Book 44
27
It was quite clear to every one that the only thing the king was afraid of was having to pay such a large host, and as no one had the courage to attempt to dissuade him, Antigonus was sent back to say that the king would only employ 5000 of their cavalry and would not detain the rest. When the barbarians heard this, there were murmurs of indignation from the rest of the army at having been called away from their homes to no purpose. Claudicus again enquired whether he would pay the stipulated sum to the 5000. He detected something evasive in the answer and sent the crafty messenger back unhurt-treatment which the man himself hardly ventured to hope for. The Gauls returned to the Hister, devastating those parts of Thrace which lay near their line of march. This band might have been led against the Romans through the mountain pass of Perrhaebia into Thessaly while the king remained quiet at the Elpeus, and could not only have plundered and stripped the fields so that the Romans could have looked for no supplies from those districts, but also have utterly destroyed the cities to prevent their affording any assistance to their allies, while Perseus was holding the Romans at the Elpeus. The Romans would have had to think of their own safety, for they could not have stayed where they were when Thessaly which fed their army was lost, nor could they have made any advance with the camp of the Macedonians in front of them. By losing such an opportunity Perseus encouraged the Romans and discouraged to a great extent the Macedonians who had hung their hopes on his taking advantage of it.
