The Gauls don’t know how to alliance properly, and literally defeat themselves before the Romans even get there!

[**The following takes place in 237 BCE.**] >They [**the Gauls**] interpreted the slightest action of the Romans as a provocation, and they invited the Alpine Gauls to join them in an alliance. At first these approaches were carried out secretly by their chieftains without the knowledge of the people: thus when a force of Transalpine Gauls arrived at Ariminium [**modern-day Rimini**], the Boii became suspicious of them, quarreled with their own leaders as well as with the strangers, killed their own Kings Atis and Galatus, and fought a pitched battle with their Transalpine compatriots in which both sides suffered heavy losses. >The Romans had already been disturbed by the advance of the Gauls and had dispatched a legion to the north, but when they learned of this act of self-destruction by the enemy they returned home. ___________________________ **Source:** Polybius, et al. “Rome and the Gauls.” *The Rise of the Roman Empire*. Penguin, 2003. 132. Print.