35.30
When
Philopoemen saw them moving hurriedly along a steep and narrow road he
sent his Cretan auxiliaries and the whole of his cavalry against the force
which was guarding the camp. Seeing the enemy approaching, and finding
that the main army had left them to themselves, they tried to retire into their
camp, but as the entire Achaean army was advancing in battle order they
dreaded lest they should be captured with their camp, and accordingly
started after their main body which was some distance ahead. The Achaean
caetrati at once attacked and plundered the camp, whilst the rest of the army
went off in pursuit of the enemy. The route they had taken was such that
even if there had been no enemy to be feared, their column could only have
got through with great difficulty, but now, when the rearmost ranks were
being assailed and cries of terror penetrated to the head of the column, it was
every man for himself; they flung away their arms and fled into the forest
which skirted the road on both sides. In an instant the road was blocked with
heaps of weapons, mostly spears, which, falling with their heads towards the
enemy, formed a kind of stockade across the road. Philopoemen ordered the
auxiliaries to press the pursuit as much as possible, since flight would be a
difficult matter, for cavalry at all events. The heavy infantry he led in person
by a more open road to the Eurotas. Here he encamped just before sunset
and waited for the light troops whom he had left in pursuit of the enemy.
They came in at the first watch with the news that the tyrant had entered the
city with a small body of troops; the rest of his army were without arms,
scattered in the forest. He told them to take food and rest. The rest of the
army, having come earlier into camp, had already done so and were now
refreshed after a short sleep. Selecting some of their number and telling them
to take nothing but their swords, he posted them on two of the roads which
led from the city, one to Pharae and the other to Barnosthenes, as he
expected that the fugitives would return by these roads. His expectation was
justified, for the Lacedaemonians as long as daylight remained went along
the sequestered tracks in the heart of the forest, but when it grew dusk and
they caught sight of the lights in the enemy's camp they kept out of sight on
hidden paths. After they had got past it, and thought all was safe, they came
out into the open road. Here they were caught by the enemy who were
waiting for them, and so numerous were the prisoners and the slain in all
directions that hardly a quarter of their whole army escaped. Now that
Philopoemen had shut the tyrant up in his city he spent nearly a month in
devastating the Lacedaemonian fields, and after thus weakening and almost
shattering the tyrant's power he returned home. The Achaeans in view of his
brilliant success put him on a par with the Roman general, and considered
him as his superior so far as the Laconian war was concerned.
