23.
When he had received the hostages, he leads back the army to the sea, and finds
the ships repaired. After launching these, because he had a large number of
prisoners, and some of the ships had been lost in the storm, he determines to
convey back his army at two embarkations. And it so happened, that out of so
large a number of ships, in so many voyages, neither in this nor in the previous
year was any ship missing which conveyed soldiers; but very few out of those
which were sent back to him from the continent empty, as the soldiers of the
former convoy had been disembarked, and out of those (sixty in number) which
Labienus had taken care to have built, reached
their destination; almost all the rest were driven back, and when Caesar had waited for them for some time in vain, lest he
should be debarred from a voyage by the season of the year, inasmuch as the
equinox was at hand, he of necessity stowed his soldiers the more closely, and,
a very great calm coming on, after he had weighed anchor at the beginning of the
second watch, he reached land at break of day and brought in all the ships in
safety.
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