Brennus

Brennus was a Gallic chief, who, according to tradition, in 390 BC, after taking and pillaging Rome, invested the Capitol for so long that the Romans offered him a thousand pounds' weight of gold to retire. As the gold was being weighed out he threw his sword and helmet into the opposite scale, adding Væ victis, "Woe to the conquered," an insolence which so roused Camillus, that he turned his back and offered battle to him and to his army, and totally routed the whole host.

There was also another Brennus who led an army of Gauls and invaded the Greek mainland in 278 BC. He enforced the Greek army to retreat, passed Thermopylae, and made his way to the rich treasury at Delphi, but was defeated by the re-assembled Greek army at the battle of Delhi. He was heavily injured there but died by suicide.

Nearby pages
Brenta, Brentford, Brescia, Breslau, Bressay