On 16 July 390 BC, a Gallic army below the leadership of tribal chieftain Brennus, achieved the Romans on the banking companies of the Allia River ten miles north of Rome. The town of Rome grew from settlements close to a ford on the river Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade. This brought about a trouble, in that Rome came to have a significant male populace but was bereft of women of all ages.