§44.37.1Paulus postquam metata castra impedimentaque conlocata animadvertit, ex postrema acie triarios primos subducit, §44.37.2deinde principes, stantibus in prima acie hastatis, si quid hostis moveret, postremo hastatos, ab dextro primum cornu singulorum paulatim signorum milites subtrahens.
After Paulus noticed that the camp was measured out and the baggage deposited, he first withdrew the triarii from the rear of the battle line, then the principes, while the hastati stood in the front line in case the enemy should make any move, and finally the hastati, gradually withdrawing the soldiers of each maniple one by one, beginning from the right wing.
§44.37.3ita pedites equitibus cum levi armatura ante aciem hosti oppositis sine tumultu abducti, nec ante, quam prima frons valli ac fossa perducta est, ex statione equites revocati sunt.
Thus the infantry were drawn off without confusion, while the cavalry and light-armed troops were opposed to the enemy in front of the line; nor were the cavalry recalled from their post until the first front of the rampart and the ditch were completed.
§44.37.4rex quoque, cum sine detractatione paratus pugnare eo die fuisset, contentus eo, quod per hostem moram fuisse scirent, et ipse in castra copias reduxit.
The king also, although he had been ready to fight on that day without hesitation, satisfied with the fact that they knew the delay had been caused by the enemy, himself also led his forces back into camp.
§44.37.5castris permunitis C. Sulpicius Gallus, tribunus militum secundae legionis, qui praetor superiore anno fuerat, consulis permissu ad contionem militibus vocatis pronuntiavit, nocte proxima, ne quis id pro portento acciperet, ab hora secunda usque ad quartam horam noctis lunam defecturam esse.
When the camp was thoroughly fortified, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, a military tribune of the second legion, who had been praetor the previous year, with the consul's permission, having called the soldiers to an assembly, announced that on the coming night, lest anyone should take it for a portent, the moon would fail from the second to the fourth hour of the night.
§44.37.6id quia naturali ordine statis temporibus fiat, et sciri ante et praedici posse.
He said that because this happened by a natural order at fixed times, it could both be known beforehand and predicted.
§44.37.7itaque quem ad modum, quia certi solis lunaeque et ortus et occasus sint, nunc pleno orbe, nunc senescentem exiguo cornu fulgere lunam non mirarentur, ita ne obscurari quidem, cum condatur umbra terrae, trahere in prodigium debere.
Therefore, just as they did not wonder that the moon shone sometimes with a full orb, and sometimes waning with a tiny horn, because the risings and settings of both sun and moon were certain, so they ought not to interpret its being darkened, when it was hidden by the shadow of the earth, as a portent.
§44.37.8nocte, quam pridie nonas Septembres insecuta est dies, edita hora luna cum defecisset, Romanis militibus Galli sapientia prope divina videri; §44.37.9Macedonas ut triste prodigium, occasum regni perniciemque gentis portendens, movit nec aliter vates.
On the night which was followed by the day of the day before the nones of September, when the moon failed at the announced hour, the wisdom of Gallus seemed to the Roman soldiers to be almost divine; but it moved the Macedonians as a gloomy portent, foreboding the fall of their kingdom and the ruin of their nation, and the seers were of no different opinion.
clamor ululatusque in castris Macedonum fuit, donec luna in suam lucem emersit.
There was shouting and howling in the camp of the Macedonians until the moon emerged into its own light.
§44.37.10postero die — tantus utrique ardor exercitui ad concurrendum fuerat, ut et regem et consulem suorum quidam, quod sine proelio discessum esset, accusarent — §44.37.11regi prompta defensio erat, non eo solum, quod hostis prior aperte pugnam detractans in castra copias reduxisset, sed etiam quod eo loco signa constituisset, quo phalanx, quam inutilem vel mediocris iniquitas loci efficeret, promoveri non posset.
On the following day—so great had been the eagerness of both armies to clash that some of their own men accused both the king and the consul of having departed without a battle— the king had a ready defense, not only because the enemy had first openly declined battle and led his forces back into camp, but also because he had posted his standards in a place where the phalanx, which even a moderate unevenness of the ground rendered useless, could not be advanced.
§44.37.12consul ad id, quod pridie praetermisisse pugnandi occasionem videbatur et locum dedisse hosti, si nocte abire vellet, tunc quoque per speciem immolandi terere videbatur tempus, cum luce prima ad signum propositum pugnae exeundum in aciem fuisset.
The consul, in addition to the fact that on the previous day he seemed to have let slip the opportunity of fighting and to have given the enemy space if they wished to depart by night, seemed then also to be wasting time under the pretense of offering sacrifice, although at early dawn, upon the signal for battle being displayed, they ought to have marched out into the line.
§44.37.13tertia demum hora sacrificio rite perpetrato ad consilium vocavit; atque ibi, quod rei gerendae tempus esset, loquendo et intempestive consultando videbatur quibusdam extrahere.
Only at the third hour, the sacrifice having been duly performed, did he call a council; and there, although it was the time for action, he seemed to some to be spinning out the time by speaking and unseasonably consulting.
adversus eos sermones talem consul orationem habuit.
Against these remarks the consul delivered the following speech.