rehensions, a plausible
pretext for leaving his camp. On the day following, he ordered
Pythagoras, with the auxiliaries and cavalry, to mount guard before
the rampart; and then, marching out himself with the main body of the
army, as if intending to offer battle, he ordered them to return with
all haste to the city.

30. When Philopoemen saw their army marching precipitately through
a narrow and steep road, he sent all his cavalry, together with the
Cretan auxiliaries, against the guard of the enemy, stationed in the
front of their camp. These, seeing their adversaries approach, and
perceiving that their friends had abandoned them, at first attempted
to retreat within their works; but afterwards, when the whole force of
the Achaeans advanced in order of battle, they were seized with
fear, lest, together with the camp itself, they might be taken; they
resolved, therefore, to follow the body of their army, which, by
this time, had proceeded to a considerable distance in advance.
Immediately, the targeteers of the Achaeans assailed and plundered the
camp, and the rest set out in pursuit of the enemy. The road was such,
that a body of men, even when undisturbed by any fear of a foe, could
not, without difficulty, make its way through it. But when an attack
was made on their rear, and the shouts of terror, raised by the
affrighted troops behind, reached to the van, they threw down their
arms, and fled, each for himself, in different directions, into the
woods which lay on each side of the road. In an instant of time, the
way was stopped up with heaps of weapons, particularly spears, which,
falling mostly with their points towards the pursuers, formed a kind
of palisade across the road. Philopoemen ordered the auxiliaries to
push forward, whenever they could, in pursuit of the enemy, who would
find it a difficult matter, the horsemen particularly, to continue
their flight; while he himself led away the heavy troops through more
open ground to the river Eurotas. There he pitched his camp a little
before sun-set, and waited for the light troops which he had sent
in chase of the enemy. These arrived at the first watch, and brought
intelligence, that Nabis, with a few attendants, had made his way into
the city, and that the rest of his army, unarmed and dispersed, were
straggling through all parts of the woods; whereupon, he ordered them
to refresh themselves, while he himself chose out a party of men, who,
having come earlier i