22. It was then resolved that Eumenes should return home, and make every necessary preparation for the passage of the consul and his army over the Hellespont; and that the Roman and Rhodian fleets should sail back to Samos, and remain stationed there, that Polyxenidas might not make any movement from Ephesus. The king returned to Elæa, the Romans and Rhodians to Samos. There, Marcus Æmilius, brother of the prætor, died. After his obsequies were performed, the Rhodians sailed, with thirteen of their own ships, one Coan, and one Cnidian quinquereme, to Rhodes, in order that they might take up a position there, against a fleet which was reported to be coming from Syria. Two days before the arrival of Eudamus and the fleet from Samos, another fleet of thirteen ships, under the command of Pamphilidas, had been sent out against the same Syrian fleet; and taking with them four ships, which had been left to protect Caria, they relieved from blockade Dædala, and several other fortresses of Peræa, which the king’s troops were besieging. It was determined that Eudamus should put to sea directly, and an addition of six undecked ships was made to his fleet. He accordingly set sail; and using all possible expedition, overtook the first squadron at a port called Magiste, from whence they proceeded in one body to Phaselis, resolving to wait there for the enemy. 23. Phaselis stands on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia; it projects far into the sea, and is the first land seen by persons coming from Cilicia to Rhodes, and from hence ships can be seen at a great distance. For this reason, chiefly, this place was made choice of, that they may lie in the way of the enemy’s fleet. But in consequence of the unwholesomeness of the place, and of the season of the year, (for it was now the middle of summer,) and of the unusual stench, diseases began to spread with violence, particularly among the rowers, an event which they did not foresee. And having left the place from fear of this pestilence, when they were sailing by the Pamphylian bay, their fleet putting into port at the river Eurymedon, they hear from the people of Aspendus, that the enemy are now at Sida. The king’s fleet had been the slower in its passage, the season of the Etesiæ being opposed to them, for this is the periodical time for the north-west winds. The Rhodians had thirty-two quadriremes and four triremes. In the king’s fleet were thirty-seven ships of the larger rates; among which were three of seven, and four of six banks of oars; and besides these, ten triremes. They discovered too, from some watch-tower, that the Rhodians were at hand. Both fleets, at the dawn of the next day, moved out of port, as if resolved to come to an immediate engagement; and, as soon as the Rhodians passed the promontory that stretches into the deep from Sida, they descried the enemy, and were observed by them. On the king’s side, Hannibal had the command of the left squadron, which stretched away