So I succeeded in having the decision of the conflict left to the fleet, but the prediction was false, false, false!--how utterly, was to be proved only too soon.
"If I had only been told in time what I learned later! After the defeat people were more loquacious.

That one remark of a veteran commander of the foot-soldiers would probably have sufficed to open my eyes.

He had asked Mark Antony why he fixed his hopes on miserable wood, exclaiming, 'Let the Phoenician's and Egyptians war on the water, but leave us the land where we are accustomed, with our feet firmly set upon the earth, to fight, conquer, or die!' This alone, I am sure, would have changed my resolve in a happy hour.

But it was kept from me.
"The conflict began.

Our troops had lost patience.