University of Virginia Library

32.6

.The consul had wintered in Corcyra, and on receiving intelligence through Charops, an Epirote, as to the pass which the king and his army had occupied, he sailed across to the mainland at the opening of the spring and at once marched towards the enemy. When he was about five miles from the king's camp he left the legions in an entrenched position and went forward with some light troops to reconnoitre. The following day he held a council of war to decide whether he should attempt to force the pass in spite of the immense difficulty and danger to be faced, or whether he should lead his force round by the same route which Sulpicius had taken the year before, when he invaded Macedonia. This question had been debated for several days when a messenger came to report the election of T. Quinctius to the consulship and the assignment to him of Macedonia as his province, and the fact that he was hastening to take possession of his province and had already reached Corcyra. According to Valerius Antias, Villius, finding a frontal attack impossible as every approach was blocked by the king's troops, entered the ravine and marched along the river. Hastily throwing a bridge across to the other side where the king's troops lay, he crossed over and attacked; the king's army were routed and put to flight and despoiled of their camp. 12,000 of the enemy were killed in the battle, 2200 prisoners taken, 132 standards and 230 horses captured. All the Greek and Latin writers, so far as I have consulted them, say that nothing noteworthy was done by Villius and that the consul who succeeded him took over the whole war from the outset.