Each ship’s captain had a copy of the following words from Tiberius Gallus, with orders to read them to the crew in the event that battle appeared imminent:

To the Men of the Mare Nostra and Trojan Horse Fleets:

Your Commander, Marcus Porcius Cato, sends you greetings, as do I. The Roman Navy is engaged in a life-and-death struggle with vile men who would seek to sweep us from Mare Nostra. Then having done so, they will have a free hand to devastate Roman cities and coastal communities, bring our life’s blood of commerce to a grinding halt, and threaten all we hold dear. Furthermore, such a defeat at sea would mean that the bastard Jugurtha, so-called Numidian king, would march on Carthage, throwing Rome out of Africa for ever.

Our beloved homeland falls under the shadow of the Germans, the most brutal and dangerous threat to face Rome since Hannibal himself! Even now, our Consul Zosimus is leading a brave but outnumbered force north in a last-ditch attempt to save Rome from obliteration at the hands of the Cimbri, Teutones, and their foul allied tribes.

Given that most grave of threats in Italia, it is clear that nothing stands in the way of Jugurtha and the pirates, for we can expect no reinforcements for nearly a year. Nothing stands in the way of utter and total defeat except YOU. You brave men who have proven yourselves upon the high seas time and again. You brave men who well understand that a battle at sea is the most grim and terrible sort of battle, a battle where the very elements of fire and water combine to add even more cruelty to that already brought forth by sword and arrow! Yes, you men know full well the gravity and enormity of the task which awaits you.

And I know you. I have seen your bravery and sacrifice in battle. I have fought alongside you, and look forward to doing so again. I can offer you nothing but my blood, my skills as a leader, my auspices as an Augur, and my pledge to do my very best to lead you all to victory. To those offerings, allow me to add one other. Once victorious, I pledge to you men that I will share with you fully one fifth of whatever loot, monies and booty fall to my portion. I gave you that same pledge so many months ago on the night before we left Ostia, and I made good on my pledge after our successful battles at Hermaea and Ericusa. I now, under the ever-watchful eye of the gods, do hereby renew that pledge to you.

Fight well, my brave men of Rome! Fight well, and one day soon we shall toast each others’ deeds with cups overflowing, and a gleam in our eyes! For we will go to our graves, whether on the morrow or years hence as old men, knowing that we did our duty for Rome and we fought like the very Furies themselves!

Turn now to your appointed duties, men of Rome! Follow to the letter the orders of your captains and centurions. With Fortuna on our side, victory will be ours!

Signed

Ti. Gallus Augur, Deputy Commander of the Mare Nostra and Trojan Horse Fleets