This council was held at Pella, the capital of Macedonia. "Let us then," said Perseus, "wage war with the help of the gods, since thus you decide." [2] Written orders were despatched to all his generals and he assembled the whole of his forces at Citium, a town in Macedonia. After sacrificing in regal style one hundred victims to Minerva, whom they call Alcidemos, he set out for Citium, accompanied by a number of court nobles and his bodyguard. [3] The whole of the army, both Macedonians and auxiliaries, were assembled there. The camp was fixed in front of the city and he drew up all his soldiers in the plain. [4] The total number of those who bore arms was 43,000, nearly half of whom formed the phalanx; Hippias of Beroea was in command. Out of the whole force of caetrati, 2000 men in the prime of strength and manhood were selected to form a body known as the "agema," their commanders were Leonnatus and Thrasippus. [5] Antiphilus of Edessa was in command of the rest of the caetrati, numbering about 3000 men. The Paeonians and the contingents from Paroria and Parstrymonia, places in the lowlands of Thrace, and the Agrianes, including some Thracian immigrants, made up a force of about 3000. They had been armed and [6??] mustered by Didas the Paeonian, the murderer of the young Demetrius. [7] There were also 2000 Gauls under Asclepiodotus, a native of Heraclea in Sintice. Three thousand "free" Thracians had their own leader, and about the same number of Cretans followed their own generals, Susus of Phalasarna and Syllus of Gnossus. Leonides the Lacedaemonian was at the head of a mixed force of Greeks. [8] He was said to be of royal blood, and after his letter to Perseus had been seized, had been sentenced to banishment in a full council of the Achaeans. [9] The Aetolians and Boeotians, who, all told, did not amount to more than 500 men, were under the command of Lyco, an Achaean. Out of these contingents drawn from so many people and tribes, a force of about 12,000 men was formed. Perseus had collected 3000 cavalry out of the whole of Macedonia. [10] Cotys, the son of Suthis and king of the Odrysae, had come in with a picked force of 1000 horse and about the same number of infantry. [11] Thus the total number of the army was 39,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. It was generally admitted that, next to the army which Alexander the Great had led into Asia, no Macedonian king had ever possessed so large a force.
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.
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