Roman Republic · 390 BC

390 BC: the Gauls sack Rome

A Celtic army crushes the Romans at the river Allia and sacks Rome itself. Students separate legend from evidence, and see how the disaster made Rome build a stone wall and rethink its defense.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, 400 BC to 300 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A Celtic army crushes the Romans at the river Allia and sacks Rome itself. Students separate legend from evidence, and see how the disaster made Rome build a stone wall and rethink its defense.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe what happened at the Allia and in Rome around 390 BC.
  • Locate the lands of the Celtic peoples in northern Italy on the map.
  • Separate the facts of the sack from the legends Romans told about it, such as the sacred geese.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

400 BC

Celts in Italy

Open the map in 400 BC and look at northern Italy and the lands beyond the Alps. Find Celtic peoples such as the Boii. How far are they from Rome?

Open this view on the map
b

390 BC

The road to Rome

Turn on Trade Routes and zoom in on Rome. Livy says the battle of the Allia was fought near the Via Salaria, about 16 km north of the city. Follow the road out of Rome. Was the city easy to reach?

Open this view on the map
c

300 BC

After the disaster

Drag the time slider from 390 BC to 300 BC. In these years Rome built a strong stone wall and kept growing. How can a defeat make a people stronger?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Romans remembered the day of the Allia, 18 July, as an unlucky day for centuries. Why would a people keep remembering a defeat?
  2. The story of the geese on the Capitol may be a legend. Why do people enjoy stories in which small things save the day?
  3. Livy says the Gallic leader Brennus shouted "Vae victis" (woe to the conquered). What do you think he meant?
  4. Only Romans wrote the history of this event, not the Gauls. How might a Gallic version be different?
  5. Rome was not captured by a foreign army again for 800 years. What do you think Rome changed after 390 BC?
4

Game round

9 min

No ruler in Rule History lived at this time. Play one round as Julius Caesar, who conquered Gaul more than 300 years later. Discuss: Romans still remembered 390 BC in Caesar's day. How might that memory have shaped how they saw the Gauls?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.