tained Octavian and Antony on board his own
galley. When the banquet was at its height, a Greek named Menas, or
Menodorus, one of Pompey's captains, whispered to him, "Shall I cut off
the anchors of the ship, and make you master of the Roman world?" To
which Pompey made the well-known reply, "You ought to have done it
without asking me." The two Triumvirs, on their return to Rome, were
received with shouts of applause. The civil wars seemed to have come to
an end (B.C. 39).

Antony, with Octavia, returned to the East, where he found that his
legate Ventidius had gained the most brilliant success over the
Parthians. This man was a native of Picenum, and originally a
mule-driver. He was taken prisoner in the Social War, and walked in
chains in the triumphal procession of Pompeius Strato. He was made
Tribune of the Plebs by Julius Caesar, and was raised to the Consulship
in B.C. 43. In the Parthian War he displayed military abilities of no
ordinary kind. He first defeated Labienus, took him prisoner in Cilicia,
and put him to death. He then entered Syria, and drove Pacorus beyond
the Euphrates. In the following year (B.C. 38) the Parthians again
entered Syria, but Ventidius gained a signal victory over them, and
Pacorus himself fell in the battle.

The treaty between Sextus Pompey and the Triumvirs did not last long.
Antony refused to give up Achaia, and Pompey therefore recommenced his
piratical excursions. The price of provisions at Rome immediately rose,
and Octavian found it necessary to commence war immediately; but his
fleet was twice defeated by Pompey, and was at last completely destroyed
by a storm (B.C. 38). This failure only proved the necessity of making
still more extensive preparations to carry on the war with success. The
power of Octavian was insecure as long as Pompey was master of the sea,
and could deprive Rome of her supplies of corn. Nearly two years were
spent in building a new fleet, and exercising the newly-raised crews and
rowers. The command of the fleet and the superintendence of all the
necessary preparations for the war were intrusted to Agrippa. In order
to obtain a perfectly secure and land-locked basin for his fleet, and
thus secure it against any sudden surprise, he constructed the
celebrated Julius Portus on the coast of Campania, near Baiae, by
connecting the inland Lake Avernus, by means of a canal, with the Lake
Lucrinus, and by strengthening the latter lake against the sea, by an
art