58.
After the attempt failed of success, the king moved his camp nearer the enemy and fortified it at five miles' distance.
[2]
From there at dawn he drew up his battle-line of infantry in the usual place and led all his cavalry and light troops to the camp of the enemy.
[3]
The sight of dust nearer to them and from a larger force than usual caused alarm in the Roman camp. At first they hardly believed their sentry's report, because regularly on previous days the enemy had never appeared before the fourth hour; this time it was at sunrise.
[4]
Then as doubt vanished at the shouting and dashing [p. 471]back from the gates of a larger number of men, a1 great confusion arose. The tribunes, prefects and centurions rushed to headquarters, the rank-and-file each to his own tent.
[5]
Less than half a mile from the rampart Perseus drew up his men about the hill which they call Callinicus.2 King Cotys was in charge of the left wing with all his tribesmen; light-armed troops, placed between, divided the units of cavalry.
[6]
On the right wing were Macedonian cavalry, and Cretans interspersed among their troops; Midon of Beroea was in charge of the latter force, Menon of Antigonea commanded the cavalry and the formation as a whole.
[7]
Next to the wings were posted the royal cavalry and mixed units of the picked auxiliaries of many nations;
[8]
Patrocles of Antigonea and Didas the governor of Paeonia were in command of these.
[9]
The king was in the centre of the whole line; around him was what they call the Guard, and the sacred squadrons3 of the cavalry. Before him he placed the slingers and javelin-throwers;
[10]
each band attained to the number of four hundred; Ion of Thessalonica and Artemon, a Dolopian, he put in command of these. Thus the king's men were arrayed.
[11]
After the Roman infantry had been drawn up within the rampart, the consul likewise sent out all his cavalry with the light troops; they were arrayed before the rampart.
[12]
On the right wing the commander was Gaius Licinius Crassus, the brother of the consul, with all the Italian cavalry, [p. 473]and the light infantry of the legions4 intermingled;5 on the left Marcus Valerius Laevinus had the allied cavalry from the peoples of Greece and the light troops of the same nation; the centre, however, Quintus Mucius held with the picked Élite Cavalry.6
[13]
Before the standards of the centre were arrayed two hundred Gallic cavalry and three hundred of Eumenes' Cyrtian7 auxiliaries. Four hundred Thessalian cavalry were placed at a short distance beyond the left wing.
[14]
King Eumenes and Attalus with all their forces were posted behind, between the rear line and the rampart.
1 B.C. 171
2 I.e. of Glorious Victory.
3 This name (cf. below lxvi. 5, XLIV. xlii. 2) is not used by other extant writers; it might mean the “royal squadron” of Cavalry Companions (Arrian, Anabasis, III. 11. 8) which was also called agema (“Guard”), cf. Antiochus' Horse-Guard, XXXVII. xl. 6 and 11, especially if the agema here mentioned was the Foot-Guard of peltasts (above li. 4, and the note). Sage's note on Antiochus' Guard (loc. cit.) suggests that sacrae alae defines agema here. The name “sacred” may have been used on analogy with the Sacred Band of Thebes under Pelopidas, cf. Plutarch, Pelopidas, xviii.
4 These were not unlike the Greek peltasts, but used more as mere skirmishers, cf. XXVI. iv (this represents the first time they were used for an important service), XXX. xxxiii. 3, XXXI. xxxv. 5. The velites disappear from the Roman army not long after this time, as foreign auxiliaries replace them. For their arms, cf. Polybius VI. 22.
5 B.C 171
6 These were selected from the rest of the cavalry as the fittest, cf. Polybius, VI. 26. 6.
7 Nomad brigands from the Kurd country in northwest Persia, cf. XXXVII. xl. 9.
Livy. Books XL-XLII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1938: published without copyright notice.
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