C. Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War
William Duncan, Ed.

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Young Pompey, who commanded the Egyptian fleet, having notice of this, came to Oricum; weighed up the vessel that had been sunk in the mouth of the harbour; and, after an obstinate resistance, took the other, which had been placed there by Acilius, to guard the haven. He then brought forward his fleet, on which he had raised towers, to fight with the greater advantage; and having surrounded the town on all sides, attacked it by land with scaling ladders, and by sea from the towers, sending fresh men continually in the place of those that were fatigued, and thereby obliging us to yield, through weariness and wounds. At the same time he seized an eminence, on the other side of the town, which seemed a kind of natural mole, and almost formed a peninsula over against Oricum; and by means of this neck of land, carried four small galleys, upon rollers, into the inner part of the haven. Thus the galleys, that were made fast to the land, and destitute of troops, being attacked on all sides, four were carried off, and the rest burned. This affair despatched, he left D. Laelius, whom he had taken from the command of the Asiatic fleet, to prevent the importation of provisions from Biblis and Amantia; and sailing for Lissus, attacked and burned the thirty transports which Antony had left in that haven. He endeavoured likewise to take the town; but the Roman citizens of that district, aided by the garrison Caesar had left, defended it so well, that at the end of three days, he retired without effecting his purpose, having lost some men in the attempt.