fell in that expedition, ordered them to be
conveyed into the camp, in order that all might be spectators of the
honours paid them at their funeral. Nothing is so uncertain, or so
difficult to form a judgment of, as the minds of the multitude. That
which seems calculated to increase their alacrity, in exertions of
every sort, often creates in them fear and inactivity. Accordingly,
those who, being always accustomed to fight with Greeks and Illyrians,
had only seen wounds made with javelins and arrows, seldom even by
lances, came to behold bodies dismembered by the Spanish sword, some
with their arms lopped off, with the shoulder or the neck entirely cut
through, heads severed from the trunk, and the bowels laid open, with
other frightful exhibitions of wounds: they therefore perceived, with
horror, against what weapons and what men they were to fight. Even the
king himself was seized with apprehensions, having never yet engaged
the Romans in a regular battle. Wherefore, recalling his son, and the
guard posted at the pass of Pelagonia, in order to strengthen his
army by the addition of those troops, he thereby opened a passage into
Macedonia for Pleuratus and the Dardanians. Then, taking deserters
for guides, he marched towards the enemy with twenty thousand foot
and four thousand horse, and at the distance of somewhat more than a
thousand paces from the Roman camp, and near Ithacus, he fortified a
hill with a trench and rampart. From this place, taking a view of the
Roman station in the valley beneath, he is said to have been struck
with admiration, both at the general appearance of the camp, and the
regular disposition of each particular part; then with the disposition
of the tents, and the intervals of the passages; and to have declared,
that, certainly, that could not be regarded by any as the camp of
barbarians. For two days, the consul and the king, each waiting
for the other's making some attempt, kept their troops within the
ramparts. On the third day, the Roman led out all his forces, and
offered battle.

35. But the king, not daring to risk so hastily a general engagement,
sent four hundred Trallians, who are a tribe of the Illyrians, as we
have said in another place, and three hundred Cretans; adding to
this body of infantry an equal number of horse, under the command of
Athenagoras, one of his nobles honoured with the purple, to make an
attack on the enemy's cavalry. When these troops arrived within a
little