, and by straining at it with several
ropes, and attacked the other which had been placed by Acilius to watch
the port with several ships, on which he had raised very high turrets,
so that fighting as it were from an eminence, and sending fresh men
constantly to relieve the fatigued, and at the same time attempting the
town on all sides by land, with ladders and his fleet, in order to
divide the force of his enemies, he overpowered our men by fatigue, and
the immense number of darts, and took the ship, having beat off the men
who were put on board to defend it, who, however, made their escape in
small boats; and at the same time he seized a natural mole on the
opposite side, which almost formed an island over against the town. He
carried over land, into the inner part of the harbour, four galleys, by
putting rollers under them, and driving them on with levers. Then
attacking on both sides the ships of war which were moored to the shore,
and were not manned, he carried off four of them, and set the rest on
fire. After despatching this business, he left Decimus Laelius, whom he
had taken away from the command of the Asiatic fleet, to hinder
provisions from being brought into the town from Biblis and Amantia, and
went himself to Lissus, where he attacked thirty merchantmen, left
within the port by Antonius, and set them on fire. He attempted to storm
Lissus, but being delayed three days by the vigorous defence of the
Roman citizens who belonged to that district, and of the soldiers which
Caesar had sent to keep garrison there, and having lost a few men in the
assault, he returned without effecting his object.

XLI.--As soon as Caesar heard that Pompey was at Asparagium, he set out
for that place with his army, and having taken the capital of the
Parthinians on his march, where there was a garrison of Pompey's, he
reached Pompey in Macedonia, on the third day, and encamped beside him;
and the day following, having drawn out all his forces before his camp,
he offered Pompey battle. But perceiving that he kept within his
trenches, he led his army back to his camp, and thought of pursuing some
other plan. Accordingly, the day following, he set out with all his
forces by a long circuit, through a difficult and narrow road to
Dyrrachium; hoping, either that Pompey would be compelled to follow him
to Dyrrachium, or that his communication with it might be cut off,
because he had deposited there all his provisions and mat['e]riel of