In one column marched the mercenary soldiers and light infantry; in the other, the shield-bearers of the Achaeans and other states, who composed the principal strength of the army.

Both infantry and cavalry were now within a small distance of the camp, and some of the Thracians had attacked parties of the enemy, who were straggling and scattered over the country, when the sudden alarm reached their tents.

The commander was thrown into the utmost perplexity; for, having never had a sight of the Achaeans, except occasionally on the hills before Sicyon, when they did not venture to come down into the plains, he had never imagined that they would come so far as Cleone.

He ordered the stragglers to be recalled by sound of trumpet; commanded the soldiers to take arms with all haste; and, marching out of the gate at the head of thin battalions, drew up his line on the bank of the river.

His other troops, having scarcely had time to be collected and formed, did not withstand the enemy's first onset; the Macedonians had surrounded their standards in by far the greatest numbers, and now kept the prospect of victory a long time doubtful.