n a shout. After that
with a yell the heavy-armed dashed their spears against their shields and
hurled the former at each other, while the slingers and the archers sent
their stones and missiles. Then the two bodies of cavalry trotted forward
and the contingents shielded with breastplates following behind joined in
hand to hand combat. [-44-] They did a great deal of pushing and a great
deal of stabbing, looking carefully at first to see how they should wound
others and not be wounded themselves; they desired both to kill their
antagonists and to save themselves. Later, when their charge grew fiercer
and their spirit flamed up, they rushed together without stopping to
consider, and paid no more attention to their own safety, but would even
sacrifice themselves in their eagerness to destroy their adversaries.
Some threw away their shields and seizing hold of those arrayed opposite
them either strangled[36] them in their helmets and struck them from the
rear, or snatched away their defence in front and delivered a stroke on
their breasts. Others took hold of their swords and then ran their
own into the bodies of the men opposite, who had been made as good as
unarmed. And some by exposing some part of their bodies to be wounded
could use the rest more readily. Some clutched each other in an embrace
that prevented the possibility of striking, but they perished in the
intertwining of swords and bodies. Some died of one blow, others of many,
and neither had any perception of their wounds, dying too soon to feel
pain, nor lamented their taking off, because they did not reach the point
of expressing grief. One who killed another thought in the excessive joy
of the moment that he could never die. Whoever fell lost consciousness
and had no knowledge of his state. [-45-] Both sides remained stubbornly
in their places and neither side retired or pursued, but there, just as
they were, they wounded and were wounded, slew and were slain, until late
in the day. And if all had contested with all, as may happen under such
circumstances, or if Brutus had been arrayed against Antony and Cassius
against Caesar, they would have proved equally matched. As it was, Brutus
forced the invalid Caesar from his path, while Antony overruled Cassius,
who was by no means his equal in warfare. At this juncture, because not
all were conquering the other side at once, but both parties were in turn
defeated and victorious, the results[37] were practically the