§31.38.1fuere, qui hoc die regem temeritatis, consulem segnitiae accusarent: nam et Philippo quiescendum fuisse, cum paucis diebus hostes exhausto circa omni agro ad ultimum inopiae venturos sciret, §31.38.2et consulem, cum equitatum hostium levemque armaturam fudisset ac prope regem ipsum cepisset, protinus ad castra hostium ducere debuisse; §31.38.3nec enim mansuros ita perculsos hostis fuisse, debellarique momento temporis potuisse.
There were some who on this day accused the king of rashness, and the consul of sluggishness; for, they argued, Philip ought to have remained quiet, since he knew that within a few days, all the surrounding land having been exhausted, the enemy would come to the extremity of want; and the consul, when he had routed the enemy's cavalry and light-armed troops and had almost captured the king himself, ought to have led his army straightway to the camp of the enemy; for the enemy, so shattered, would not have stayed, and the war could have been finished in a moment of time.
id dictu quam re, ut pleraque, facilius erat.
This was easier, as most things are, in the saying than in the doing.
§31.38.4nam si omnibus peditum quoque copiis congressus rex fuisset, forsitan inter tumultum, cum omnes victi metuque perculsi ex proelio intra vallum, protinus inde supervadentem munimenta victorem hostem fugerent, exui castris potuerit rex; §31.38.5cum vero integrae copiae peditum in castris mansissent, stationes ante portas praesidiaque disposita essent, quid, nisi ut temeritatem regis, effuse paulo ante secuti perculsos equites, imitaretur, profecisset?
For if the king had engaged with all his forces of infantry as well, perhaps in the confusion, while all, conquered and shattered by fear, were fleeing from the battle inside the rampart, and straightway from there fleeing the victorious enemy as they surmounted the fortifications, the king might have been stripped of his camp; but since the unimpaired forces of infantry had remained in the camp, and outposts and guards had been stationed before the gates, what would he have accomplished, except to imitate the rashness of the king, who a little before had pursued the shattered cavalry in a scattered manner?
§31.38.6neque enim ne regis quidem primum consilium, quo impetum in frumentatores palatos per agros fecit, reprehendendum foret, §31.38.7si modum prosperae pugnae imposuisset.
Nor indeed would even the king's first plan, by which he made an attack upon the foragers scattered through the fields, have been blameworthy, if he had set a limit to the successful battle.
eo quoque minus est mirum temptasse eum fortunam, quod fama erat Pleuratum Dardanosque ingentibus copiis profectos domo iam in Macedoniam transcendisse; §31.38.8quibus si undique circumventus copiis foret, sedentem Romanum debellaturum credi poterat.
It is also the less surprising that he tried his fortune, because there was a rumor that Pleuratus and the Dardanians, having set out from home with huge forces, had already crossed into Macedonia; if he had been surrounded on all sides by these forces, it could have been believed that the inactive Roman would finish the war.
§31.38.9itaque secundum duas adversas equestris pugnas multo minus tutam moram in iisdem stativis fore Philippus ratus, cum abire inde et fallere abiens hostem vellet, caduceatore sub occasum solis misso ad consulem, §31.38.10qui indutias ad sepeliendos equites peteret, frustratus hostem secunda vigilia multis ignibus per tota castra relictis silenti agmine abit.
Therefore, after two unsuccessful cavalry battles, Philip, thinking that a stay in the same permanent camp would be much less safe, since he wished to depart from there and to deceive the enemy in his departure, sent a herald to the consul near sunset, who was to ask for a truce to bury the cavalrymen, and having frustrated the enemy, he departed in a silent march during the second watch, leaving many fires throughout the whole camp.