[-11-] Disregarding such omens as had appeared to them they neither felt fear nor displayed less hostility but spent the winter in employing spies and annoying each other.  Caesar had set sail from Brundusium and proceeded as far as Corcyra, intending to attack the ships near Actium while off their guard, but he encountered rough weather and received damage which caused him to withdraw.  When spring came, Antony made no move at any point:  the crews that manned the triremes were made up of all kinds of nations, and as they had been wintering at a distance from him they had secured no practice and had been diminished in numbers by disease and desertions; Agrippa also had seized Methone by storm, had killed Bogud there, was watching for merchant vessels to come to land, and was making descents from time to time on various parts of Greece, which caused Antony extreme disturbance.  Caesar in turn was encouraged by this and wished to employ as soon as possible the energy of the army, which was trained to a fine point, and to carry on the war in Greece near his rival’s supporters rather than in Italy near Rome.  Therefore he collected all his soldiers who were of any value, and all of the men of influence, both senators and knights, at Brundusium.  He wished to have the first to cooeperate with him and to keep the second from being alone and acting in any revolutionary way, but chiefly he wished to show mankind that the largest and strongest element among the Romans was in accord with him.  Therefore he ordered all to bring with them a stated number of servants and that, except the soldiers, they should also carry food for themselves; after this with the entire array he crossed the Ionian Gulf. [-12-] He was leading them not to the Peloponnesus or against Antony, but to Actium, where the greater part of his rival’s fleet was at anchor, to see if he could gain possession of it, willing or unwilling, in advance.  Consequently he disembarked the cavalry under the shadow of the Ceraunian mountains and sent them to the point mentioned, while he himself with his ships seized Corcyra, deserted by the garrisons within it, and came to a stop in the so-called Sweet Harbor:  it is so named because it is made sweet by the river emptying into it.  There he established a naval station and from there he set out to sail to Actium.  No one came out to meet him or would hold parley with him, though he urged them to do one of two things,—­come to an agreement or come into battle.  But the first alternative they would not accept through distrust, nor the second, through fear.  He then occupied the site where Nicopolis now stands and took up a position on a high piece of ground there from which there is a view over all the outer sea near Paxa, over the inner Ambracian Gulf, and the intermediary water (on which are the harbors near Nicopolis) alike.  This spot he strengthened and constructed walls from it down to Comarus, the outer harbor, so that he commanded Actium with his camp and his fleet, by land and sea.