History of Rome

​In the same summer, the war with King Philip, which had been suspected before, broke out.

​Envoys came from Oricum to Marcus Valerius, the praetor who was guarding with a fleet the harbor of Brundisium and the neighboring shores of Calabria, reporting that Philip had first attempted Apollonia, having sailed up the river with a hundred and twenty two-banked vessels;

​and then, when this business had been slower than his hope, he had moved his army secretly by night to Oricum, and that this city, situated in a plain and strong neither in walls nor in men and arms, had been overwhelmed at the first assault.

​Reporting these things, they begged that he would bring aid and keep an enemy, beyond doubt to the Romans, by sea and land from the coastal cities, which were being attacked for no other reason than because they threatened Italy.

​Marcus Valerius, leaving a garrison of two thousand men and placing the lieutenant Publius Valerius in command of them, set out with his fleet equipped and ready, and because the warships could not hold all the soldiers, having put them on transports, arrived at Oricum on the following day; and that city, which was held by a light garrison, ​which the king on retreating thence had left, he recovered without any great struggle.

​Envoys came to him there from Apollonia, reporting that they were under siege because they refused to revolt from the Romans, and that they could not longer withstand the force of the Macedonians unless a Roman garrison were sent.

​Promising that he would do what they wished, he sent two thousand selected soldiers on warships to the mouth of the river, with Quintus Naevius Crista, the prefect of the allies, an active man and skilled in military affairs, as their commander.

​He, having landed the soldiers on the shore and sent the ships back to Oricum whence he had come, to join the rest of the fleet, led the soldiers far from the river along a road least beset by the king’s forces, and by night, so that none of the enemy perceived them, entered the city.

​On the following day they rested, while the prefect inspected the youth of Apollonia, the weapons and the strength of the city. When these things, seen and inspected, had given sufficient encouragement, and at the same time he learned from scouts how much sluggishness and negligence there was among the enemy, ​he marched out of the city in the silence of the night without any noise and entered the enemy’s camp, which was so neglected and open that it was clear enough that a thousand men had entered the rampart before anyone perceived them, and if they had abstained from slaughter, they could have reached the king’s tent.

​The slaughter of those nearest to the gate awakened the enemy; thence such great terror and panic seized everyone, ​that not only did no one else take up arms or attempt to drive the enemy from the camp, but even the king himself, just as he had been awakened from sleep, fled almost half-naked to the river and the ships, in a garb scarcely decent for a soldier, let alone a king. To the same place another crowd also rushed.

​A little less than three thousand soldiers were either captured or killed in the camp;

​yet somewhat more men were captured than slain. The camp having been plundered, the Apollonians carried the catapults, ballistas, and other engines, which had been prepared for besieging the city, to Apollonia to protect their walls, if ever a similar fortune should come;

​all the rest of the plunder of the camp was granted to the Romans. When these things were reported at Oricum, Marcus Valerius immediately led his fleet to the mouth of the river, lest the king should be able to escape by ships.

​Therefore Philip, trusting that he would not be a match for either a land or a naval battle, having hauled up his ships and burned them, sought Macedonia by land with his army for the most part unarmed and despoiled. The Roman fleet with Marcus Valerius wintered at Oricum.