44.42
The
infantry were being slaughtered all over the field; only those who threw away
their arms were able to make good their escape. The cavalry, on the other
hand, quitted the field with hardly any loss, the king himself being the first to
flee. He was already on his way to Pella with his "sacred" cavalry, and Cotys
and the Odrysaeans were following at his heels. The rest of the Macedonian
horse also got away with their ranks unbroken, because the infantry were
between them and the enemy, and the latter were so fully occupied in
massacring the infantry that they forgot to pursue the cavalry. For a long
time the slaughter of the phalanx went on in front, flank and rear. At last
those who had escaped out of the hands of the enemy threw away their arms
and fled to the shore; some even went into the water and, stretching out their
hands in supplication to the men in the fleet, implored them to save their
lives. When they saw boats from all the ships rowing to the place where they
were they thought that they were coming to take them up as prisoners rather
than slay them, and they waded further into the water, some even swimming.
But when they found that they were being killed by the men in the boats,
those who could swim back to land met with a more wretched fate, for the
elephants, forced by their drivers to the water's edge, trampled on them and
crushed them to death as they came out. It is universally admitted that never
had so many Macedonians been killed by the Romans in a single battle. As
many as 20,000 men perished; 6000 who had fled to Pydna fell into the
enemy's hands, and 5000 were made prisoners in their flight. Of the victors
not more than 100 fell, and of these the majority were Paelignians; the
wounded were much more numerous. If the battle had begun earlier and
there had been sufficient daylight for the victors to continue the pursuit, the
whole force would have been wiped out. As it was, the approach of night
shielded the fugitives and made the Romans chary of following them over
unknown country.
