The disaster so far surpassed their experience that it bereft them of the hope of saving themselves even by chance.Finally,at the approach of daylight,the wind relaxed its force,and after sunrise wholly died away;yet even then,although the storm had ceased,the surges rolled a long time.The fury of the tempest surpassed the memory of the oldest inhabitants.It was altogether unexampled,and the greater part of Octavian's ships and men were destroyed by it.Octavian, who had lost heavily in the battle the previous day and had sustained two severe calamities together, took the road in haste to Vibo that same night, by way of the mountains, being unable to repair this disaster, for which there was no help at hand.
He wrote to generals to be on the alert lest a plot should be formed against him here, as is liable to be the case when adversity comes. He despatched the infantry he had with him to all points on the coast, lest Pompeius should be emboldened by his good luck even to invade the mainland. But the latter had no thought of an expedition by land. He did not even attack the ships that were left from the wreck, nor those that went away after the storm had subsided. On the contrary, he paid no attention to the enemy while they were frapping their ships with ropes as well as they could, and sailing with a favorable wind to Vibo. He neglected them either because he thought that the disaster was all-sufficient for him,
or because he did not know how to follow up a victory, or, as I have said elsewhere, because he was altogether inefficient in attack and determined only to defend himself against assailants.Less than half of Octavian's ships were saved, and these badly damaged. He left certain officers in charge of them and proceeded to Campania much cast down, for he had no other ships and he needed many; nor did he have time to build them, pressed as he was by famine and by the people, who were again harassing him about a new treaty and mocking at the war as being in violation of the old one. He needed money, but had none. The Romans were not paying the taxes, nor would they allow the use of the revenues that he had devised.