18.  About this time, fortune, depressing the same party in every quarter at once, the Rhodians, in order to recover from Phillip the tract on the continent called Peraea, which had been in possession of their ancestors, sent thither their praetor, Pausistratus, with eight hundred Achaean foot, and about one thousand nine hundred men, made up of auxiliaries of various nations.  These were Gauls, Nisuetans, Pisuetans, Tamians Areans from Africa, and Laodiceans from Asia.  With this force Pausistratus seized by surprise Tendeba, in the territory of Stratonice, a place exceedingly convenient for his purpose, without the knowledge of the king’s troops who had held it.  A reinforcement of one thousand Achaean foot and one hundred horse, called out for the same expedition, came up at the very time, under a commander called Theoxenus.  Dinocrates, the king’s general, with design to recover the fort, marched his army first to Tendeba, and then to another fort called Astragon, which also stood in the territory of Stratonice.  Then, calling in all the garrisons, which were scattered in many different places, and the Thessalian auxiliaries from Stratonice itself, he led them on to Alabanda, where the enemy lay.  The Rhodians were no way averse from a battle, and the camps being pitched near each other both parties immediately came into the field.  Dinocrates placed five hundred Macedonians on his right wing, and the Agrians on his left; the centre he formed of the troops which he had drawn together out of the garrisons of the forts; these were mostly Carians; and he covered the flanks with the cavalry, and the Cretan and Thracian auxiliaries.  The Rhodians had on the right wing the Achaeans; on the left mercenary soldiers; and in the centre a chosen band of infantry, a body of auxiliaries composed of troops of various nations.  The cavalry and what light infantry they had, were posted on the wings.  During that day both armies remained on the banks of a rivulet, which ran between them, and, after discharging a few javelins, they retired into their camps.  Next day, being drawn up in the same order, they fought a more important battle than could have been expected, considering the numbers engaged; for there were not more than three thousand infantry on each side, and about one hundred horse:  but they were not only on an equality with respect to numbers, and the kind of arms which they used, but they also fought with equal spirit and equal hopes.  First, the Achaeans crossing the rivulet, made an attack on the Agrians; then the whole line passed the river, almost at full speed.  The fight continued doubtful a long time:  the Achaeans, one thousand in number, drove back the four hundred from their position.  Then the left wing giving way, all exerted themselves against the right.  On the Macedonians no impression could be made, so long as their phalanx preserved its order, each man clinging as it were to another:  but when, in consequence of their flank being left exposed,