night, and was at first confined to a few, who thought they heard the noise of horses galloping up and that the enemy was approaching, but soon it ran through the host. They therefore seized their arms, and getting separated in the darkness mutually slew one another, neither recognizing their native dialect, nor discerning one another's forms or weapons, but both sides in their panic thinking their opponents Greeks both in langnage and weapons, so that this panic sent by the god produced terrific mutual slaughter. And those Phocians, who were left in the fields guarding the flocks and herds, were the first to notice and report to the Greeks what had happened to the barbarians in the night : and this nerved them to attack the Celts more vigorously than ever, and they placed a stronger guard over their cattle, and would not let the Galati get any articles of food from them without a fierce fight for it, so that throughout the barbarian host there was a deficiency of corn and all other provisions. And the number of those that perished in Phocis was nearly 6,000 slain in battle, and more than 10,000 in the savage wintry night and in the panic, and as many more from starvation. Some Athenians, who had gone to Delphi to reconnoitre, brought back the news of what had happened to the barbarians, and of the panic that the god had sent. And when they heard this good news they marched through Boeotia, and the Boeotians with them, and both in concert followed the barbarians, and lay in ambush for them, and cut off the stragglers. And Acichorius' division had joined those who fled with Brennus only the previous night : for the Aetolians made their progress slow, hurling javelins at them and any other missile freely, so that only a small part of the barbarians got safe to the camp at Heraclea. And Brennus, though his wounds were not mortal, yet either from fear of his comrades, or from shame, as having been the instigator of all these woes that had happened to them in Greece, committed suicide by drinking neat wine freely. 1 And subsequently the barbarians got to the river Sperchius with no little difficulty, as the Aetolians attacked them fiercely all the way, and at that river the Thessalians and Malienses set on them with such vigour that none of them got home again. This expedition of the Celts to Greece and their utter ruin happened when Anaxicrates was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 12oth Olympiad, when Ladas of Aegae was victor in the course. And the following year, when. Democles was Archon at Athens, all the Celts 2 crossed back again to Asia Minor. I have delivered a true account. 1 Which, after his wounds would be fatal. 2 As Siebelis well points out, this cannot refer to Brennus' army, which we have just been told was all cut to pieces, but to the swarm of Celts in Macedonia and Thrace, who returned to Asia Minor, cowed by this catastrophe.
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