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19Do not imagine, now, that they possess any particular seamanship just because Agrippa won a naval battle off Sicily; for they contended, not against Sextus, but against his slaves, not against a like equipment with ours, but against one far inferior. 2And if anyone is inclined to make much of their good fortune in that combat, he is bound to reckon on the other side the defeat which Caesar himself suffered at the hands of Sextus himself; in this way he will find, not merely that our chances are equal, but that all the considerations on our side are far more numerous and far better than on theirs. 3In a word, how large a part does Sicily form of the whole empire, and how large a fraction of our force did the troops of Sextus possess, that anyone should reasonably fear Caesar’s armament, which is precisely the same as before and has grown neither larger nor better, merely because of his good luck, rather than take courage because of his defeat? 4It is precisely in view of these considerations, therefore, that I have not cared to risk a first engagement with the infantry, where they appear to have strength in a way, in order that no one of you should become disheartened as the result of a reverse in that arm; instead, I have chosen to begin with the ships, where we are strongest and have a vast superiority over our antagonists, in order that after a victory with these we may scorn their infantry also. 5For you know well that the turn of the scale in this war depends for both sides entirely upon just this—I mean our fleets; for if we come out victorious with this arm we shall thenceforth suffer no harm from any of their other forces either, but shall cut them off on an islet, as it were, since all the regions round about are in our possession, and shall subdue them without trouble, if in no other way, at least by hunger.
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