equal to a man. Against the Taurisci and Iapudes
and Dalmatians and Pannonians you yourselves now before me battled most
zealously and frequently for some few walls and desert land; you subdued
all of them though they are admittedly a most warlike race; and, by
Jupiter, against Sextus also, for Sicily merely, and against this very
Antony, for Mutina merely, you carried on a similar struggle, so that
you came out victorious over both. And now will you show any less zeal
against a woman whose plots concern all your possessions, and against
her husband, who has distributed to her children all your property, and
against their noble associates and table companions whom they themselves
stigmatize as 'privy' councillors? Why should you? Because of their
number? But no number of persons can conquer valour. Because of their
race? But they have practiced carrying burdens rather than warfare.
Because of their experience? But they know better how to row than how
to fight at sea. I, for my part, am really ashamed that we are going to
contend with such creatures, by vanquishing whom we shall gain no glory,
whereas if we are defeated we shall be disgraced.

[-29-] "And surely you must not think that the size of their vessels or
the thickness of the timbers of their ships is a match for our valour.
What ship ever by itself either wounded or killed anybody? Will they not
by their very height and staunchness be more difficult for their rowers
to move and less obedient to their pilots? Of what use can they possibly
be to the fighting men on board of them, when these men can employ
neither frontal assault nor flank attack, manoeuvres which you know are
essential in naval contests? For surely they do not intend to employ
infantry tactics against us on the sea, nor on the other hand are they
prepared to shut themselves up as it were in wooden walls and undergo a
siege, since that would be decidedly to our advantage--I mean assaulting
wooden barriers. For if their ships remain in the same place, as if
fastened there, it will be possible for us to rip them open with our
beaks, it will be possible, too, to damage them with our engines from
a distance, and also possible to burn them to the water's edge with
incendiary missiles; and if they do venture to stir from their place,
they will not overtake anyone by pursuing nor escape by fleeing, since
they are so heavy that they are entirely too inert to inflict any damage,
and so huge that they are e