43. About the same time also Athenagoras, one of the king's generals,
overtaking the Dardanians in their retreat homeward, at first threw
their rear into disorder; but these unexpectedly facing about, and
forming their line, the fight became like a regular engagement. When
the Dardanians began again to advance, the Macedonian cavalry and
light infantry harassed those who had no troops of that kind to aid
them, and were, besides, burdened with unwieldy arms. The ground, too,
favoured the assailants: very few were slain, but many wounded; none
were taken, because they rarely quit their ranks, but both fight and
retreat in a close body. Thus Philip, having checked the proceedings
of those two nations by these well-timed expeditions, gained
reparation for the damages sustained from the operations of the
Romans; the enterprise being as spirited as the issue was successful.
An occurrence which accidentally happened to him lessened the number
of his enemies on the side of Aetolia. Scopas, a man of considerable
influence in his own country, having been sent from Alexandria by king
Ptolemy, with a great sum of gold, hired and carried away to Egypt six
thousand foot and four hundred horse; nor would he have suffered one
of the young Aetolians to remain at home, had not Damocritus, (it is
not easy to say, whether out of zeal for the good of the nation, or
out of opposition to Scopas, for not having secured his interest by
presents,) by sometimes reminding them of the war which threatened
them, at other times, of the solitary condition in which they would
be, detained some of them at home by severe reproaches. Such were the
actions of the Romans, and of Philip, during that summer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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