towers were a help, but charges straight ahead furthered
the progress of the second, and the strength of Caesar's marines was
matched by the daring of their antagonists; for the majority of them,
being deserters from Italy, were quite desperate. As a result, possessing
the mutual advantages and deficiencies which I have mentioned, they had
equal power contributed by their evenly balanced equipment, and so their
contest was close for a very long period. The followers of Sextus alarmed
their opponents by the way they dashed up the waves: and they knocked
holes in some ships by assailing them with a rush and bursting open the
parts outside the oars, but as they were struck from the towers in the
combat and brought alongside by grappling irons, they suffered no less
harm than they inflicted. The Caesarians, also, when they came into close
conflict and had crossed over to the hostile ships, proved superior; but
as the enemy leaped out into the sea whenever the boats sank, and by
their swimming well and being lightly equipped succeeded easily in
climbing upon others, the attackers were at a corresponding disadvantage.
Meantime the rapidity with which the ships of the one party could sail
proved an offset to the solidity of those on the other side, and the
heaviness of the latter counterbalanced the agility of the former. [-4-]
Late in the day, near nightfall, Caesar's party finally conquered,
but instituted no pursuit: the reason as it appears to me and may be
conjectured from probability was that they could not overtake the fleeing
ships and were afraid of running aground in the shallows, with which they
were unacquainted, near the coast. Some say that Agrippa because he was
battling for Caesar and not for himself thought it sufficient merely to
rout his adversaries. For he had been in the habit of saying to his most
intimate associates that the majority of those holding sovereign power
wish no one to display more ability than themselves; and that they
attended personally to nearly all such matters as afford them a conquest
without effort, but assign the less favorable and more complicated
business to others. And if they ever are forced to entrust some choice
enterprise to their assistants, they are irritated and displeased at the
latter's renown. They do not pray that these subordinates may be defeated
and fare badly, yet they do not choose to have them win a complete
success and secure glory from it. His advice therefore was