Antony

But Gabinius was afraid to make the voyage, which was difficult in the winter time, and started to lead his army a long way round by land. Antony, therefore, fearing for Caesar, who was hemmed in among numerous enemies, beat off Libo, who was blockading the harbour of Brundisium, by surrounding his galleys with a great number of small skiffs, and then, embarking eight hundred horsemen and twenty thousand legionaries, put to sea.

Being discovered by the enemy and pursued, he escaped the danger from them, since a violent south wind brought a heavy swell and put their galleys in the trough of the sea; but he was carried with his own ships towards a precipitous and craggy shore, and had no hope of escape.

Suddenly, however, there blew from the bay a strong south-west wind, and the swell began to run from the land out to sea, so that he was able to reverse his course, and, as he sailed gallantly along, he saw the shore covered with wrecks. For there the wind had cast up the galleys which were in pursuit of him, and many of them had been destroyed. Antony took many prisoners and much booty, captured Lissus, and inspired Caesar with great confidence by arriving in the nick of time with so large a force.

The struggles which followed were many and continuous, and in all of them Antony distinguished himself. Twice, when Caesar’s men were in headlong flight, he met them, turned them back, forced them to stand and engage again their pursuers, and won the victory.

Accordingly, next to Caesar, he was the man most talked about in the camp. And Caesar showed plainly what opinion he had of him. For when he was about to fight the last and all-decisive battle at Pharsalus, he himself took the right wing, but he gave the command of the left to Antony, as the most capable officer under him.

And after the victory, when he had been proclaimed dictator, he himself pursued Pompey, but he chose Antony as his Master of Horse and sent him to Rome. This office is second in rank when the dictator is in the city; but when he is absent, it is the first and almost the only one. For only the tribuneship continues when a dictator has been chosen; all the other offices are abolished.