Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 29
Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, Ed.

26. Many Roman fleets had sailed from Sicily and out of that very harbour. Yet not only during that war was there never a sailing so spectacular and no wonder, since most of the fleets had sailed out merely to plunder-but there had been nothing similar even in the previous war. [2] And yet if one had based his comparison upon the size of the fleet, more than once¹ before had two consuls with two armies made the passage, and there had been almost as many war-ships in those fleets as now transports with which Scipio was crossing over. For in addition to forty war-ships only, he carried his army across on about four hundred transports. [3] But the second war was made to appear to the [4??] Romans more terrible [p. 311]than the first both by being carried on in Italy and² by the immense losses which befell so many armies, with the death of their generals at the same time. [5] Furthermore Scipio, whom men praised as a general partly because of his brave deeds, partly because of a good fortune peculiarly his own —a matter of the greatest importance to his growing celebrity —had commanded attention, as had also the very thought, not hazarded by any previous general in this war, of crossing the sea. [6] For he had spread the report that he was making the passage in order to draw Hannibal out of Italy and, shifting its scene, to bring the war to an end in Africa. [7] To see that sight there had flocked to the harbour a crowd made up, not only of all the inhabitants of Lilybaeum, but of all the delegations from Sicily which had arrived to show their respect as an escort to Scipio, and of those that had followed the praetor of the province, Marcus Pomponius. [8] In addition the legions that were being left behind in Sicily had turned out to escort their fellow-soldiers. And not only was the fleet a spectacle for those who viewed it from the shore, but also the whole densely crowded shore on this side and that was a sight for those who were sailing.