Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 44
William A. McDevitte, Sen. Class. Mod. Ex. Schol. A.B.T.C.D., Ed.

39. “We should then confessedly have an irregular and disorderly line, but should we have had a camp fortified, a watering-place provided, and the passage to it secured by troops, and all the country round reconnoitred; or should we have been without any one spot of our own, except the naked field on which we fought? [2] Your fathers considered a fortified camp as a harbour of safety in all the emergencies of an army; out of which they were to march to battle, and in which, after being tossed in the storm of the fight, they had a safe retreat. [3] For that reason, besides enclosing it with works, they strengthened it further with a numerous guard; for any general who lost his camp, though he should have been victorious in the field, yet was deemed vanquished. A camp is a residence for the victorious, a refuge for the conquered. [4] How many armies, to whom the fortune of the fight has been adverse, when driven within their ramparts, have, at their own time, and sometimes the next moment, sallied out and defeated their victors! [5] This military settlement is another native country to every soldier: the rampart is as the wall of his city, and his own tent his habitation and his home. Should we have fought while in that unsettled state, and without quarters prepared, to which, even if victorious, we might retire? [6] In [p. 2105]opposition to these considerations of the difficulties and impediments to the fighting at that time, one argument is urged: What if the enemy had marched off in the course of last night? What immense fatigue, it is observed, must have been undergone in pursuing him to the remotest parts of Macedonia! [7] But, for my part, I take it as a certainty, that if he had had any intention of retreating, he would neither have waited, nor drawn out his troops to battle. For, how much more easily could he have gone off while we were at a great distance, than now, when we are close behind him! Nor could he escape observation in departing either by day or by night. [8] What could be more desirable to us, who were obliged to attack their camp, defended as it was by a very high bank of a river, and enclosed likewise with a rampart and a number of towers, than that they should quit their fortifications, and, marching off with haste, give us an opportunity of attacking their rear in an open plain? These were the reasons for deferring a battle from yesterday to this day. [9] For I am myself also inclined to fight; and for that reason, as the way to come at the enemy over the river Enipeus was stopped, I have opened a new way, by dislodging the enemy's guards from another pass. Nor will I rest until I shall have brought the war to a conclusion.”