Kitap 40
22
After all the difficulties he had had to contend against during those five days, he found things just as cheerless in his camp, where they were destitute of everything. This was inevitable in a district surrounded on all sides by uninhabited country. After one day in camp to rest the men whom he had taken with him, he hastened into the Dentheletic country at a speed which resembled a flight. This people were his allies, but owing to lack of food the Macedonians plundered them as though they were on enemy soil. Not content with robbing the homesteads, they devastated some of the villages, and it was with feelings of deep shame that the king heard his allies making fruitless appeals to the gods who watch over treaties and invoking his help and protection. Carrying off a supply of corn he returned to Maedica and made an attempt on a city called Petra. He fixed his camp on a plain which extended to the city and sent Perseus with a small force to approach the place from higher ground. With danger threatening them from all sides the townsmen gave hostages and surrendered the place for the time being, but as soon as the army had withdrawn they forgot all about the hostages, deserted their city and fled to their mountain strongholds. Philip returned to Macedonia with his men worn out to no purpose by labours and hardships innumerable, and with his mind filled with suspicions of his son through the cunning and treachery of Didas.
