(and even continued their flight from thence on seeing the victorious enemy mounting the ramparts,) the king might have been deprived of his camp.  But as some forces of infantry had remained in the camp, fresh and free from fatigue, with outposts before the gates, and guard properly disposed, what would he have done but imitated the rashness of which the king had just now been guilty, by pursuing the routed horse?  On the other side, the king’s first plan of an attack on the foragers, while dispersed through the fields, would not have been a subject of censure, could he have satisfied himself with a moderate degree of success:  and it is the less surprising that he should have made a trial of fortune, as there was a report, that Pleuratus and the Dardanians had set out from home with very numerous forces, and had already passed into Macedonia; so that if he should be surrounded on all sides by these forces, there was reason to think that the Roman might put an end to the war without stirring from his seat.  Philip, however, considered, that after his cavalry had been defeated in two engagements, he could with much less safety continue in the same post; accordingly, wishing to remove from thence, and, at the same time, to keep the enemy in ignorance of his design, he sent a herald to the consul a little before sun-set, to demand a truce for the purpose of burying the horsemen; and thus imposing on him, he began his march in silence, about the second watch, leaving a number of fires in all parts of his camp.

39.  The consul was now taking refreshment, when he was told that the herald had arrived, and on what business; he gave him no other answer, than that he should be admitted to an audience early the next morning:  by which means Philip gained what he wanted—­the length of that night, and part of the following day, during which he might get the start on his march.  He directed his route towards the mountains, a road which he knew the Romans with their heavy baggage would not attempt.  The consul, having, at the first light, dismissed the herald with a grant of a truce, in a short time after discovered that the enemy had gone off; but not knowing what course to take in pursuit of them, he remained in the same camp for several days, which he employed in collecting forage.  He then marched to Stubera, and brought thither, from Pelagonia, the corn that was in the fields.  From thence he advanced to Pluvina, not having yet discovered to what quarter the Macedonian had bent his course.  Philip, having at first fixed his camp at Bryanium, marched thence through cross-roads, and gave a sudden alarm to the enemy.  The Romans, on this, removed from Pluvina, and pitched their camp near the river Osphagus.  The king also sat down at a small distance, forming his intrenchment on the bank of a river which the inhabitants call Erigonus.  Having there received certain information that the Romans intended to proceed to Eordaea, he marched away before them, in order to take possession of the