§44.40.1post hanc orationem silentium fuit, partim traductis in sententiam eius, partim verentibus nequiquam offendere in eo, quod utcumque praetermissum revocari non posset.
After this speech, there was silence, partly because they had been won over to his opinion, and partly because they feared to offend him in vain, since what had been let slip, in whatever way, could not be recalled.
§44.40.2ac ne illo ipso quidem die aut consuli aut regi pugnare placebat, regi, quod nec fessos, ut pridie, ex via neque trepidantis in acie instruenda et vixdum compositos adgressurus erat, consuli, quod in novis castris non ligna, non pabulum convectum erat, ad quae petenda ex propinquis agris magna pars militum e castris exierat.
And indeed, on that very day, neither the consul nor the king was pleased to fight; the king, because he would be attacking an enemy who was neither exhausted from the march, as on the day before, nor thrown into confusion while forming their battle line and scarcely yet organized; the consul, because in the new camp neither wood nor forage had been collected, to seek which a large part of the soldiers had gone out from the camp into the neighboring fields.
§44.40.3neutro imperatorum volente fortuna, quae plus consiliis humanis pollet, contraxit certamen.
While neither of the commanders wished it, fortune, which is more powerful than human counsels, brought on the conflict.
§44.40.4flumen erat haud magnum propius hostium castra, ex quo et Macedones et Romani aquabantur praesidiis ex utraque ripa positis, ut id facere tuto possent.
There was a not very large river nearer to the enemy's camp, from which both the Macedonians and the Romans drew water, guards having been stationed on both banks so that they might do this safely.
duae cohortes a parte Romanorum erant, §44.40.5Marrucina et Paeligna, duae turmae Samnitium equitum, quibus praeerat M. Sergius Silus legatus; §44.40.6et aliud pro castris stativom erat praesidium sub C. Cluvio legato, tres cohortes, Firmana, Vestina, Cremonensis, duae turmae equitum, Placentina et Aesernina.
There were two cohorts on the part of the Romans, the Marrucinian and the Paelignian, and two squadrons of Samnite cavalry, which the legate Marcus Sergius Silus commanded; and there was another stationary guard in front of the camp under the legate Gaius Cluvius, consisting of three cohorts, the Firman, the Vestinian, and the Cremonese, and two squadrons of cavalry, the Placentine and the Aeserninian.
§44.40.7cum otium ad flumen esset neutris lacessentibus, hora circiter nona iumentum e manibus curantium elapsum in ulteriorem ripam effugit.
While there was quiet at the river, with neither side provoking the other, about the ninth hour, a beast of burden, having slipped from the hands of those caring for it, escaped to the opposite bank.
§44.40.8quod cum per aquam ferme genu tenus altam tres milites sequerentur, Threces duo id iumentum ex medio alveo in suam ripam trahentes caperent, hos persecuti illi altero eorum occiso receptoque iumento ad stationem suorum se recipiebant.
When three soldiers followed it through water almost knee-deep, and two Thracians were capturing the beast by dragging it from the middle of the riverbed to their own bank, those soldiers pursued them, and having killed one of them and recovered the beast, retreated to their own post.
§44.40.9octingentorum Thracum praesidium in hostium ripa erat.
There was a guard of eight hundred Thracians on the enemy's bank.
ex his pauci primo, aegre passi popularem in suo conspectu caesum, ad persequendos interfectores fluvium transgressi sunt, dein plures, postremo omnes, §44.40.10et cum praesidio.
At first, a few of these, taking it ill that their countryman had been slain in their sight, crossed the river to pursue the slayers, then more, and finally all of them, and with the guard...