66.
When the standards of the Romans first came in sight of the surrounded troops, their spirits were raised from the depth of despair.
[2]
Perseus's best plan would have been to have contented himself with his accidental good fortune, in having killed and taken so many of the foragers, and not to have wasted time in attacking this detachment of the enemy;
[3]
or, after he had engaged in the attempt, as he was sensible that he had not a proper force with him, to have gone off, while he might, with safety; instead of which, intoxicated with success, he waited for the arrival of the enemy, and sent messengers in haste to bring up the phalanx, which would have been too late for the emergency.
[4]
The men must have engaged in all the disorder of a hurried march, against troops duly formed and prepared. The consul, arriving first, proceeded instantly to action.
[5]
The Macedonians, for some time, made resistance; afterwards, when they were equal to their enemies in no respect, having lost three hundred foot, and twenty-four of the best of their horse, of what they call the Sacred Cohort, (among whom fell Antimachus, who commanded that body,) they endeavoured to retreat: but this march back was more disorderly and confused than the battle itself.
[6]
When the phalanx, being summoned by a hasty order, was marching at full speed, it met first, in a narrow pass, the carts laden with corn, with the mass of prisoners.
[7]
These they put to the sword, and both parties suffered great annoyance; but none waited till the troops might pass in some sort of order, but the soldiers tumbled the loads down a precipice, which was the only possible way to clear the road, and the horses, when they were goaded, pushed furiously through the crowd.
[8]
Scarcely had they disentangled themselves from the disorderly throng of the prisoners, when they met the king's party and the discomfited horsemen. And now the shouts of the men, calling to their comrades to go back, raised a consternation not unlike a total rout; insomuch, that if the enemy had ventured to enter the defile, and carry the pursuit a little farther, they might have done them very great damage.
[9]
But the consul, when he had relieved his party from the hill, [p. 2027]content with that moderate share of success, led back his troops to the camp. There are writers who state that a general engagement took place that day, in which eight thousand of the enemy were killed, among whom were Sopater and Antipater, two of the king's generals, and about two thousand eight hundred taken, with twenty-seven military standards;
[10]
and that it was not a bloodless victory, for that above four thousand three hundred fell, and five standards of the left wing of the allies were lost.
Livy. History of Rome by Titus Livius, books thirty-seven to the end, with the epitomes and fragments of the lost books. literally translated, with notes and illustrations, by. William A. McDevitte. York Street, Covent Garden, London. Henry G. Bohn. John Child and son, printers, Bungay. 1850. 4.
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