Great Battles of the Hellenistic World by Joseph Pietrykowski

Author:Joseph Pietrykowski
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

With the advance of the allied phalanx and its covering screen of light infantry, meanwhile, the men of Antigonos’ centre were given another cause for concern. Large stretches of the Antigonid centre were largely bereft of their typical light infantry screen, these having accompanied the elephants in their deadlocked battle on the left. Rushing forward to engage the defenceless men of Antigonos’ front ranks, Seleukos’ light-armed troops poured arrows, sling bullets and javelin fire into their wavering lines. Pressed from the flank and front, large sections of Antigonos’ line now broke away, scattering as they fled in hopes of outdistancing their pursuers. The old king could only watch as his grand phalanx, one of the largest ever assembled, melted away.

Seeing his father’s line collapsing from his distant vantage, Demetrios raged and cursed, to no avail. In the end he had led his men too far to return in time to rescue his father and he knew it. Watching from behind the impenetrable screen of Seleukos’ accursed elephants, Demetrios sadly gathered his remaining cavalry and fled the field.

Down on the plain, Antigonos bitterly watched as his men fled or deserted to the enemy to avoid the catastrophe that now descended on them. Plutarch’s account of the final moments of the battle deserves to be quoted here at length:

But the old King Antigonos still kept his post, and when a strong body of the enemies drew up to charge him, and one of those about him cried out to him, ‘Sir, they are coming upon you he only replied, ‘What else should they do? But Demetrios will come to my rescue.’ And in this hope he persisted to the last, looking out on every side for his son’s approach, until he was borne down by a whole multitude of missiles, and fell. His other followers and friends fled, and Thorax of Larissa remained alone by the body.120

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