Chapters
War in 189 BCE between the Roman Republic and the Galatians, Gauls inhabiting Asia Minor. The pretext for the war was the fact that the Galatians provided armed reinforcements to the Seleucids, and their warriors even fought against the Romans in the Battle of Magnesia.
Background of the conflict
In 191 BCE, Antiochus III the Great, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, invaded Greece. The Romans decided to intervene and defeated Antiochus in the Battle of the Thermopylae. The defeated Seleucids retreated back to Asia Minor, while the Romans, along with their Pergamon allies, pursued them and eventually defeated them in the Battle of Magnesia.
The defeated Seleucids were forced to sign a peace treaty with Scipio of Asia, ending the war with Rome. In the spring, a new consul, Gnaeus Manlius Vulso, arrived in Asia Minor to take control of Scipio’s army and to complete the signing of the peace treaty negotiated by Scipio. Vulso, however, was not satisfied with the task entrusted to him and began to plan a new war. During the meeting with the soldiers, he praised them for their bravery and congratulated them on the victory over Antiochus, and also proposed an attack on the Galatians, Gauls inhabiting Asia Minor. The pretext for the war was the fact that the Galatians provided armed reinforcements to the Seleucids, and their warriors even fought against the Romans in the Battle of Magnesia. The legionaries eagerly agreed to the consul’s proposal.
The consul arrived in Ephesus in the beginning of spring, and, having taken over the troops from Lucius Scipio and purified1 the army, he delivered a speech to the soldiers in which he gave great praise to their valour because they had ended the war with Antiochus by a single battle, and urged them to undertake a new war with the Gauls, who had not only aided Antiochus with auxiliaries but possessed spirits so untamable that the expulsion of Antiochus beyond the ridges of the Taurus mountains would be in vain unless the power of the Gauls were broken, while as regards himself also he added brief remarks, neither false nor exaggerated.
– Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita, 38.12
In reality, however, Vulso wanted the fame and wealth of the Galatians who had gotten rich by plundering the neighbouring lands.
This war was the first time in Rome’s history that a general started an armed conflict on his own initiative, without obtaining the prior consent and approval of the senate. In the future, this type of incident happened several more times.
Consul Wulso began preparations for the war, calling for help from the Pergamon army. Although the king of Pergamon, Eumenes II, was currently in Rome, his brother Attalus II, who was regent, joined the Roman army with a force of 1,000-foot soldiers and five hundred horsemen.
March into Asia Minor
A combined Roman-Pergamon force marched out of Ephesus and, after crossing the Meander River, entered the territory of Alaband, where they met Attalos’ brother Athenaeus, who joined the allied army with 1,000-foot soldiers and three hundred cavalry. Then the entire army marched to Antioch, where they met the son of Antiochus, Seleucus, who, as part of a peace treaty, provided the Romans and Pergamon with grain.
Allied forces then marched through the upper valleys of Meanderu and Pamphylia, collecting tribute from local kings and tyrants who dared not oppose the powerful Roman-Pergamon forces. Finally, they entered the territory of Kibyra, ruled by the cruel tyrant Moagetes, who sent envoys to the Romans asking them not to destroy his country, for he was always a friend of Rome. By the way, as an act of goodwill, he offered Vulso a wreath worth fifteen talents. The consul, however, was not very friendly towards the tyrant:
When Gnaeus Manlius Vulso, the Roman consul, approached Cibyra and sent Helvius to find out what the mind of Moagetes was, the latter sent envoys begging Helvius not to lay the country waste as he was the friend of the Romans and ready to do anything they told him.
– Polybius, The Histories, XXI.34
The MPs were appalled by this type of response and urged the consul to meet the tyrant personally, to which Vulso agreed. The next day, Moagetes left the city at the head of a modest retinue and offered the consul fifteen talents in exchange for leaving his lands. However, Gnaeus was not thrilled with this proposal:
Manlius, amazed at his impudence, said not another word, but merely that if he did not pay five hundred talents and thank his stars, he would not only lay waste his territory, but besiege and sack the city itself.
– Polybius, The Histories, XXI.34
The tyrant was terrified by the threats and demands of the Romans, but he was able to bargain a ransom of up to a hundred talents and ten thousand medimals of wheat. When the consul crossed the river called Kolobatos with his army, he met with envoys from the city of Sinda. The deputies asked him to help in the fight against the Termesses, who had invaded their lands and besieged the fortress where all their citizens had taken refuge, including their wives and children.
The consul agreed to the deputies’ offer and marched to the land of the Termesses, with whom he made an alliance in exchange for fifty talents and withdraw from Sindian