Zeno's Description Implausible
Next he says that "the phalanx, outmatched in
agility and forced backwards by the Aetolians, retired step
by step, while the elephants received the retreating line, and
did great service in charging the enemy." But how the
elephants got on the rear of the phalanx it is not easy to
understand, or how, if they had got there, they could have
done good service. For as soon as the two lines were once
at close quarters, the animals would no longer have been able
to distinguish friend from foe among those that came in their
way. Again, he says that "the Aetolian cavalry were thrown
into a panic during the engagement, because they were unaccustomed to the look of the elephants." But, by his own
account, the cavalry which was originally stationed on the
right wing remained unbroken; while the other division of
the cavalry, that on the right wing, had all fled before the
successful attack of Antiochus. What portion of the cavalry
was it, then, that was on the centre of the phalanx, and was
terrified by the elephants? And where was the king, or what
part did he take in the battle, seeing that he had with him
the very flower of the infantry and cavalry? For not a word
has been told us about these. And where was the elder
of the young Antiochi, who, with a division of the troops, occupied the high ground? For this prince is not represented even
as returning to his quarters after the battle. And very naturally so. For Zeno started by assuming two sons of the king
named Antiochus, whereas there was only one in the army
on that occasion. How comes it, again, that according to
him, Scopas returned first and also last from the field? For
he says: "when he saw the younger Antiochus, after returning from the pursuit, on the rear of his phalanx,
and accordingly gave up all hopes of victory, he retired." But afterwards
he says that "he sustained the most imminent peril when his
phalanx got surrounded by the elephants and cavalry, and
was the last man to retire from the field."
