Now when those preparations were (made) in Rome Pompey came with his crowds of army and multitude into the sheltering recesses of Campania, and took up his station and
And on each of its sides are many rivers pouring out of it into the sea, to wit, the river Metaurus and the river Crustumium, and the Sapis, the Isaurus, the Sena and the Aufidus, and the river Eridanus, pouring out of its northern flank. The rivers pouring out of its southern flank are the Tiber, the Rutuba, the Vulturnus, the Sarnus, the Liris, the Siler near Salernum, the Macra near the city of Luna. And when one reaches the summit of that mountain-range the fields of the whole of Gaul are seen, and anyone would suppose that the peaks of the Alps are down below it. And there was not in the world a mountain-range longer than it: for it extended at first from Italy to the island of Sicily in the Tyrrhene sea, until the strong burst of the sea on either hand broke through its intervening portion, so that now one of the two ends of it is in Italy, called the Apennine, and the other end is in the island of Sicily, called Mount Pelorus. It seemed safe to Pompey to be in the neighbourhood of that range, hearing news of Caesar and awaiting the battle.
As to Caesar, fury and eagerness to wield weapons filled his mind and his spirit; and he was sorry to find the provinces of Italy before him without the power of an army in them to give battle, their lords and leaders having gone from them to avoid himself. For it pleased him more to capture husbandmen by dint of his hand and by bloodshed than by peace and good will. And he preferred to break down and shatter the gates and ramparts of their cities than to be let willingly into them.
The folk of the cities and towns of Italy, though they were determined, and though it was certain that they would not resist Caesar when he would come to them, yet they began to strengthen their ramparts, and arrange their floorings, and give the battle. And they knew not what counsel to follow, for so great was their love for Pompey that they wished none but he to be enthroned, since they had given their word to him, and such was their dread of Caesar that they did not dare to disobey him. There was nothing to be likened to them save the rising of the great sea when the wind from the south meets with it, and the van of its storm and the multitude of all its waves are on the same path as that wind; and (then) the wind from the east comes to the same sea, and brings along with it the storm and the swelling in the waves (caused) by the former wind. 'Twas thus with the people of Italy; for they were all at first on the side of Pompey, so long as Caesar came not, and though he came, still their wish was to help Pompey.
Now when Caesar reached the centre of Italy with the crowd of his army and his multitude, everyone whom Pompey
There chanced to be one leader who went not with every one in that crash of flight, namely, Domitius captain of the city Corfinium; and there was not in Italy a city that was stronger or harder to sack than it, with a great river beside it, crossed by a bridge out opposite the city. When Domitius beheld Caesar's armies in their troops and multitudes marching towards him over the fields of Italy, and saw the burning brilliance of the terrible, naked weapons above the heads of the host with the gleaming and lightnings of the pure-rayed sun ashining past the edges of the earth, he mustered and gathered the forces of the city to break up and loosen the bridge, and then to hold the river against the outlanders. For he deemed it a great victory if he should delay Caesar (even) for the space of a single day.
When Caesar saw that proceeding against him, he said: ‘Great is the cowardice that the folk of the country show towards us! They do not deem it enough to hold their towns and fortresses against us: they are also stopping up the common roads against us.’
Then he sent forward his horsemen to seize the bridge and save it from destruction, and after them he sent his foot-soldiers with all the speed they could. The horsemen gave
Now when they reached the brink of the river they cast a sanguinary, truly-rough shower of smooth, polished, sharp-sided darts and of arrows out of bows forward forth over the river, so that they fell on the heads and the helmets, on the river bodies and the battle-shields, on the breasts and chests of their enemies as closely as the raindrops of a shower would fall upon them, The horsemen were there until Caesar came to them at the head of the bridge. When he reached them they made no delay; but Domitius fled with his people, and they closed the gates of their city behind them.
Caesar with his troops crossed the river and at once began to destroy the city. Now when the destroyers came to the middle ramparts, they see the gates being opened, and the troops of the town in their bands going towards them, and having their own lord Domitius a captive for Caesar. For he it was that had persuaded them to resist Caesar and to rise against him. Then Domitius sat down in Caesar's presence: he preferred to be put to death rather than to remain alive; and he was asking the general to kill him, ‘Nay’, quoth Caesar, ‘but on this occasion give me thanks for thy life: go unhurt as thou camest. Surely everyone will be the more loyal from my letting thee go safe. Even if it pleases thee to renew battle against me, I am willing that thou shouldst do so. I give my word of truth, that, if thou be the stronger, I will not ask thee for the equivalent of this pardon.’
Domitius was then loosed from his bonds and Caesar took the city, and stayed therein that night.
