1. When Caesar’s dispatch had been handed to the consuls, the tribunes, with difficulty and after much wrangling, gained their permission for it to be read in the senate, but they could not obtain consent for a motion to be brought before the senate on the subject of the dispatch. The consuls bring forward a motion on the state of public affairs. The consul L. Lentulus puts pressure on the senate, and promises that he will not fail the republic if the senators are willing to express their opinions with boldness and resolution; but if they pay regard to Caesar and try to win favour with him as they have done on previous occasions, he says that he will consider his own interests and will not obey their authority. “I too,” said he, “can shelter myself under the favour and friendship of Caesar.” Scipio expresses himself in similar terms—that Pompeius is inclined not to desert the republic if the senate follows him; but if it delays and acts remissly, it will in vain solicit his aid should it wish to do so in the future.
1. LITTERIS Caesaris consulibus redditis aegre ab his impetratum est summa tribunorum plebis contentione, ut in senatu recitarentur; ut vero ex litteris ad senatum referretur, impetrari non potuit. Referunt consules de re publica. Incitat L. Lentulus consul senatum rei publicae se non defuturum pollicetur, si audacter ac fortiter sententias dicere velint; sin Caesarem respiciant atque eius gratiam sequantur, ut superioribus fecerint temporibus, se sibi consilium capturum neque senatus auctoritati obtemperaturum: habere se quoque ad Caesaris gratiam atque amicitiam receptum. In eandem sententiam loquitur Scipio: Pompeio esse in animo reipublicae non deesse, si senatus sequatur; si cunctetur atque agat lenius, nequiquam eius auxilium, si postea velit, senatum imploraturum.
2. This speech of Scipio appeared to come from the mouth of Pompeius himself, since the senate was meeting in the city and Pompeius was close at hand. Some had expressed less rigorous views, such as M. Marcellus, who at first embarked on a speech to the effect that the question ought not to be referred to the senate till levies had been held throughout Italy and armies enrolled under whose protection the senate might venture to make such decrees as it wished safely and freely; such, too, as M. Calidius, who expressed the opinion that Pompeius should go to his own provinces in order that there might be no motive for hostilities: Caesar, he said, was afraid lest it should be thought that Pompeius, having extorted two legions from him, was holding them back and retaining them near Rome with a view to imperilling him; such also as M. Rufus, who with a few modifications followed the opinion of Calidius. All these speakers were assailed with vehement invective by the consul L. Lentulus. He absolutely refused to put the motion of Calidius, and Marcellus, alarmed by the invectives, abandoned his proposal. Thus most of the senators, compelled by the language of the consul, intimidated by the presence of the army and by the threats of the friends of Pompeius, against their will and yielding to pressure, adopt the proposal of Scipio that Caesar should disband his army before a fixed date, and that, if he failed to do so, he should be considered to be meditating treason against the republic. The tribunes M. Antonius and Q. Cassius intervene. The question of their intervention is immediately brought before the senate. Opinions of weighty import are expressed, and the more harsh and cruel the speech the more it is applauded by the personal enemies of Caesar.
2. Haec Scipionis oratio, quod senatus in urbe habebatur Pompeiusque aderat, ex ipsius ore Pompei mitti videbatur. Dixerat aliquis leniorem sententiam, ut primo M. Marcellus, ingressus in eam orationem, non oportere ante de ea re ad senatum referri, quam delectus tota Italia habiti et exercitus conscripti essent, quo praesidio tuto et libere senatus, quae vellet, decernere auderet; ut M. Calidius, qui censebat, ut Pompeius in suas provincias proficisceretur, ne qua esset armorum causa: timere Caesarem ereptis ab eo duabus legionibus, ne ad eius periculum reservare et retinere eas ad urbem Pompeius videretur; ut M. Rufus, qui sententiam Calidii paucis fere mutatis rebus sequebatur. Hi omnes convicio L. Lentuli consulis correpti exagitabantur. Lentulus sententiam Calidii pronuntiaturum se omnino negavit. Marcellus perterritus conviciis a sua sententia discessit. Sic vocibus consulis, terrore praesentis exercitus, minis amicorum Pompei plerique compulsi inviti et coacti Scipionis sententiam sequuntur: uti ante certam diem Caesar exercitum dimittat; si non faciat, eum adversus rem publicam facturum videri. Intercedit M. Antonius, Q. Cassius, tribuni plebis. Refertur confestim de intercessione tribunorum. Dicuntur sententiae graves; ut quisque acerbissime crudelissimeque dixit, ita quam maxime ab inimicis Caesaris collaudatur.
