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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 this body was routed some of the Romans pursued the fugitives, while others charged the victorious Macedonians in flank, soon forcing them to break up their array and fly in confusion, throwing away their arms. There fell no less than eight thousand of them, and five thousand were taken prisoners.
Therefore, that they might not give their enemies a hold by their hair, they cut it in this manner. They write also that this was the reason why Alexander gave command to his captains that all the beards of the Macedonians should be shaved, as being the readiest hold for an enemy.
It was resolved that the Macedonians should be brought before the senate first.
And now, a second time, in our own hour, the two have drawn close and confronted each other. Once again, a fusion has taken place. We are to-day in the midst of a movement likely to surpass the period of Hellenization in duration and extent. This time, perhaps, no dramatic march of Macedonians to the banks of the Indus has served to make the connection.
Demetrius had completely alienated his own subjects by his proud and haughty bearing, and by his lavish expenditure on his own luxuries; while Pyrrhus by his generosity, affability, and daring courage, had become the hero of the Macedonians, who looked upon him as a second Alexander.
The principal castes in India, the principles of the Bramins, the devotion of widows to the flames, the description of the banyan-tree, and a great variety of other particulars, sufficiently prove that the Macedonians were actuated by a thirst after knowledge, as well as a spirit of conquest; and illustrate as well as justify the observation made to Alexander by the Bramin mandarin, "You are the only man whom I ever found curious in the investigation of philosophy at the head of an army."
Certain it is, that apprehending the Macedonians would be weary of pursuing the war, he left the greater part of them in their quarters; and having with him in Hyrcania the choice of his men only, amounting to twenty thousand foot, and three thousand horse, he spoke to them to this effect: That hitherto the barbarians had seen them no otherwise than as it were in a dream, and if they should think of returning when they had only alarmed Asia, and not conquered it, their enemies would set upon them as upon so many women.
The Macedonians, and others, in the king's camp, as long as, on account of the distance, they could distinguish nothing more than a body of men in motion, thought they were the Aetolians, who, on seeing the fight, were coming to their aid.
These Macedonians, unable to take the field against so numerous an invader, shut themselves up in such strong places and fortresses as the country possessed.
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