page_title: Battle of the Allia
section_title: Size of the belligerent forces
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of the Allia / Size of the belligerent forces
caption_attribution_description: Artist Toulon Sculpture workshopDescription Figurehead of battleship BrennusCollection Musée national de la Marine &#160;&#160;Native nameMusée national de la MarineLocationParisCoordinates48°&#160;51′&#160;43″&#160;N, 2°&#160;17′&#160;15″&#160;E Established1827Web pagewww.musee-marine.frAuthority control : Q1286709 VIAF:&#8201;19144648200974718522 ISNI:&#8201;0000 0001 2259 2914 LCCN:&#8201;n50055356 Museofile:&#8201;M5026 WorldCat institution QS:P195,Q1286709Accession number 41 OA 74Source/Photographer Med Figurehead of battleship Brennus
context_page_description: The Battle of the Allia was a battle fought c. 390 BC between the Senones and the Roman Republic. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles north of Rome. The Romans were routed and Rome was subsequently sacked by the Senones.
  The date of the battle is commonly given as 390 BC, based on an account of the battle by the Roman historian Livy. The Greek historian Polybius used a Greek dating system and derived the date as 387 or 386 BC. Plutarch noted that the battle took place "just after the summer solstice when the moon was near the full [...] a little more than three hundred and sixty years from the founding [of Rome]," or shortly after 393 BC. Tacitus listed the date as 18 July.
context_section_description: The number of fighters involved in the battle is not known for sure. Plutarch writes that the Romans were not outnumbered and had 40,000 men, but most were untrained and unaccustomed to weapons. Dionysius of Halicarnassus writes that the Romans had four well-trained legions and a levy of untrained citizens which was larger in number. That would give a rough figure of some 35,000. Diodorus Siculus writes that the Romans had 24,000 men. Livy gives no figures. Modern historians Cary and Scullard estimate that the Romans had 15,000 men and the Gauls 30,000 to 70,000. Berresford Ellis gives an estimate of a minimum of 24,000 based on the assumption that "the Romans had... four legions – for each consul had two legions under his command – and given that each legion had 6,000 men." He also thinks that there may have been a contingent of allied troops. He thinks that the "Senones' tribal army could scarcely number more than 12,000."
  The figures given by ancient historians for the size of the Roman army engaged in the battle are unlikely, as they are notorious for exaggerating figures. Contrary to Berresford Ellis's assertion, at the time, the Romans had only two legions. The number of legions was not increased to four until later in the century, during the Second Samnite War (326-304 BC), and the first record of four legions is for 311 BC. At that point, the Romans also had additional military commanders: the praetor, who had been instituted in 366 BC, and the proconsul, who was a consul who received an extension of his term of military command (the practice started in 327 BC). The first historical hints of the consuls leading more than one legion were for 299 BC (during a war with the Etruscans) and 297 BC, during the Third Samnite War (298-290 BC). The first explicit mention of a consul with two legions is for 296 BC. In 295 BC, the Romans deployed six legions; four led by the two consuls, fought a coalition of four peoples (the Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians and Senone Gauls) in the huge Battle of Sentinum. Two were led to another front by a praetor. The battle of the Allia took place in the early days of Rome, when the Roman army was much smaller and its command structure was much simpler. The Roman army had only two legions, and the two consuls were the sole military commanders; each headed one legion. In addition, the battle occurred in the early history of the Roman Republic, while the consulship alternated with years when Rome was headed by military tribunes with consular power, often referred to as consular tribunes, instead, and 390 BC was a year in which six consular tribunes were in charge. Therefore, Berresford Ellis's assertion that the Romans at the battle of Allia had four legions, two for each of the two consuls, is doubly anachronistic. Moreover, the Roman legions had 6,000 men in only a few exceptional occasions. In the early days of the Republic, when the Battle of the Allia took place, it was 4,200. Later, it was 5,200 when at full strength (the legions were often under-strength).  Accordingly, the Roman force at the battle was likely substantially smaller than estimated.
  The size of the population of Rome at the time also needs to be considered. In its early days, Rome was still a city-state of only regional significance, and its territory did not stretch beyond 50 km (30 mi) from the city. Cornell notes that the estimates of the population of Rome in the late 6th century BC, based on the size of its territory range between 25,000 and 50,000, and thinks that the more likely figure is 25,000-40,000. The seminal work by Fraccaro gives a pool of military manpower of 9,000 men of military age (aged between 17 and 47), which would require a minimum population of 30,000.
  Archaeological evidence shows that in the 5th century BC, there was an economic downturn. That would have precluded considerable population growth. The territory of Rome had increased by 75% by the early 4th century, but the bulk of the increase was caused by the recent conquest of the city of Veii and her territory, and its population did not hav
caption: The Gallic leader Brennus, as depicted on the figurehead of the battleship named after him
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