previous next

The detached force reached the height which was their objective on the third day, and signalled by a column of smoke that they had seized and were holding it. Thereupon the consul, having formed his army into three divisions, advanced up the bottom of the ravine with his main strength and sent his right and left wings against the camp. [2] The enemy showed no less alertness in meeting the attack. Eager to come to blows they moved out of their lines, and as long as they fought in the open, the Romans were vastly superior in courage and training and arms. [3] But after losing many men in killed and wounded the king's troops retired upon positions strongly fortified or naturally secure, and then it was the turn of the Romans to be in difficulties, as they were advancing over dangerous ground where the narrow space made retreat almost impossible. [4] Nor would they have been able to retire without paying heavily for their rashness had not the Macedonians heard shouts and found that a battle had begun in their rear. [5] This unforeseen danger drove them frantic with terror, some fled in disorder, others who stood their ground, not so much because they had the courage to fight, as because there was no place for escape, were surrounded by the enemy who were pressing on in front and rear. [6] The whole army might have been annihilated had the victors been able to keep up the pursuit, but the cavalry were hampered by the rough and confined ground and the infantry by the weight of their armour. [7] The king galloped off the field without looking behind him. After he had ridden some five miles, and rightly suspected from the [8??] nature of the country that the enemy would find it impossible to follow him, he came to a halt on some rising ground and sent his escort in all directions over hill and dale to rally his scattered troops. Out of the whole force his losses did not amount to more than 2000, and all the rest, as if in obedience to a signal, collected together and marched off in a strong column for Thessaly. [9] After continuing the pursuit as far as they could with safety, cutting down the fugitives and despoiling the dead, they plundered the king's camp which even in the absence of defenders was difficult to approach. [10] During the night they remained in camp, and the next day the consul followed the enemy through the gorge at the bottom of which the river wound its way.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1883)
load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1883)
load focus Summary (Latin, Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (English, Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Latin (Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1883)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
load focus English (Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
hide References (17 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (6):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.19
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.3
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.29
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.30
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 36.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.8
  • Cross-references to this page (3):
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (7):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: