This affair was reported to the king as a more important success than the facts warranted. Messenger after messenger ran back from the field shouting that the Romans were in flight, and though the king, reluctant and hesitating, declared that the action had been begun rashly and that neither the time nor the place suited him, he was at last driven into brin乡ng the whole of his forces into the field. The Roman commander did the same, more because no other course was open to him than because he.wished to.seize the opportu nity of a battle.
He .posted the elephants in乓ont of his right wing, which he Kept in reserve;the left, with the whole of the light infantry, he led in person agai nst the enemy. As they advanced he reminded them that they were going to fight with the same Macedonians as those whom in spite of the difficult ground they had driven out of the pass leading into Epirus, protected though they were by the mountains and the river, and had thoroughly defeated;the same as those whom they had vanquished under P. Sulpicius when they tried to stop their march on Eordaea. a The kingdom` of Macedonia, he declared, stood by its prestige, not by its strength, and even its prestige had at last disappeared.
By this time he had come up to his detachments who were standing at the bottom of the valley. They at once renewed the fight and by a fierce attack compelled the enemy to give ground. Philip with his caetrati and the infantry of his, right was ordered to follow at once with the rest of his force. As soon as he reached the top of the hill and saw a few of the enemy's bodies and,weapons lying about, he concluded that there bad been a battle there and that the Komans riad peen repulsed, and when he further saw that fighting was going on near the enemy's camp he was in a state of great exultation. Soon, however, when his men came back in flight and it was his turn to be alarmed, he was for a few moments anxiously debating whether he ought not to recall his troops to camp. Then, as the enemy were approaching, and especially as his own men were being cut down as they fled and could not be saved i aless they were
as retreat was no longer
·he fo乡nd himself一compelled to take‘帐,supreme risk,
{妙halt his.force一d not yet. come up..1 ne cavalry and.,
;infantry who, had been in, action he stationed on his right; the caetrati and the men of the phalanx were ordered to lay aside their spears, the length of which only embarrassed them, and make use of their swords. To prevent his line from being quickly broken he halved the front and gave twice the depth to the files; so that the depth might be greater t冲dt. . than the widt h He also ordered the ranks to close up so that man might De in touch with man and arms with arms.
The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.
The History of Rome, Livy — translated by Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912
Apparatus shelf + pinned Wikisource — Livy, The History of Rome (Rev. Canon Roberts translation, Everyman's Library) · Rev. Canon Roberts, Everyman's Library (J. M. Dent & Sons / E. P. Dutton), first issue 1912; six volumes
license: public-domain (the Roberts translation's Everyman first issue is 1912, pre-1930; Wikisource dates the translation 1905 — either way decades inside the US public domain; digital-door text carries no additional rights)