Aemilius, like a pilot, seeing by the
motion and disturbance of his camp that a storm was at hand, came out of
his tent, and going along the lines of the infantry spoke encouraging
words to them, while Nasica, riding up to the skirmishers, saw the whole
army of the enemy just on the point of attacking. First marched the
Thracians, whose aspect they saw was most terrible, as they were tall
men, dressed in dark tunics, with large oblong shields and greaves of
glittering white, brandishing aloft long heavy swords over their right
shoulders. Next to the Thracians were the mercenaries, variously armed,
and mixed with Paeonians. After these came a third corps, of
Macedonians, picked men of proved courage, and in the flower of their
age, glittering with gilded arms and new purple dresses. Behind them
again came the phalanxes from the camp with their brazen shields,
filling all the plain with the glittering of their armour, and making
the hills ring with their shouts. So swiftly and boldly did they advance
that those who were first slain fell two furlongs only from the Roman
camp.
XIX. When the battle began, Aemilius came up, and found the front ranks
of the Macedonians had struck their spear-heads into the Roman shields,
so that they could not reach them with their swords. When also the other
Macedonians took their shields off their shoulders and placed them in
front, and then at the word of command all brought down their pikes, he,
viewing the great strength of that serried mass of shields, and the
menacing look of the spears that bristled before them, was amazed and
terrified, having never seen a more imposing spectacle--and often
afterwards he used to speak of that sight, and of his own feelings at
it.
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