event
Battle of the Allia
the Allia
also: Alliensis pugna, battle of the Allia, dies Alliensis
The Roman defeat by the Gauls on the river Allia (traditionally 390/387 BC), which opened the way to the sack of Rome; the dies Alliensis remained a black day in the calendar. Cicero invokes it as a disaster more mournful than the capture of the City that followed from it.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 9.5 §2 the day of the battle of the Allia
At the river Allia (c. 390 BC) the Gauls routed the Romans, leading to the sack of Rome; the anniversary (18 July) was marked as a dies ater, an unlucky day. Cicero's point is that the original blunder (the Allia) is mourned more than the catastrophe it caused (the City's fall), as he blames Pompey's earlier errors for the present ruin.