44.44
On his
return to camp the consul's joy in his victory was damped by his anxiety
about his younger son. This was P. Scipio, who had been adopted as
grandson by Scipio Africanus, and himself received the title of Africanus,
from the destruction of Carthage in after years. He was only seventeen at the
time -a further cause for anxiety -and while he was in full pursuit of the
enemy, he was carried away by the press into another part of the field. On
his return late in the day to the camp, his father, finding him safe and sound,
could at last feel unmixed joy in his great victory. The news of the battle had
already been carried to Amphipolis, and the matrons flocked to the temple of
Diana -the Tauropolon -to invoke her aid. Diodorus, the governor of the
city, was apprehensive lest the Thracian garrison, some 2000 strong, should
in the tumult and confusion plunder the city. He therefore hired a man to
impersonate a letter-carrier, and received a pretended despatch from him in
the middle of the forum. It stated that the Roman fleet had put in at Emathia,
and the fields all round were being ravaged. The officers in charge of
Emathia implored him to send the garrison to deal with the ravagers. After
reading the despatch he urged the Thracians to go and defend the coast of
Emathia; they would inflict great slaughter on the Romans while scattered
through the fields, and would also secure large booty. At the same time he
made light of the report of an unfavourable battle; if, he said, it were true,
fugitive after fugitive would have come in fresh from the fight. In this way he
got rid of the Thracians, and as soon as he saw that they had crossed the
Strymon, he shut the gates.