Okay, I admit it. I've been wanting to run this story for two years, and I finally found the space. During these transactions in Veii (i.e. informing Camillus that he had been appointed dictator) the Citadel in Rome passed through a brief period of extreme danger from an attempted surprise. It may be that the messenger from Veii had left footprints, and the Gauls had noticed them, or possibly they had observed, in the ordinary course of their duties, that the rocky ascent near the shrine of Carmenta, was easily practicable. In any case, one starlit night, they made the attempt. Having first sent an unarmed man to reconnoiter the route, they began the climb. It was something of a scramble; at the awkward places a man would get a purchase for his feet on a comrade below him, then haul him up in his turn — weapons were passed up from hand to hand as the lie of the rock allowed — until by pushing and pulling one another they reached the top. The Gauls accomplished the climb so quietly that the Romans on guard never heard a sound, and even the dogs — who are normally aroused by the least noise in the night — noticed nothing. It was the geese that saved them — Saviors of the Roman Capitol, a goose is also said to have been a leader of the First Crusade. Juno's sacred geese, which, in spite of the dearth of provisions, had not been killed. The cackling of the birds and the flapping of their wings awoke Marcus Manlius — a distinguished officer who had been consul three years before — he, seizing his sword and giving the alarm, hurried, without waiting for the support of his bewildered comrades straight to the point of danger. One Gaul was already up the rampart, but Manlius with a blow from the boss of his shield toppled him headlong down the cliff. The falling body carried others with it; panic spread; many more who dropped their weapons to get a better grip of the rocks were killed by Manlius, and soon more Roman troops were on the scene, tumbling the climbers down with javelins and stones, until every man of them was dislodged and sent hurtling to the bottom of the cliff. Livy, Book V; Ch 45-46 For his part Manlius was given high decorations and each man agreed to make a present of a half day's ration — a major gift in a besieged fortress. The commander, Sulpicius, intended to kill all the sentries but was dissuaded from the action by the soldiers who identified one who had been sleeping near the point where the Gauls entered. He was cast headlong from the rock. I have not been able to find out what happened to the geese — DWT Back to Cry Havoc #19 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com