Pompeius himself during the battle had been encamped with his land forces at Naulochus (Appian l. c. 121), and after his victory, Octavian, in his turn, took up his station there, while Agrippa and Lepidus advanced to attack Messana (modern Messina).
Veterans of Agathocles, settled now at Messana, offered their help, but Campania and most of the south gave Pyrrhus no encouragement.
The first recorder of the fable, Boniohannes de Messana, was from the Sicilian Crusader port now called Messina, so there is the possibility that it might originally have come from the Eastern Mediterranean.