Now Pompey the Great knew not that Domitius was captured, and this was his desire, to send the succour of an army to him on the morrow. And on that night Pompey began to address and to hearten his army to the battle, and this he said to them, that it were right for them to do valiantly in their own fatherland against Franks and Lochlanners and against the broken army of outlanders which stood in Caesar's company. He said, moreover, that it was fitter for them to do well than for Caesar's people, for they (Pompey's forces) stood for truth, while the others stood for falsehood; and, moreover, their lord was better than Caesar, and thitherto he had found more success. He said, also, that the senate's having with him left Rome was no reason for Caesar uplifting his spirit. It was not for fear of him that they had quitted it, but for love of their own lord; and they were fain to follow him whithersoever he came before them, for good was his exchange with them in giving them (for their service) jewels and treasures. Furthermore, he had never left in the world a nation without making it tributary, from the borders of the frigid zone in the north to the city of Syene in the south. (Therein the sun casts no shadow of a body to the north or to the south, but appears vertically above the city.) And he also said that of the nations of the world he had left Caesar no material of battle, unless he should wage war with the Roman folk itself, as he did at that time.
In that wise Pompey began to hearten his people. Howbeit the troops gave no shout to bear witness to what he said: he uplifted none of them by the speech he had made; and
Now when Pompey perceived that great fear on his hosts, he shifted camp, and marched forward over the fields of the Apulians to the city named Brundusium. That city was built by Theseus, son of Aegeus, son of Neptune, when he came from the island of Crete after killing the Minotaur therein. And there that city was, on the northern coast of Italy, to wit, a sharp promontory that extends out of Italy into the Adriatic sea, and on the outer side of that promontory are two narrow horns of land which between them shut in a great portion of the sea. A craggy, rugged mountain on each side of them, a stony, rough island opposite them on the sea, where their ends meet each other. A narrow road for ships between those two horns and the island out in the bosom of the main-sea.
At that city Pompey established a station and camp, with his ships at anchor in the harbour before him. This is the plan that he then formed, to send away Pompeius Sextus, the eldest male of his children, together with nobles of his household, into the east of the world to gather towards him their host and their army, to await the battle. Then his son was fetched to him, and he said to the youth: ‘Go, my son, and gather my troops towards me, and bring the peoples that dwell about the river Euphrates and the river Nile. And bring the Sicilians and the folk of Egypt. Bring the peoples of Pontus and Armenia. Bring the tribes of the Rhipaean mountain-range and the folk of Scythia. Why reckon them?’ saith he, ‘but go to every people in the east from whom I gained victory and triumph, and on whom is the discipline of my reign; and let them all come with thee towards me.’
His officers and his commanders were then brought to him, and he said to them: ‘Go’, saith he, ‘to the island of Epirus and into the countries of the Greeks and the Macedonians, and gather their armies and their hosts to me while I am in peace and at leisure for the winter-time, for methinks that Caesar will not attempt warfare again until the season of summer and fine weather.’
Then that troop did as they were ordered. They unmoored and loosed their crook-headed hollow vessels from the strand, and they set out on their great sea-road towards the countries and provinces to which they had been sent.
Now Caesar captured the countries and cities and fortalices of Italy on every path by which he came, and he was ready to take Rome as soon as he reached it. That would be wealth and triumph enough in the opinion of every other king in the world. However as to Caesar, he deemed no deed of his a triumph if he were delayed or resisted.
Therefore, then, he came at once on the track and trace of Pompey, to expel him from Italy; for though at this time the whole country remained in his power he had torment of heart that Pompey should be on a border of its borders or on a strand of its strands. And he liked not that Pompey should get an outlet of escape for his ships to the main-sea from the narrow haven in which they were. Wherefore this is the plan which he hit upon: to transport the stones and crags of the neighbouring mountains, and to cast them all into the narrow neck between the haven and the main-sea, so that Pompey's ships might not win way or path of escape to the
When Caesar saw that great labour go to naught, he made this plan: the huge yewtrees of the nearest forests to be collected by him and tied and bound to each other, so that he might build of them a bridge and great hurdles and vast rafts across the same haven, and so that the serried battalions might march in their course, without stop or stay, from one brink to the other. He also built over those rafts sure and strong turrets, and high parapets of wickerwork, and galleries for wounding, to await the conflict of mutual casting with the crews of the vessels. Never was there the like of those proceedings save the arrangement that had once been made by the Assyrians with Xerxes the king of the world.
Two unusual things were done by him, namely, his ships sailing on land and his cavalry marching on sea. And thus those things and those great deeds were achieved, to wit, wains and light barrows (?) were fastened under the ships till they were all through Mount Athos, and a bridge of planks tied together was made by him on the sea, from the island Sestos in the country of Europe to the island Abydos on the coast of Asia, so that his cavalry were passing the sea on that bridge. Like that was the bridge which was then built by Caesar.
