Wikipedia
Brennus (or Brennos) is the name of two Gaulish chieftains famous in ancient history:
- Brennus (4th century BC), chieftain of the Senones, a Gallic tribe originating from the modern areas of France known as Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, and Yonne; in 387 BC, in the Battle of the Allia, he led an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome.
- Brennus (3rd century BC), one of the leaders of the army of Gauls who invaded Macedon and central Greece and defeated the assembled Greeks at Thermopylae.
The recurrence of the name Brennus makes it possible that it was a title rather than a proper name. Some 19th-century scholars connected the name with the modern Welsh word for "king", , though Brennus and have since been proven to be unrelated (, earlier , being derived from the Celtic *brigantinos, meaning '(someone) pre-eminent, outstanding'). As early as the 12th century AD, authors such as Geoffrey of Monmouth (in his Historia Regum Britanniae) were connecting the name Brennus with the Welsh personal name or meaning ' crow', though the similarity of the names is superficial and they are not likely to share a common linguistic origin.
Examples in different forms of the name are:
- Brinno, whose name was said by Tacitus to be that of "a family of rebels".
- The personage named " Brennius", brother of legendary king of the Britons Bellinus in Geoffrey's Historia; the two are said to have conquered Gaul and then Rome. Probably created by that author from the two historical Gauls name Brennus.
- A possible recollection of Geoffrey's "Brennius" is the "Englishman" (i.e. Briton) called Brennus whom the Duke of Norfolk told the Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys about in 1530. In arguing Tudor claims to imperial status, the Duke stated that this man had founded Bristol and conquered Rome.
The name "Brennus" was given to a 19th Century French battleship.
Brennus (or Brennos) was a chieftain of the Senones. He defeated the Romans at the Battle of the Allia (18 July 390 BC). In 387 BC he led an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome and captured most of the city, holding it for several months. Brennus's sack of Rome was the only time the city was occupied by a non-Roman army before the fall of the city to the Goths in 410 AD.
Brennus (or Brennos) (died 279 BC) was one of the leaders of the army of Gallic invasion of the Balkans, defeated the assembled Greeks at Thermopylae, and is popularly reputed to have sacked and looted Delphi, although the ancient sources do not support this.
In 280 BC a great army, comprising about 85,000 warriors, coming from Pannonia and split in three divisions, marched south in a great expedition to Macedonia and central Greece. The division led by Brennus and Acichorius moved against Paionians.
Some writers suppose that Brennus and Acichorius are the same person, the former being only a title and the latter the real name.
The other two divisions were led by Cerethrius and by Bolgios, moving against the Thracians and Triballi, and against the Macedonians and Illyrians, respectively.
Brennus is said to have belonged to an otherwise unknown tribe called the Prausi. These Gauls had settled in Pannonia because of population increases in Gaul, and sought further conquests.