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| | Polybius: Histories, selected excerpts |
 | | Apart from the other battles fought and the preparations made, which I described in my previous chapters, there were two sea fights, in one of which the combined numbers of the two fleets exceeded five hundred quinqueremes, in the other, nearly seven hundred. |
 | | Those, therefore, who have spoken with wonder of the sea battles of an Antigonus, a Ptolemy, or a Demetrius, and of the greatness of their fleets, would, we may well believe, have been overwhelmed with astonishment at the hugeness of these proportions if they had had to tell the story of this war. |
 | | Though the Romans had been severely defeated in the battles, and though they were at the time deprived of, roughly speaking, all their allies, they neither yielded so far to misfortune as to disregard what was becoming to themselves, nor omitted to take into account any necessary consideration. |
| www.constitution.org /rom/polybi.htm (19952 words) |
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