Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 38
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D., Ed.

41. The head of the Roman column encamped outside the defile near the temple of Bendis¹ on open ground; the rest remained within the defile to guard the trains, sheltered by a double rampart. [2] The following day, having reconnoitred the defile before they moved, they joined the van. [3] In this battle there was a loss both of baggage and of camp-followers and a considerable number of soldiers had fallen, since there was fighting everywhere along the whole defile, but the most serious blow received was the death of Quintus Minucius Thermus, a man of courage and energy.² That day they reached the Hebrus river. [4] Then they crossed the frontiers of the Aenians near the temple of Apollo, whom the natives call Zerynthius. [5] Another pass confronted them near Tempyra —this is the name of the placenot less rough than the former; but, because there is no wooded country around it, it does not furnish [p. 141]even hiding-places for ambuscades. [6] The Thrausi,³ these too being Thracians, assembled here with the same hope of plunder; but, since the exposed valleys brought it about that those who blocked the pass could be seen from afar, there was less consternation and confusion among the Romans; indeed, although on uneven ground, there was none the less a pitched battle to be fought, a regular engagement with battle-lines open to view. [7] They moved forward in close array, and charging with a shout they first dislodged the enemy and then broke their line; then flight and slaughter began to take place, since the enemy were entangled in the narrow pass which they had themselves selected. The victorious Romans encamped near a village of the Maroneans —they call it Salê. [8] The next day, marching in open country, the Priatic plain received them, and they spent three days there collecting grain, partly from the fields of the Maroneans, brought in by the people themselves, partly from their own ships, which were following with all manner of supplies. [9] From this station it was a day's march to Apollonia. Thence they came through the country of the Abderites to Neapolis.⁴ [10] All this journey was peaceful, amid the colonies of Greeks; the rest from there on, through the midst of the Thracians, while not dangerous, yet required vigilance by day and night until they arrived in Macedonia. [11] The same army, led over the same route by Scipio, had found the Thracians more peacefully inclined, for no other reason than that there was less of booty to be sought;⁵ and yet Claudius⁶ asserts that even then about fifteen thousand Thracians [p. 143]encountered Muttines the Numidian who was⁷ preceding the column to reconnoitre. [12] He says that there were four hundred Numidian cavalry with a few elephants; that the son of Muttines with a hundred and fifty picked troopers broke through the centre of the enemy; [13] and that a little later, when Muttines, having placed the elephants in the centre and stationed the cavalry on the flanks, had closed with the enemy, this same son had caused panic by an attack in the rear, and [14??] that the enemy, thrown into confusion by this cavalry-storm, so to speak, had not reached the column of the infantry. Gnaeus Manlius led the army through Macedonia into Thrace. [15] When he had proceeded from there through Epirus to Apollonia, not yet holding the wintry sea in such light esteem that he dared to cross it, he passed the winter in Apollonia.