This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
After this address the soldiers were dismissed and got their armour and weapons ready before they took food and rest. [2] As soon as it began to grow light the consul hung out the signal for battle and formed his line on a narrow front to suit the confined limits of the ground. When the king saw the standards of the enemy he also led out his men. Part of his light infantry he stationed in front of their rampart to form the first line. [3] Behind them in support he posted the Macedonians, the main strength of his arm, known as the "sarisophori"; they extended across the whole length of the rampart. To the left of them were posted a body of javelin men, bowmen and slingers immediately under the foot of the mountains, so that they might from their higher ground harass the unprotected flank of the enemy. [4] On the right of the Macedonians, towards the end of his lines, where the ground beyond down to the sea is impassable owing to bogs and quicksands, he posted the elephants with their usual guard, and behind them the cavalry, and a short distance behind them again the rest of his troops. [5] The Macedonians in front of the rampart had no difficulty at first in resisting the Romans, who were trying at all points to break through, and they received considerable assistance from those on the higher ground, who discharged bullets from their slings, arrows and javelins all at once, a perfect cloud of missiles. [6] But as the enemy's pressure increased and the attack was made in greater force they gradually fell back to their rampart, and standing upon it made practically a second rampart with their levelled spears. [7] The rampart, owing to its moderate height, not only offered a higher position from which to fight, but also enabled them to reach the enemy below with their long spears. [8] Many in their reckless attempts to mount the rampart were run through, and they would have had either to retire baffled or sustain serious losses had not M. Porcius appeared on a hill which commanded the camp. He had dislodged the Aetolians from the crest of Callidromus and killed the greater part of them, attacking them when they were off their guard and most of them asleep.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.