The consular army had, by this time, been conducted from Arretium to Ariminum, and the five thousand Latin confederates had crossed from Gaul into Etruria. Lucius Furius, therefore, advanced from Ariminum, by forced marches, against the Gauls, who were then besieging Cremona, and pitched his camp at the distance of one mile and a half from the enemy. Furius had an opportunity of performing a splendid exploit, had he, without halting, led his troops directly to attack their camp; scattered hither and thither, they were wandering through the country; and the guard, which they had left, was not sufficiently strong; but he was apprehensive that his men were too much fatigued by their hasty march. The Gauls, recalled from the fields by the shouts of their party, returned to the camp without seizing the booty within their reach, and, next day, marched out to offer battle. The Roman did not decline the combat, but had scarcely time to draw up his forces, so rapidly did the enemy advance to the fight. The right brigade (for he had the troops of the allies divided into brigades) was placed in the first line, the two Roman legions in reserve. Marcus Furius was at the head of the right brigade, Marcus Caecilius of the legions, and Lucius Valerius Flaccus of the cavalry; these were all lieutenant-generals. Two other lieutenant-generals, Cneius Laetorius and Publius Titinnius, the praetor kept near himself, that, with their assistance, he might observe and take proper measures against all sudden attempts of the enemy. At first, the Gauls, bending their whole force to one point, were in hopes of being able to overwhelm, and trample under foot, the right brigade, which was in the van; but not succeeding, they endeavoured to turn round the flanks, and to surround their enemy's line, which, considering the multitude of their forces, and the small number of the others, seemed easy to be done. On observing this, the praetor, in order to extend his own line, brought up the two legions from the reserve, and placed them on the right and left of the brigade which was engaged in the van; vowing a temple to Jupiter, if he should rout the enemy on that day. To Lucius Valerius he gave orders, to make the horsemen of the two legions on one flank, and the cavalry of the allies on the other, charge the wings of the enemy, and not suffer them to come round to his rear. At the same time, observing that the centre of the line of the Gauls was weakened, from having extended the wings, he directed his men to make an attack there in close order, and to break through their ranks. The wings were routed by the cavalry, and, at the same time, the centre by the foot; and suddenly, being worsted in all parts with great slaughter, the Gauls turned their backs, and fled to their camp in hurry and confusion. The cavalry pursued them as they fled; and the legions, coming up in a short time after, assaulted the camp, from whence there did not escape so many as six thousand men. There were slain and taken above thirty-five thousand, with seventy standards, and above two hundred Gallic waggons laden with much booty. Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general, fell in that battle, and three distinguished generals of the Gauls. The prisoners taken at Placentia, to the number of two thousand freemen, were restored to the colony.
22
This was an important victory, and caused great joy at Rome. On receipt of the praetor's letter, a supplication for three days was decreed. In that battle, there fell of the Romans and allies two thousand, most of them in the right brigade, against which, in the first onset, the most violent efforts of the enemy had been directed. Although the praetor had brought the war almost to a conclusion, yet the consul, Cneius Aurelius, having finished the business which was necessary to be done at Rome, set out for Gaul, and received the victorious army from the praetor. The other consul, arriving in his province towards the end of autumn, passed the winter in the neighbourhood of Apollonia. Caius Claudius, and the Roman triremes which had been sent to Athens from the fleet that was laid up at Corcyra, as was mentioned above, arriving at Piraeeus, greatly revived the hopes of their allies, who were beginning to give way to despair. For not only did those inroads by land cease, which used to be made from Corinth through Megara, but the ships of the pirates from Chalcis, who had been accustomed to infest both the Athenian sea and coast, were afraid not only to venture round the promontory of Sunium, but even to trust themselves out of the straits of the Euripus. In addition to these came three quadriremes from Rhodes, the Athenians having three open ships, which they had equipped for the protection of their lands on the coast. While Claudius thought, that if he were able with his fleet to give security to the Athenians it was as much as could be expected at present, a fortunate opportunity was thrown in his way of accomplishing a much more important enterprise.
23
Some exiles driven from Chalcis, by ill treatment received from the king's party, brought intelligence, that the place might be taken without even a contest; for that both the Macedonians, being under no immediate apprehension from an enemy, were straying idly about the country; and that the townsmen, depending on the Macedonian garrison, neglected the guard of the city. Claudius, on this authority, set out and though he arrived at Sunium early enough to have sailed forward to the entrance of the strait of Euboea, yet fearing that, on doubling the promontory, he might be descried by the enemy, he lay by with the fleet until night. As soon as it grew dark he began to move, and, favoured by a calm, arrived at Chalcis a little before day; and then, approaching the city, on a side where it was thinly inhabited, with a small party of soldiers, and by means of scaling ladders, he got possession of the nearest tower, and the wall on each side; the guards being asleep in some places, and in others no one being on the watch. Thence they advanced to the more populous parts of the town, and having slain the sentinels, and broke open a gate, they gave an entrance to the main body of the troops. These immediately spread themselves throughout the whole city, and increased the tumult by setting fire to the buildings round the forum, by which means both the granaries belonging to the king, and his armoury, with a vast store of machines and engines, were reduced to ashes. Then commenced a general slaughter of those who fled, as well as of those who made resistance; and after having either put to the sword or driven out every one who was of an age fit to bear arms, (Sopater also, the Acarnanian, who commanded the garrison, being slain,) they first collected all the spoils in the forum, and then carried it on board the ships. The prison, too, was forced open by the Rhodians, and those prisoners whom Philip had shut up there, as in the safest custody, were set at liberty. They next pulled down and mutilated the statues of the king; and then, on a signal being given for a retreat, re-embarked and returned to Piraeeus, from whence they had set out. If there had been so large a force of Roman soldiers that Chalcis might have been retained and the protection of Athens not neglected, Chalcis and Euripus might have been taken from the king;--a most important advantage at the commencement of the war. For as the pass of Thermopylae is the principal barrier of Greece by land, so is the strait of the Euripus by sea.
24