43. Perseus fled to the Pierian Forest along the military road with a large column of cavalry and the
royal entourage.
[2]
As soon as they arrived in the forest, where there were many divergent ways, and night was approaching, the king left the road with a very few of
his most trusty men.
[3]
The cavalry, left without a commander, took various routes in dispersing to their own cities; a very few went on to Pella more rapidly than the
king, since they had gone by the direct and clear way.
[4]
The king was bothered till about midnight by losing his way and by various difficulties of the route.
[5]
At the palace Perseus was waited upon by the commanders of Pella, Euctus, and Eulaeus,1 and the royal pages. On the other hand, of his friends who by various haps had come safely
from the battle to Pella, not one came to him, though they were summoned many times.
[6]
There were only three companions in flight with him, Evander the Cretan, Neon
the Boeotian, and Archidamus the Aetolian.
[7]
With these he escaped in the fourth watch, being now afraid that those who refused to come to him would presently venture on a
bolder stroke.
[8]
His escort was composed of about five hundred Cretans. He was making for Amphipolis; but he had left Pella at night because of his anxiety to cross
the Axius River before dawn, since he thought that because of the difficulty of crossing this would be the limit of the Roman pursuit. [p. 235]
1 Plutarch, Aemilius xxiii, calls them “the mintmasters,” and says that Perseus put them to death.
Livy. Books XLIII-XLV With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1951: published without copyright notice.
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