Now when Caesar finished that labour he rested that night on the brink of the haven. Pompey, however, seeing that the haven was taken from him, began sadly and mournfully to ponder in his mind how he should fetch his ships and his troops out of the narrow harbour wherein they were. This is the plan that he formed, the most knowing and the strongest ships that he had, and those that were most used to the sea, to be put at the head of the line to the bridge, so that they should make a road for themselves and for the other ships through it, without being perceived or heard by Caesar's people.
When the bridge was broken up, then came the end of night; and Pompey arose and ordered his people to depart and his ships to steal out with them from the haven in stillness and silence, without sound of trumpet, or cry of signal, or one speaking to another, until they should reach the main-sea.
So they came to the ships; and though great was the labour in heaving their anchors, and raising their masts, and hauling the ropes while putting their vessels from land, not a voice nor a cry nor an incitement was heard from them. And Pompey began to entreat the adored gods that he should be allowed to leave Italy since he was not allowed to stay therein. And then a great storm and vast murmuring arose in the sea, so that men heard throughout the neighbouring districts the side-beating and crashing of the blue-fronted waves against the sides and breasts and bows of the well-manned vessels and long gray galleys of the full-great fleet proceeding to sea.
Then at that uproar the city-folk of Brundusium, together
When a fair wind came to that fleet of Pompey, the wide-breasted barques passed into the bosom of the main-sea, and the crews of the fleet began to look at the blue-rimmed abyss, and the bursting of the floodtide, and the hilly shower-stormy waves of the Ionian sea, on every point around them,— save only Pompey, for, as to him, his eye never ceased from gazing at Italy, so long as he saw a hill of its hills or a mountain of its mountains.
When the high mountains of Italy were hidden from the general, a slumberous trance of sleep fell upon him in the poop of his vessel. Then appeared to him in his sleep a very fearful, awful vision, namely, the queen whom he had lost by death, Julia, Caesar's daughter, rose up, as seemed to him, out of her tomb in his presence, and said: ‘From the sunny fields of the underworld have I come to speak with thee and to tell thee tidings.’
‘Say on then’, says Pompey. ‘The battle which thou and Caesar fight’, she saith, ‘lightens the torments of all that are in hell, for the crowd
Thereat Pompey awoke from his sleep, and a great horror to him was the vision he had seen. Howbeit he had but little regard for it, and it did not interfere with the future proceeding that was in his mind. Then came the darkness of the night and the end of day, and the cnatur-barques of the fleet took haven and harbour in the districts of Greece.
As to Caesar, when the sea-surface had hidden the fleet from him, and when he stood alone in Italy, he began to complain and lament greatly because of his distress in not having taken full vengeance on his enemies. However he let calm into his nature, and was seeking and considering by what means he should obtain provisions for the numerous forces along with him. So he dispatched one of his captains, named Curio, with a legion of soldiers, to the island of Sicily, to seek for provisions in the east. He himself came forward to Rome under the aspect of peace and goodwill, with his multitudes of host and army, lazily, undistressed, without waiting attendance of weapon or standard, and without preparing for strife or contest. And in fear and dread were the folk of the towns and
This is the road by which Caesar marched to Rome, by the city of Anxur, and past the great wood in which was a temple of Diana in the return of the road by which one goes from Rome to Alba Longa. And then he began to gaze at Rome from the top of a great crag which was above the city. There it was pleasant to Caesar, for he had not seen it for the space of ten years. ‘Badly have thy nobles deserted thee, O Rome!’ quoth Caesar: ‘what city in the world would it be right to contend for, since battle was not given in contending for thee? Blessing on the gods that it is not thy ancestral foes that have come to contend for thee with those that have deserted thee in that wise! Good is what Fortune has done to thee, thine own people (coming) to thee after them!’
Then Caesar entered the city, and great fear seized the people of Rome before him, for they supposed that he would do therein all the evil in his power; and they believed that by murky mist of smoke and by fringe of flame he would lay the whole city low. Yet this he did not do, for more shameful to him than to the people of Rome themselves was the startling of fear that filled them in the presence of the foreign nations who were along with him.
On that day Caesar himself assumed every worshipful rank and every honourable grade that was in the whole of Rome, from the rank of the dictatorship to the minister, and from the minister to the decanuss; for the holders of all those ranks
Howbeit, on that day there was brought by Caesar out of the Treasury all the wealth that the Romans had obtained from Hannibal the African, and from Philip the Greek, and from Pyrrhus the king of Epirus, from the Medes and the Persians and the peoples of Asia, and from the islands of Crete and Cyprus. And Caesar gave all that wealth in kingly bounties and in guerdons and wages and travelling-money to his satellites and his soldiers and the other good men of his army.