Here indeed
Pompeius appeared most clearly to show his mind; for at first he
intended to give to Cato the command of the ships, and the fighting
vessels were not fewer than five hundred, and the Liburnian and spy
ships and open boats were very numerous: but having soon perceived, or
it having been hinted to him by his friends, that it was the one chief
thing in all the policy of Cato to liberate his country, and that if
he should have the command of so great a force, the very day on which
they should defeat Caesar, Cato would require Pompeius also to lay down
his arms and to follow the laws, he changed his mind though he had
already spoken with him, and he appointed Bibulus commander of the
ships. Yet he found not Cato's zeal dulled by this; for it is told
that when Pompeius was urging his troops to a battle before Dyrrachium
and bidding each of the commanders say something and to encourage the
men, the soldiers heard them with listlessness and silence; but when
Cato, after the rest, had gone through all the topics derived from
philosophy that were suitable to the occasion to be said about liberty
and virtue, and death and good fame, with great emotion on his part,
and finally addressed himself to invoke the gods as being there
present and watching over the struggle on behalf of their country,
there was so loud an acclamation and so great a movement in the whole
army thus excited, that all the commanders hastened to the contest
full of hopes.
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