The consul ordered his cavalry to go wherever they could to the rescue of their comrades and at the same time led the legions out of the camp and marched in close order against the enemy. [2] Some of the cavalry lost their way in the fields owing to the various cries that were raised in different places, others came face to face with the enemy and fighting began at many points simultaneously. [3] It was hottest where the king's stationary troops were posted, for owing to their numbers, both horse and foot, they almost formed a regular army, and as they held the road most of the Romans encountered them. [4] The Macedonians, too, had the advantage of the king's presence to encourage them, whilst the Cretan auxiliaries, in close order and prepared for fighting, made sudden onsets and wounded many of their opponents, who were dispersed without any order or formation. [5] If they had kept their pursuit within bounds they would not only have come off with flying colours in the actual contest, but they would have gone far to influence the course of the war. [6] As it was, they were carried away by thirst for blood and fell in with the advancing Roman cohorts and their military tribunes; [7] the cavalry, too, as soon as they saw the standards of their comrades, turned their horses against the foe who was now in disorder, and in a moment the fortune of the day was reversed, those who had been the pursuers now turned and fled. [8] Many were killed in hand-to-hand fighting, many whilst fleeing; they did not all perish by the sword, some were driven into bogs and were sucked down together with their horses in the bottomless mud. [9] Even the king was in danger, for he was flung to earth by his wounded and maddened horse and all but overpowered as he lay. [10] He owed his safety to a trooper who instantly leaped down and put the king on his own horse, but as he could not keep up on foot with the cavalry in their flight he was speared by the enemy, who had ridden up to where the king fell. [11] Philip galloped round the swamp and made his way in headlong flight through paths and pathless places until he reached his camp in safety, where most of the men had given him up for lost. [12] Two hundred Macedonians perished in that battle, about a hundred prisoners were taken and eighty well-equipped horses were secured together with the spoils of their fallen riders.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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