As the two armies clashed, the battle soon into a difficult slogging match for both sides.
At the start of the battle, the legionaries had thrown their pilla and charged as they had been trained, managing to cause some casualties and even take some of the initiative, pushing back the phalanx army back a bit.
But soon the Tibians recovered and counterattacked, restoring the front lines, and turning the whole battle into one of attrition.
And the main contents of this attrition played itself in the center, where the bulk of the action was taking place.
There Tibias attacked with 32,000 men under their king Perseus, out of which 29,000 were heavy infantry and 3,000 light skirmishers who doubled as missile troops.
While for Menes, his center was much stronger, grouped into eight legions and placed in two rows, there were a total of 40,000 troops.
Just the center of the army stretched 2 kilometers.