Kitap 35
27
He then assembled the army of the league at Tegea and also convened a special meeting of the Achaeans and their allies at which the leading men from Epirus and Acarnania were present. As his troops were now sufficiently recovered from the humiliation of their naval defeat and the enemy were correspondingly depressed he decided to march on Lacedaemon, as that seemed the only means of drawing off the enemy from the siege of Gytheum. His first halt on enemy territory was at Caryae, and on the very day he encamped here Gytheum was taken. Unaware of what had happened he continued his advance as far as Barnosthenes, a mountain ten miles distant from Lacedaemon. After taking Gytheum Nabis returned with his army equipped for rapid marching, and hurrying past Lacedaemon he seized a position known as Pyrrhus' Camp, which he felt quite certain that the Achaeans were making for. From there he advanced to meet them. Owing to the narrowness of the road they extended in a column nearly five miles long. The cavalry and the greater part of the auxiliary troops were in the hinder part of the column, as Philopoemen thought that the tyrant would probably attack his rear with the mercenaries, on whom he mainly depended. Two unexpected circumstances occurred which gave Philopoemen cause for anxiety; the position he had hoped to secure was already occupied and he saw that the enemy were intending to attack the head of the column. He did not see how it was possible for his hoplites to advance in battle order over such broken ground without the support of the light troops.
