Kitap 44
4
Hippias had recently been sent by the king to guard the pass, and as soon as he caught sight of the Roman camp on the hill he prepared his men for battle and marched to meet the enemy's column as it advanced. The Romans went into the fight in light equipment; the enemy force, too, consisted of light infantry; these troops are the readiest to commence an action. When the two bodies met they at once discharged their missiles; many wounds were inflicted in their random charges, a few were killed. The following day they engaged in a more exasperated temper and in great strength, and had there been more space in which to deploy their lines a decisive action might have been fought. The summit of the mountain narrows into a wedge-shaped ridge which hardly allows a front to be formed of three men abreast. So while the actual fighting was carried on by a few, the rest, especially the heavy infantry, stood and watched it. The light infantry were able to run forward through the dips in the ridge and attack the flanks of the enemy's light infantry, both where the ground was favourable and where it was not. Night put an end to the battle in which more had been wounded than killed.
