put
to sea; and sent out advice-boats among the islands to procure
intelligence of every thing that was passing.

42. When Caius Livius, commander of the Roman fleet, sailed with fifty
decked ships from Rome, he went to Neapolis, where he had appointed
the rendezvous of the undecked ships, which were due by treaty from
the allies on that coast; and thence he proceeded to Sicily, where,
as he sailed through the strait beyond Messana, he was joined by six
Carthaginian ships, sent to his assistance; and then, having collected
the vessels due from the Rhegians, Locrians, and other allies, who
were bound by the same conditions, he purified the fleet at Lacinium,
and put forth into the open sea. On his arrival at Corcyra, which was
the first Grecian country where he touched, inquiring about the state
of the war, (for all matters in Greece were not yet entirely settled,)
and about the Roman fleet, he was told, that the consul and the king
were posted at the pass of Thermopylae, and that the fleet lay at
Piraeus: on which, judging expedition necessary on every account, he
sailed directly forward to Peloponnesus. Having on his passage ravaged
Samos and Zacynthus, because they favoured the party of the Aetolians,
he bent his course to Malea; and, meeting very favourable weather,
arrived in a few days at Piraeus, where he joined the old fleet. At
Scyllaeum he was met by king Eumenes, with three ships, who had
long hesitated at Aegina whether he should go home to defend his own
kingdom, on hearing that Antiochus was preparing both marine and land
forces at Ephesus; or whether he should unite himself inseparably to
the Romans, on whose destiny his own depended. Aulus Atilius, having
delivered to his successor twenty-five decked ships, sailed from
Piraeus for Rome. Livius, with eighty-one beaked ships, besides many
others of inferior rates, some of which were open and furnished with
beaks, others without beaks, fit for advice-boats, crossed over to
Delos.

43. At this time, the consul Acilius was engaged in the siege of
Naupactum. Livius was detained several days at Delos by contrary
winds, for that tract among the Cyclades, which are separated in some
places by larger straits, in others by smaller, is extremely subject
to storms. Polyxenidas, receiving intelligence from his scout-ships,
which were stationed in various places, that the Roman fleet lay at
Delos, sent off an express to the king, who, quitting the business
in which