Brennus or Brennos (Latinized or Hellenized name from the Celtic root "Brenn", meaning "war chief") is the name retained respectively by Greek historiography and Latin historiography to designate two Celtic chiefs of the period of "Celtic migrations and invasions".
Capitol Geese Episode
The first leads, at the beginning of the 4th century BC, his warriors in Italy, becoming famous in particular by ransoming Rome, in 390 BC. JC.; it was during this event that this “Brennus” authored the sentence “Malheur aux Vaincus!” (“Vae Victis” in Latin), an expression that later became famous:Livy was much later the author of the opposite formula, “Gloria Victis” (V,48,9).
The Great Expedition
The second, Brennos, leads the troop that plunders Delphi in 279 BC. He penetrated into Macedonia with a considerable army, killed Sosthenes, general of that nation, and sacked Thessaly and Greece; he was advancing towards the temple of Delphi to remove the treasures, when he was repulsed; his soldiers, seized with panic terror following a hurricane of rare violence, fled, it is said, and killed each other. Desperate for this disaster and wounded, Brennus killed himself by poisoning himself.