The
whole army learned the cause of his sorrow and perplexity, and quitting
their suppers, ran about with torches, some to the tent of Aemilius, and
some outside the camp to look for him among the corpses. The whole camp
was filled with sorrow, and all the plain with noise, covered as it was
with men shouting for Scipio--for he had won all hearts from the very
beginning, having beyond all his kinsfolk the power of commanding the
affections of men. Very late at night, after he had been all but given
up for lost, he came in with two or three comrades, covered with the
blood of the enemies he had slain, having, like a well-bred hound, been
thoughtlessly carried along by the joy of the chase. This was that
Scipio who afterwards took by storm Carthage and Numantia, and became by
far the most famous and powerful of all the Romans of his time. So
fortune, deferring to another season the expression of her jealousy at
his success, now permitted Aemilius to take an unalloyed pleasure in his
victory.
XXIII. Perseus fled from Pydna to Pella, his cavalry having, as one
would expect, all got safe out of the action. But when the infantry met
them, they abused them as cowards and traitors, and began to push them
from their horses and deal them blows, and so Perseus, terrified at the
disturbance, forsook the main road, and to avoid detection took off his
purple robe and laid it before him, and carried his crown in his hand;
and, that he might talk to his friends as he walked, he got off his
horse, and led him.
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