Camillus
Plutarch
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. II. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1914.
But this day of the Allia is regarded by the Romans as one of the unluckiest, and its influence extends over two other days of each month throughout the year, since in the presence of calamity, timidity and superstition often overflow all bounds. However, this subject has been more carefully treated in my Roman Questions. [*](Morals, pp. 269 f.)
Now had the Gauls, after this battle, followed hard upon the fugitives, naught would have hindered Rome from being utterly destroyed and all those who remained in her from perishing, such was the terror which the fugitives infused into the occupants of the city, and with such confusion and delirium were they themselves once more filled.
But as it was, the Barbarians could not realize the magnitude of their victory, and in the excess of their joy, turned to revelry and the distribution of the good things captured in their enemy’s camp. For this reason the throngs who were for abandoning the city had ample time for flight, and those who were for remaining plucked up hope and prepared to defend themselves. Abandoning the rest of the city, they fenced the Capitol with ramparts and stocked it with missiles.
But their first care was for their sacred things, most of which they carried away to the Capitol; the fire of Vesta, however, was snatched up and carried off by the vestal virgins in their flight, along with the other sacred things entrusted to their care. However, some writers state that these virgins have watch and ward over nothing more than the ever-living fire, which Numa the King appointed to be worshipped as the first cause of all things.