University of Virginia Library

31.43

Athenagoras, Philip's lieutenant, in the meanwhile caught up the Dardanians as they were retiring within their frontiers and created considerable confusion in the rear of their column. They faced about and formed in line of battle, and a regular engagement ensued in which neither side gained the advantage. When the Dardanians began again to go forward the king's cavalry continued to harass them, as they had no troops of the same kind to protect them, and their equipment rendered them immobile. The ground, too, was in favour of the assailants. Very few were actually killed, but there were many wounded; no prisoners were taken because they were cautious about leaving their ranks and kept up the retreating fight in close order. Thus Philip through his bold initiative as much as by its successful results kept the two nations in check by his well-timed movements and so made good the losses he had sustained in the war with Rome. An incident which occurred subsequently gave him a further advantage by diminishing the number of his Aetolian enemies. Scopas, one of their principal men, who had been sent by King Ptolemy from Alexandria with a considerable amount of gold, conveyed to Egypt a mercenary army consisting of 6000 infantry and 500 cavalry. He would not have left a single man of military age in Aetolia if Damocritus had not kept some of them at home by sternly reminding them of the war which was imminent and the defenceless condition of a country deprived of its manhood. It is uncertain whether his action was dictated by patriotism or by personal enmity to Scopas who had not bribed him. Such were the various undertakings in which the Romans and Philip were engaged during this summer.