Book 32
13
On the first day of his retreat the king reached a place called Pyrrhus' Camp in Molossian Triphylia. The next day he gained the Lycnon range, a tremendous march for his army, but their fears urged them on. This range is in Epirus and divides it from Macedonia on the north and Thessaly on the east. The mountain sides are clothed with dense forests and the summits form a wide table-land with perennial streams. Here the king remained encamped for several days, unable to make up his mind whether to go straight back to his kingdom or whether it would be possible for him first to make an incursion into Thessaly. He decided to march his army down into Thessaly and proceeded by the nearest route to Tricca, from which place he visited the surrounding cities in rapid succession. The men who were able to follow him were compelled to quit their homes and the towns were burnt. All the property they could carry with them they were allowed to take away, the rest became the booty of the soldiers. There was no cruelty that they could have suffered from an enemy greater than that which they experienced from their allies. These measures were extremely distasteful to Philip, but as the country would soon be in possession of the enemy he was determined to keep the persons, at all events, of his allies out of their hands. The towns which were thus devastated were Phacium, Iresiae, Euhydrium, Eretria and Palaepharsalus. At Pherae the gates were closed against him, and as a siege would have caused considerable delay and he had no time to lose, he gave up the attempt and marched into Macedonia.
