Geese are not remarkable for bravery or for thoughtful care of the
interests of their owners, yet the Romans firmly believed that geese
once saved their Capitol from capture.
The Gauls, a savage people coming from the North, once captured the city
of Rome, and burned it. Some of the Romans fled to Veii, a town not very
far distant, and others shut themselves up in the Capitol, which was a
strong building on the top of a steep and rocky hill. The Gauls encamped
at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, and resolved to wait until the Roman
garrison should be forced to surrender through hunger. One night a young
Roman came from Veii, and climbed up to the Capitol to encourage his
countrymen to resist the Gauls until help should come. In the morning
the Gauls saw the foot-prints of the young man, and said to themselves
that they could climb wherever he could. So the next night a strong
party of Gauls tried to capture the Capitol by climbing up the rocks.
[Illustration: THE GAULS MOUNTING THE WALLS OF THE CAPITOL.]
Now a temple, sacred to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, three of the
divinities of the Romans, stood on the top of the hill close to the
place where the Gauls were stealthily climbing. There were some geese in
the temple that were supposed to belong to Juno, and although the Gauls
made so little noise, that neither the Romans nor their watch-dogs heard
them, the geese knew that something was wrong, and they set up a noisy
cackling. This awoke Marcus Manlius, a brave Roman soldier, who seized
his sword and shield, and calling to his comrades to follow him, rushed
upon the Gauls, and hurling one of them backward who had just reached
the top of the hill, he so alarmed the other Gauls that they hastily
retreated. Some years afterward the brave Manlius was cruelly put to
death by the Romans on a false charge of treason, but the Romans always
professed to feel great gratitude to the geese.
There is good reason for believing that this story is not strictly true,
and it is probable that it was invented in order to account for the fact
that among the Romans geese were sacred to Juno. Still, it is so good a
story that people will always be quite willing to believe it.