Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/167

 STRATAGEMS, II. iii. 20-22

the enemy after him on to rough ground, which lie liad selected with this in view. When even then the enemy, suspecting liis ruse in retiring, followed in good order, he commanded the cavalry on the left wing to ride at full speed past the front of the phalanx, covering themselves with their shields, in order that the points of the enemy's spears might be broken by the shock of their encounter with the shields. When the Macedonians were deprived of their spears, they broke and fled.^

Pyrrhus, when fighting in defence of the Taren- tines near Asculum, following the Homeric verse,- according to which the poorest troops are placed in the centre, stationed Samnites and Epirotes on the right flank, Bruttians, Lucanians, and Sallentines on the left, with the Tarentines in the centre, ordering the cavalry and elephants to be held as reserves.

The consuls, on the other hand, very judiciously distributed their cavalry on the wings, posting legionary soldiers in the first line and in i-eserve, with auxiliary troops scattered among them. Ve are informed that there were forty thousand men on each side. Half of Pyrrhus's army was lost ; on the Roman side only five thousand.^

In the battle against Caesar at Old Pharsalus,'* Gnaeus Pompey drew up three lines of battle, each one ten men deep, stationing on the wings and in the centre the legions upon whose prowess he could most safely rely, and filling the spaces between these with raw recruits. On the right flank he placed six hundred horsemen, along the Enipeus River, which with its channel and deposits had made the locality impassable ; the rest of the cavalry he stationed on the left, together with the auxiliary

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