Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/226

 218 ANTONY. to bid him be of good courage, passed forwards, having already, it would seem, no very sure hopes, since when the masters proposed leaving the sails behind them, he commanded they should be put aboard, " For we must not," said he, " let one enemy escape." That day and the three following the sea was so rough they could not engage. But on the fifth there was a calm, and they fought ; Antony commanding with PubU- cola the right, and Coelius the left squadron, Marcus Octa- vius and Marcus Insteius the centre. Cassar gave the charge of the left to Agrippa, commanding in person on the right As for the land-forces, Canidius was general for Antony, Taurus for Csesar ; both armies remaining drawn up in order along the shore. Antony in a small boat went from one ship to another, encouraging his soldiers, and bidding them stand firm, and fight as steadily on their large ships as if they were on land. The masters he ordered that they should receive the enemy lying still as if they were at anchor, and maintain the entrance of the port, which was a narrow and difficult passage. Of C^sar they relate, that, leaving his tent and going round, while it was yet dark, to asit the ships, he met a man driving an ass, and asked him his name. He answered him that his own name was " Fortunate, and my ass," says he, " is called Conqueror." * And afterwards, when he disposed the beaks of the ships in that place in token of his victory, the statue of this man and his ass in bronze were placed amongst them. After examining the rest of his fleet, he went in a boat to the right wing, and looked with much admiration at the enemy lying perfectly still in the straits, in all appearance as if they had been at anchor. For some considerable length of time he actually thought they were so, and kept his own ships at rest, at a distance of • Eutychus the name of the man, and Nicon that of the ass.