slaves, whom the king's generals had invited from the cities by a
proclamation of freedom, and enrolled among the hoplitae.[241] A Roman
centurion is said to have remarked, that slaves had only freedom of
speech at the Saturnalia,[242] so far as he knew. Now, owing to the
depth of the ranks of these slaves and their close order, it was some
time before they could be made to give way before the heavy-armed
Roman soldiers, and they also fought with more courage than one
expects from a slave; but the missiles from the slings and the light
javelins which were showered upon them unsparingly by the Romans in
the rear, at last made them turn and put them into complete confusion.

XIX. While Archelaus was extending his right wing, in order to
surround the Romans, Hortensius made his cohorts advance at a run,
with the intention of taking the enemy in the flank; but as Archelaus
suddenly wheeled round with his two thousand horsemen, Hortensius was
overpowered by numbers and retreated towards the mountain region,
being gradually separated from the main body of the army and in danger
of being completely hemmed in by the barbarians. Sulla, who was on the
right wing, which was not yet engaged in the action, hearing of the
danger of Hortensius, hastened to relieve him. Archelaus conjecturing
from the dust raised by Sulla's troops how the matter was, left
Hortensius, and wheeling round moved towards the position which Sulla
had quitted (the right), expecting to find the soldiers there without
their general, and to defeat them. At the same time Taxiles led the
Chalkaspides against Murena; and now the shouts being raised from both
armies and re-echoed by the mountains, Sulla halted and hesitated to
which quarter he should move. Having determined to maintain his own
original position, he sent Hortensius with four cohorts to support
Murena, and ordering the fifth to follow him, he hurried to the right
wing, which unaided was bravely resisting Archelaus; but as soon as
Sulla appeared, the Romans completely broke the line of Archelaus, and
pursued the barbarians in disorderly flight to the river and Mount
Akontium. However, Sulla did not leave Murena alone in his dangerous
position, but hastened to help him. Seeing, however, that the Romans
were victorious here also, he joined in the pursuit. Now many of the
barbarians were cut down in the plain, but the greatest number were
destroyed in the attempt to regain their entrenchments, and only te