26. Many Roman fleets had set sail from Sicily, and from that very
harbour. But not only during this war, nor is that surprising, (for
most of the fleets went out for the purpose of getting plunder,) but
even in any former war, never did a fleet on setting out exhibit
so grand a spectacle. And yet, if the estimate is to be formed with
reference to the magnitude of the fleet, it must be owned that two
consuls with their armies had passed from thence before, and there
were almost as many ships of war in those fleets as the transports
with which Scipio was crossing. For, besides fifty men of war, he
conveyed his army over in four hundred transports. But what made the
Romans consider one war as more formidable than the other, the second
than the first, was, that it was carried on in Italy, and that so many
armies had been destroyed, and their commanders slain. The general,
Scipio, also, who enjoyed the highest degree of renown, partly
from his brave achievements, and partly from a peculiar felicity of
fortune, which conducted him to the acquisition of boundless glory,
attracted extraordinary regard. At the same time, the very project of
passing over into the enemy's country, which had not been formed
by any general before during that war, had made him an object of
admiration; for he had commonly declared, that he passed over with the
object of drawing Hannibal out of Italy, of removing the seat of war
into Africa, and terminating it there. A crowd of persons of every
description had assembled in the harbour to view the spectacle; not
only the inhabitants of Lilybaeum, but all the deputies from Sicily,
who had come together out of compliment to witness the departure
of Scipio, and had followed Marcus Pomponius, the praetor of the
province. Besides these, the legions which were to be left in Sicily
had come forth to do honour to their comrades on the occasion; and not
only did the fleet form a grand sight to those who viewed it from the
land, but the shore also, crowded as it was all around, afforded the
same to those who were sailing away.

27. As soon as day appeared, silence having been obtained by a herald,
Scipio thus spoke from the ship of the commander-in-chief: "Ye gods
and goddesses who preside over the seas and lands, I pray and entreat
you, that whatever things have been, are now, or shall be performed
during my command, may turn out prosperously to myself, the state, and
commons of Rome, to the allies and the Lati