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The priests who perform the ceremony offer the sacrifice while standing at the water's edge,and carry the expiatory offerings in skiffs three times round the fleet,the generals sailing with them,beseeching the gods to turn the bad omens against the victims instead of the fleet.Then,dividing the entrails,they cast a part of them into the sea, and put the remainder on the altars and burn them, while the multitude chant in unison. In this way the Romans perform lustrations of the fleet.It was intended that Octavian should set sail from Puteoli, Lepidus from Africa, and Taurus from Tarentum, against Sicily, in order to surround the enemy at once, from the east, the west, and the south. The day of Octavian's sailing had been previously communicated to all; it was the tenth day after the summer solstice. This, in the Roman calendar, was the calends of the month which, in honor of the first Caesar,they call July instead of Quintilis.Octavian fixed on this day,perhaps because he considered it propitious on account of his father, who was always victorious. Pompeius stationed Plenius at Lilybaeum with one legion and a considerable body of light-armed troops, to oppose Lepidus.He guarded the whole coast of Sicily, both east and west, and especially the islands of Lipara and Cossyra, lest they should become convenient harbors and naval stations, the one for Octavian the other for Lepidus against Sicily. The best part of his naval

force he kept together at Messana watching its chances.In this way they made their preparations on either side, and when the calends came they all set sail at daybreak, Lepidus from Africa with 1000 ships of burden, seventy war vessels, twelve legions of soldiers, 500 Numidian horse, and a great quantity of apparatus; Taurus from Tarentum with only 102 of the 130 ships that Antony had left, since the oarsmen of the remainder had perished during the winter. Octavian sailed from Puteoli, offering sacrifices and pouring out libations from the admiral's ship into the water to the propitious winds, and to Saviour Neptune, and to Waveless Ocean, that they should be his allies against his father's enemies.