[88] The next morning, when Octavius looked out upon the water, he beheld some of his ships burned, others partly burned, others still burning, and others broken in pieces; and the sea filled with sails, rudders, and furniture, while, of the ships that were saved, the greater part were damaged. Having ranged the fleet of Calvisius in front, he made repairs on those of his vessels that most needed them, turning them on their sides,1 the enemy meantime remaining quiet, either because they feared Calvisius, or because they had decided to attack again in the open sea. Thus they remained on either side until midday, when a south wind burst upon them, raising violent billows in that surging and confined channel. Pompeius was then inside the harbor of Messana. The ships of Octavius were again shattered on the rough and inhospitable coast, dashing against the rocks and against each other, for, as they were not fully manned, they were not under good control.
1 ἐπεσκεύαζε τὰ ἐπείγοντα τῶν σκαφῶν πλαγιάσας. Schweighäuser's Latin version renders this: "He repaired those which especially required attention, sailing in the meantime near the shore on an oblique course." Yet in a note on this passage he inclines to the opinion that πλαγιάσας means, not sailing obliquely, but turning the ships on their sides -- a more rational method of making repairs. The Didot edition adheres to the former rendering.
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.