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37Antony, therefore, seeing that Decimus was not inclined to yield, left him to the charge of his brother Lucius, and himself proceeded against Caesar and Hirtius. The two armies faced each other for many days and a few insignificant cavalry skirmishes occurred, with honours even. 2Finally the German cavalry, whom Caesar had won to his side along with the elephants they had, went over to Antony again. They had issued from the camp with the rest and had gone on ahead as if intending to engage by themselves those of the enemy who came to meet them; but after a little they turned about and unexpectedly attacked the men who followed behind, who were looking for nothing of the sort, and killed many of them. 3After this some foraging parties on both sides came to blows, and then, when the remainder of each party came to the rescue, a sharp battle ensued between the two forces, in which Antony was victorious. Elated by this success and learning that Vibius was approaching, he assailed his opponents’ camp to see if he could capture it before Vibius’ arrival and thus make the war easier for the future. 4And when the others, besides being on their guard in other ways, in view of their reverses and the hope they placed in Vibius, would not come out to meet him, he left a portion of his army behind there also with orders to engage them and thus make it appear so far as possible that he himself was present, and at the same time to take good care that no one should fall upon his rear. 5After issuing these injunctions he set out secretly by night against Vibius, who was approaching from Bononia, and by means of an ambush he succeeded in wounding Vibius himself severely, in killing the majority of his soldiers and in shutting up the rest within their ramparts. Indeed, he would have annihilated them if he had gone on and besieged them for any considerable time. 6As it was, after accomplishing nothing by the first assault, he began to be alarmed lest while he was delaying he should receive some setback from Caesar and the others; so he again turned against them. 7But while he was still wearied by the journey both ways and by the battle and was not looking for any hostile force to attack him after his victory, Hirtius met him and defeated him decisively. For when Hirtius and Caesar had perceived what was going on, Caesar had remained to keep watch over the camp and Hirtius had set out against Antony.
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