Livy and the Gladius vs Macedonians

[Bryan]

According to Livy, Macedonians were used to seeing nice neat puncture wounds, not body parts strewn all over the battlefield. It seems to be part of the prejudice that the Romans had towards the Greeks - i.e. that they were girly sissies who can't fight like "real men".

Interesting. So Livy may not have been as even-handed as Thucydides? I couldn't imagine the levels of gore being that different from spear wounds and sword wounds.

Its not spear vs sword. Its thrust vs cut. A deadly thrust can actually produce a little bit of blood oozing from a small slit in the skin (with more blood pooling inside the body). With a cut though, it can mean severing a large amount of flesh, to the bone or beyond. Lots and lots of blood, exposed flesh and innards. Bones visible. It really looks worst than it is, in many ways. Then there are decapitations, which are pretty brutal, amputations of limbs, and disembowelment. Cutting weapons produce nastier looking deaths than thrusting wounds. 

Livy's story is that Philip decided to parade the bodies of those killed in the skirmish with Roman cavalry in front of the rest of his army to harden them and get them fired up for vengeance. Instead, according to Livy, because the wounds were so severe looking they were frightened instead.