§33.8.1laetior res quam pro successu pugnae nuntiata, cum alii super alios recurrentes ex proelio clamarent fugere pavidos Romanos, §33.8.2invitum et cunctabundum et dicentem temere fieri, non locum sibi placere, non tempus, perpulit, ut educeret omnes copias in aciem.
A report more joyful than was warranted by the actual success of the battle, while those running back one after another from the fight cried out that the terrified Romans were fleeing, prevailed upon the king, reluctant and hesitating as he was, and saying that it was being done rashly, and that neither the place nor the time pleased him, to lead out all his forces into line of battle.
§33.8.3idem et Romanus, magis necessitate quam occasione pugnae inductus, fecit.
The Roman commander did the same, led on more by necessity than by an opportunity for battle.
dextrum cornu elephantis ante signa instructis in subsidiis reliquit; laevo cum omni levi armatura in hostem vadit, §33.8.4simul admonens cum iisdem Macedonibus pugnaturos, quos ad Epiri fauces, montibus fluminibusque saeptos, victa naturali difficultate locorum expulissent acieque expugnassent, §33.8.5cum iis, quos P. Sulpicii prius ductu obsidentes in Eordaeam aditum vicissent; fama stetisse, non viribus Macedoniae regnum; eam quoque famam tandem evanuisse.
He left his right wing in reserve, with the elephants drawn up before the standards; with his left, along with all the light-armed troops, he advanced against the enemy, at the same time reminding them that they were going to fight with those same Macedonians whom, though hemmed in by mountains and rivers at the passes of Epirus, they had dislodged after overcoming the natural difficulties of the terrain, and had defeated in a pitched battle; with those whom, under the leadership of Publius Sulpicius, they had previously conquered when they were blocking the passage into Eordaea; and that the kingdom of Macedonia had stood by reputation, not by strength, and that this reputation also had at length vanished.
§33.8.6iam perventum ad suos in ima valle stantes erat, qui adventu exercitus imperatorisque pugnam renovant impetuque facto rursus avertunt hostem.
They had already reached their own men who were standing in the bottom of the valley, who, at the arrival of the army and the general, renewed the battle and, making a charge, again turned the enemy to flight.
§33.8.7Philippus cum caetratis et cornu dextro peditum, robore Macedonici exercitus, quam phalangem vocabant, prope cursu ad hostem vadit; §33.8.8Nicanori, ex purpuratis uni, ut cum reliquis copiis confestim sequatur, imperat.
Philip, with the targeteers and the right wing of the infantry, the strength of the Macedonian army, which they called the phalanx, advanced against the enemy almost at a run; he ordered Nicanor, one of the royal courtiers, to follow immediately with the rest of the forces.
§33.8.9primo, ut in iugum evasit, et iacentibus ibi paucis armis corporibusque hostium proelium eo loco fuisse pulsosque inde Romanos et pugnari prope castra hostium vidit, ingenti gaudio est elatus.
At first, when he gained the ridge, and saw, from the few arms and bodies of the enemy lying there, that the battle had been in that place and that the Romans had been driven thence, and that the fighting was going on near the enemy's camp, he was elated with great joy.
§33.8.10mox refugientibus suis et terrore verso paulisper incertus, an in castra reciperet copias, trepidavit; §33.8.11deinde ut adpropinquabat hostis, et praeterquam quod caedebantur aversi nec, nisi defenderentur, servari poterant ne ipsi quidem in tuto iam receptus erat, §33.8.12coactus nondum adsecuta parte suorum periculum summae rerum facere, equites levemque armaturam, qui in proelio fuerant, §33.8.13dextero in cornu locat, caetratos et Macedonum phalangem hastis positis, quarum longitudo impedimento erat, gladiis rem gerere iubet.
Soon, as his own men were fleeing back and the terror was reversed, he wavered for a moment, uncertain whether he should withdraw his forces into the camp; then, as the enemy was approaching, and besides the fact that his men were being slaughtered with their backs turned and could not be saved unless they were defended, there was no longer even for himself any safe retreat, he was compelled, though a part of his men had not yet come up, to hazard the supreme issue, and the cavalry and light-armed infantry, who had been in the battle, he stationed on the right wing, and ordered the targeteers and the Macedonian phalanx, laying aside their spears, the length of which was an impediment, to carry on the fight with their swords.
§33.8.14simul ne facile perrumperetur acies, dimidium de fronte demptum introrsus porrectis ordinibus duplicat, ut longa potius quam lata acies esset; simul et densari ordines iussit, ut vir viro, arma armis iungerentnr.
At the same time, lest the line should be easily broken through, he doubled the depth by taking away half from the front and extending the ranks inward, so that the line might be deep rather than wide; at the same time he also ordered the ranks to close up, so that man might be joined to man, and arms to arms.