d proceeded far the
path ended in a precipice, at which they were both surprised and
disheartened; for they could not tell, either by sight or hearing,
that they were close to the enemy. It was now about daybreak, and they
thought that they heard voices near at hand, and soon were able to see
a Greek camp and an outpost at the foot of the precipice. Cato
hereupon halted his army, and ordered the Firmiani,[30] in whom he
reposed especial confidence, to come forward alone. When they had
assembled round him, he said, "I wish to take one of the enemy
prisoner, and learn from him of what troops this outpost is formed,
what their numbers are, how the rest of the army are placed, and what
preparations they have made to resist us. You must dash upon them as
quickly and boldly as lions do upon their defenceless prey." At these
words of Cato's the Firmiani at once rushed down and attacked the
outpost. The suddenness of their onset threw the enemy into complete
confusion, and they soon caught one of them and brought him before
Cato. Learning from this man that all the rest of the army was with
King Antiochus himself, guarding the pass of Thermopylae, and that only
a body of six hundred picked AEtolians were watching the path over the
mountains, Cato despising so small and contemptible a force, at once
drew his sword, and led on his troops with shouts and trumpets
sounding the charge. The AEtolians, as soon as they saw the Romans
descending from the hills, fled to the main body, and filled it with
confusion and terror.

XIV. Meanwhile Manius on the lower ground had attacked the
fortifications in the pass with his entire force. Antiochus was struck
on the mouth with a stone which knocked out several of his teeth, and
the pain of his wound compelled him to wheel round his horse and
retreat. His troops nowhere withstood the Romans, but, although they
had endless means of escape by roads where they could scarcely be
followed, yet they crowded through the narrow pass with deep marshy
ground on the one hand and inaccessible rocks upon the other, and
there trampled each other to death for fear of the swords of the
Romans.

Cato never seems to have been sparing of his own praise, and thought
that great deeds required to be told in boastful language. He gives a
very pompous account of this battle, and says that all those who saw
him pursuing and cutting down the enemy felt that Cato did not owe so
much to the Romans, as the Romans owed t