mpiety by all Italians,
rushed to the place, and a fierce conflict began there with terrible
slaughter. The one party tried to dash aside the long spears with their
swords, and to push them with their shields, and to seize them away with
their very hands, while the Macedonians, wielding their spears with both
hands, drove them through their opponents, armour and all: for no shield
or corslet could resist their thrust. They then cast over their own
heads the bodies of these Pelignians and Marrucini, who pressed madly
like wild creatures up to the line of spears and certain death. When the
first rank fell in this manner, those behind gave way: it cannot be said
that they fled, but they retreated to a mountain called Olokrus.
Poseidonius tells us that Aemilius tore his clothes in despair at seeing
these men give ground, while the other Romans were confounded at the
phalanx, which could not be assailed, but with its close line of spears,
like a palisade, offered no point for attack. But when he saw that, from
the inequalities of the ground, and the length of their line, the
Macedonian phalanx did not preserve its alignment, and was breaking into
gaps and breaches, as is natural should happen in a great army,
according to the different attacks of the combatants, who made it bulge
inwards in one place, and outward in another, then he came swiftly up,
and dividing his men into companies, ordered them to force their way
into the spaces and intervals of the enemy's line, and to make their
attack, not in any one place all together, but in several, as they were
broken up into several bodies. As soon as Aemilius had given these
instructions to the officers, who communicated them to the men, they
charged into the spaces, and at once some attacked the now helpless
Macedonians in flank, while others got into their rear and cut them off.
The phalanx dissolved immediately, and with it was lost all the power
and mutual assistance which it gave. Fighting in single combats or small
groups, the Macedonians struck in vain with their little daggers at the
strong shields reaching to their feet carried by the Romans. Their light
targets could ill ward off the blows of the Roman sword, which cut right
through all their defensive armour. After a useless resistance they
turned and fled.

XXI. But the fight was a sharp one. Here Marcus, the son of Cato,
Aemilius's son-in-law, whilst fighting with great valour let fall his
sword. Educated as he had