1He had covered about half the distance when, from the smoke of his camp, a suspicion was brought to Eumenes that the enemy was approaching. 1The commanders meet: the question is what must be done. 1They all understood that their forces could not be gathered as quickly as Antigonus seemed likely to arrive. 2Here, while all were wavering and despairing of their very survival, Eumenes says that, if they are willing to use speed and carry out orders, which they had not done before, he will settle the matter. 2For the journey which the enemy could have covered in five days, he would ensure that he was delayed for no less than the same number of days: therefore they should go round, and each should gather his own forces.
3To check Antigonus' onrush he adopts the following plan. 3He sends reliable men to the foothills which lay across his opponents' route, and instructs them at nightfall to light fires as large as possible and spread as widely as they can, to reduce them in the second watch and to make them very small in the third, so that by imitating the routine of a camp they might put into the enemy's minds the suspicion that there was a camp in those places and that warning had been given of their approach; 4and that they should do the same the following night. 5Those to whom the order had been given carefully carry out the instructions.
5Antigonus, when darkness has fallen, sees the fires: he believes that his approach has been heard of and that his opponents have gathered their forces there. 6He changes his plan and, since he could not attack them unawares, turns aside from his march and takes that longer detour of the well-supplied road, and waits there for one day to relieve his soldiers' weariness and to refresh the animals, so that he might fight with a fresher army.