The life of Antony by Plutarch is a very lengthy one; but there are many very remarkable accounts in it, which he had still heard from his grandfather or great grandfather, especially about the frightful distress which there was in Greece: the parallel with Demetrius is very happy. To this period belong the stories of the profligate way in which he spent his time, squandering in eastern luxury and pomp the sums which he had extorted from the nations. The only feeling that one can have with regard to Antony, is that of satisfaction that all is over with him. Here he forgets the shame which he had suffered in war. Fortune, however, was yet once more favourable to him; for the king of Media besought his protection, and showed himself inclined to acknowledge his supremacy instead of that of the king of the Parthians. In the meanwhile, Octavian took up arms against Sextus Pompey. The soul of this war was Agrippa, who built a fleet on the Lucrine Lake, which he converted into a sort of harbour, where he exercised his ships: a fair ground of quarrel did not exist. Twice was the fleet destroyed by storms: when it was restored, Agrippa gained a glorious victory near Mylæ (Milazzo); but at Tauromenium, Octavian’s ships were utterly routed before his eyes, the commanders of the Pompeian fleet, to crown his disgrace, being freedmen, Mena (Μηνᾶ = Μηνόδωρος, not Mænas; we know the name from Horace’s Epistles)[24] and Menecrates. Octavian’s troops had landed under Cornificius, one of his most faithful servants, and had likewise been beaten, almost indeed annihilated: Agrippa retrieved matters. Another fleet was built, and now Agrippa won a great naval victory. Pompey left Sicily, sought the protection of Antony, and staid for some time in the Levant. Antony was favourably inclined towards him; but whilst he wavered as to whether he should receive him or have him executed, Pompey, owing to one of those fatal orders, was murdered by a proscribed person in Phrygia, a deed which was yet more shameful, as he had formerly made it a point in the peace of Misenum, that all the proscribed should be reinstated. Whether the house of the Pompeii became extinct with him, or whether the consul Sextus Pompeius in the reign of the emperor Tiberius was a descendant of his, is more than I can say.