Event #2901: Gallic army destroyed by furies and ghosts; Battle of Lysimachia

Text #4003

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In the meantime Antigonus¹, being harassed with wars, of varied aspect, from the Spartans and King Ptolemy, and perceiving that a new enemy, an army from Gallograecia, was coming upon him, left a few troops as a semblance of a camp, to amuse his other assailants, and proceeded with all the rest of his force against the Gauls; who, becoming aware of his approach, as they were preparing for battle, sacrificed victims to take presages for the event; and as, from the entrails, great slaughter and destruction of them all was portended, they were moved, not to fear, but to fury, and thinking that the anger of the gods might be appeased by the slaughter of their kindred, butchered their wives and children, commencing hostilities with the murder of their own people; for such rage had possessed their savage breasts, that they did not spare even that tender age which an enemy would have spared, but made deadly war on their own children and their children’s mothers, in defence of whom wars are wont to be undertaken. As if, therefore, they had purchased life and victory by their barbarity, they rushed, stained as they were with the fresh blood of their relatives, into the field of battle, but with success no better than their auspices: for, as they were fighting, the furies, the avengers of murder, overwhelmed them sooner than the enemy, and the ghosts of the slain rising up before their eyes, they were all cut off with utter destruction. Such was the havoc among them, that the gods seemed to have conspired with men to annihilate an army of murderers.

1. In 277 BC, the Macedonian forces of Antigonus II Gonatas destroyed the Celtic army under Cerethrius which had invaded southeastern Europe in 279, in a conflict known as the Battle of Lysimachia on the Thracian Chersonese. According to Justin, the Celts, instead of engaging Antigonus’ forces, decided to attack their own families. Soon afterwards, the battle began and before they could reach the Macedonians, the Celts were now attacked by another army composed of furies and ghosts. [nE] ↩

Text #9175

The Battle of Lysimachia was fought in 277 BC between the Gallic tribes settled in Thrace and a Greek army of Antigonus at Lysimachia, Thracian Chersonese. After their defeat at Thermopylae the Gauls retreated out of Greece and moved through Thrace and finally into Asia.

Antigonus father, Demetrius Poliorcetes, had been driven from the Macedonian throne by Pyrrhus of Epirus and Lysimachus in 288 BC. Tired of war Demetrius surrendered himself to Seleucus I Nicator in 285 BC, leaving Antigonus as the Antigonid heir to the Macedonian throne.

In 277 BC Antigonus organized an expedition to take Macedon from Sosthenes of Macedon. He sailed to the Hellespont, landing near Lysimachia at the neck of the Thracian Chersonese. The site of the landing was the territory of wild gallic tribes, who had settled the place after being driven out of Greece. When an army of Gauls under the command of Cerethrius appeared, Antigonus laid an ambush. He abandoned his camp and beached his ships, then concealed his men. The Gauls looted the camp, but when they started to attack the ships, Antigonus’s army appeared, trapping them with the sea to their rear. In this way, Antigonus was able to inflict a crushing defeat on them and claim the Macedonian throne.