articularly of Rhodes, was prepared to
transport Sylla's army from Sestos to Asia; and Mithridates, from fear,
made peace.

In the second and third wars, respectively conducted by Murena and
Lucullus, there were no descents effected. Mithridates, driven step by
step into Colchis, and no longer able to keep the sea, conceived the
project of turning the Black Sea by the Caucasus, in order to pass
through Thrace to assume the offensive,--a policy which it is difficult
to understand, in view of the fact that he was unable to defend his
kingdom against fifty thousand Romans.

Caesar, in his second descent on England, had six hundred vessels,
transporting forty thousand men. During the civil wars he transported
thirty-five thousand men to Greece. Antony came from Brundusium to join
him with twenty thousand men, and passed through the fleet of
Pompey,--in which act he was as much favored by the lucky star of Caesar
as by the arrangements of his lieutenants.

Afterward Caesar carried an army of sixty thousand men to Africa; they
did not, however, go in a body, but in successive detachments.

The greatest armament of the latter days of the Roman republic was that
of Augustus, who transported eighty thousand men and twelve thousand
horses into Greece to oppose Antony; for, besides the numerous
transports required for such an army, there were two hundred and sixty
vessels of war to protect them. Antony was superior in force on land,
but trusted the empire of the world to a naval battle: he had one
hundred and seventy war-vessels, in addition to sixty of Cleopatra's
galleys, the whole manned by twenty-two thousand choice troops, besides
the necessary rowers.

Later, Germanicus conducted an expedition of one thousand vessels,
carrying sixty thousand men, from the mouths of the Rhine to the mouths
of the Ems. Half of this fleet was destroyed on its return by a storm;
and it is difficult to understand why Germanicus, controlling both banks
of the Rhine, should have exposed his army to the chances of the sea,
when he could have reached the same point by land in a few days.

When the Roman authority extended from the Rhine to the Euphrates,
maritime expeditions were rare; and the great contest with the races of
the North of Europe, which began after the division of the empire, gave
employment to the Roman armies on the sides of Germany and Thrace. The
eastern fraction of the empire still maintained a powerful navy, which
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