epare a spirit adequate to the occasion, that, to-morrow, with the
aid of the gods, we may decide the matter in the field."

18. After this discourse he dismissed the soldiers, who, before they
went to their repast, got ready their armour and weapons. At the first
dawn, the signal of battle being displayed, the consul formed his
troops with a narrow front, adapted to the nature and the straitness
of the ground. When the king saw the enemy's standards in motion,
he likewise drew out his forces. He placed in the van, before the
rampart, a part of his light infantry; and behind them, as a support,
close to the fortifications, the main strength of his Macedonians,
whom they call Sarissophori. On the left wing of these, at the foot
of the mountain, he posted a body of javelin-bearers, archers, and
slingers; that from the higher ground they might annoy the naked flank
of the enemy: and on the right of the Macedonians, to the extremity of
the works, where the deep morasses and quicksands, stretching thence
to the sea, render the place impassable, the elephants with their
usual guard; in the rear of them, the cavalry; and then, with a
moderate interval between, the rest of his forces as a second line.
The Macedonians, posted before the rampart, for some time easily
withstood the efforts which the Romans made every where to force a
passage; for they received great assistance from those who poured down
from the higher ground a shower of leaden balls from their slings,
and of arrows, and javelins, all together. But afterwards, the enemy
pressing on with greater and now irresistible force, they were obliged
to give ground, and, filing off from the rear, retire within the
fortification. Here, by extending their spears before them, they
formed as it were a second rampart, for the rampart itself was of such
a moderate height that, while it afforded to its defenders a higher
situation, they at the same time, by the length of their spears, had
the enemy within reach underneath. Many, inconsiderately approaching
the work, were run through the body; and they must either have
abandoned the attempt and retreated, or have lost very great numbers,
had not Marcus Porcius come from the summit of Callidromus, whence he
had dislodged the Aetolians, after killing the greater part of them.
These he had surprised, quite unprepared, and mostly asleep, and now
he appeared on the hill which overlooked the camp.

19. Flaccus had not met the same good f