44.37
When
Aemilius Paulus saw that the site of the camp had been marked out and the
baggage collected, he first quietly withdrew the triarii from the back of the
line, then the principes, leaving the hastati standing in front, in case the
enemy made any movement. Finally he retired these also, withdrawing those
on the right first, maniple by maniple. In this way the infantry were
withdrawn without creating any confusion, leaving the cavalry and light
infantry facing the enemy. The cavalry were not recalled from their position
until the rampart and fosse in front of the camp were carried their full length.
The king was quite ready to give battle that day, but as his men were aware
that the delay was due to the enemy he was quite content, and he too led his
men back to camp. When the fortification of the camp was completed, C.
Sulpicius Gallus, a military tribune attached to the second legion, who had
been a praetor the year before, obtained the consul's permission to call the
soldiers on parade. He then explained that on the following night the moon
would lose her light from the second hour to the fourth, and no one must
regard this as a portent, because this happened in the natural order of things
at stated intervals, and could be known beforehand and predicted. Just in the
same way, then, as they did not regard the regular rising and setting of the
sun and moon or the changes in the light of the moon from full circle to a
thin and waning crescent as a marvel, so they ought not to take its
obscuration when it is hidden in the shadow of the earth for a supernatural
portent. On the next night -September 4 -the eclipse took place at the
stated hour, and the Roman soldiers thought that Gallus possessed almost
divine wisdom. It gave a shock to the Macedonians as portending the fall of
their kingdom and the ruin of their nation, nor could their soothsayers give
any other explanation. Shouts and howls went on in the Macedonian camp
until the moon emerged and gave her light. So keen had both sides been to
encounter one another that on the morrow both Perseus and the consul were
alike blamed by some of their own men for having retired without a battle
The king was at no loss for his defence -the enemy had openly declined
battle and was the first to withdraw his troops into camp; and, besides, the
position which he had chosen was such that the phalanx could not be
brought up to it, even a slightly uneven ground would make it useless. As to
the consul, not only did it look as if he had let slip the opportunity of fighting
the previous day and given the enemy a chance, if he wished, of going away
in the night, but even now he seemed to be wasting time on the pretext of
offering sacrifice, although the signal for battle had been hoisted at dawn and
he ought to have taken the field. It was not till the third hour after the
sacrifices had been duly performed that he summoned a council of war and
even then he was thought by some to be wasting the time, which ought to
have been spent on the battlefield, in unseasonable speeches and discussions.