All the friends of Pompeius urged him with one accord to make peace, except Menodorus, who wrote to him from Sardinia either to prosecute the war vigorously or still to procrastinate, because famine was fighting for them, and he would thus get better terms if he should decide to make peace. Menodorus also advised him to distrust Murcus, who opposed these views, intimating that he was seeking power for himself. Pompeius, who had been vexed with Murcus lately on account of his high position and his stubbornness, became still more averse to him for this reason, and held no communication with him whatever, until, finally, Murcus retired in disgust to Syracuse. Here he saw some of Pompeius' guards following him,and
he expressed his opinion of Pompeius to them freely. Then Pompeius bribed a tribune and a centurion of Murcus, and sent them to kill him and to say that he had been murdered by slaves. To give credibility to this falsehood he crucified the slaves. But he did not succeed in concealing this crime, — the next one committed by him after the murder of Bithynicus, — Murcus having been a man distinguished for his warlike deeds, who had been strongly attached to that party from the beginning, and had rendered great assistance to Pompeius himself in Spain, and had joined him in Sicily voluntarily.Such was the death of Murcus. His other friends urged Pompeius to make peace, and they accused Menodorus of fondness of power
and as opposing peace not so much from good-will to his master as from a desire to command an army and a province. Pompeius yielded and set sail for Aenaria with a large number of his best ships, having embarked himself on a magnificent one with six banks of oars. In this style, toward evening, he sailed proudly past Puteoli in sight of his enemies. Early in the morning two sets of piles were driven in the sea a short distance apart, and planks were placed upon them. Upon the platform nearest the shore Octavian and Antony took their places, while Pompeius and Libo occupied a seaward one, a small space of water separating them, so that they p499could hear each other without shouting.
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