3. When the senate was dismissed in the evening all the members of the order are summoned out of the city by Pompeius. He praises the zealous and encourages them for the future; the sluggish he reproves and stimulates. Everywhere a number of reserves from the old armies of Pompeius are called out to serve by the prospect of prizes and promotion; many are summoned from the two legions handed over by Caesar. The city and the comitium itself are filled with tribunes, centurions, reserves. All the friends of. the consuls, all the adherents of Pompeius and of those whose enmity to Caesar was of long standing, are compelled to attend the senate. By their clamorous throngs the weaker are terrified and the wavering are confirmed, while the majority are robbed of the privilege of free decision. The censor L. Piso promises to go to Caesar, also the praetor L. Roscius, to inform him of these matters. They demand a period of six days for the execution of their purpose. Some express the opinion that envoys should be sent to Caesar to set before him the feelings of the senate.
3. Misso ad vesperum senatu omnes, qui sunt eius ordinis, a Pompeio evocantur. Laudat promptos Pompeius atque in posterum confirmat, segniores castigat atque incitat. Multi undique ex veteribus Pompei exercitibus spe praemiorum atque ordinum evocantur, multi ex duabus legionibus, quae sunt traditae a Caesare, arcessuntur. Completur urbs et ipsum comitium tribunis, centurionibus, evocatis. Omnes amici consulum, necessarii Pompei atque eorum, qui veteres inimicitias eum Caesare gerebant, in senatum coguntur; quorum vocibus et concursu tenentur infirmiores, dubii confirmantur, plerisque vero libere decernendi potestas eripitur. Pollicetur L. Piso censor sese iturum ad Caesarem, item L. Roscius praetor, qui de his rebus eum doceant: sex dies ad eam rem conficiendum' spatii postulant. Dicuntur etiam ab nonnullis sententiae, ut legati ad Caesarem mittantur, qui voluntatem senatus ei proponant.
4. All these speakers encounter opposition and are confronted with speeches from the consul, from Scipio, and from Cato. Cato is goaded on by his old quarrels with Caesar and vexation at his defeat. Lentulus is moved by the greatness of his debts, by the prospect of a military command and a province, and by the lavish bribes of rulers claiming the title of king, and boasts among his friends that he will prove a second Sulla to whom shall fall the supreme command. Scipio is stimulated by the same hope of a province and of armies, which he thinks that kinship will entitle him to share with Pompeius; also by the dread of the law courts, by the flattery of certain powerful men who had then great influence in public affairs and in the law courts, and by his own and their ostentatious character. Pompeius, urged on by Caesar’s enemies and by his desire that no one should be on the same level of authority with himself, had completely withdrawn himself from Caesar’s friendship and become reconciled with their common enemies, most of whom he had himself imposed upon Caesar at the time of their connexion by marriage. Stirred, too, by the discredit attaching to his diversion of two legions from their route by Asia and Syria and his appropriation of them for his own power and supremacy, he was eager that the issue should be brought to the arbitrament of war.
4. Omnibus his resistitur, omnibusque oratio consulis, Scipionis, Catonis opponitur. Catonem veteres inimicitiae Caesaris incitant et dolor repulsae. Lentulus aeris alieni magnitudine et spe exercitus ac provinciarum et regum appellandorum largitionibus movetur, seque alterum fore Sullam inter suos gloriatur, ad quem summa imperii redeat. Scipionem eadem spes provinciae atque exercituum impellit, quos se pro necessitudine partiturum cum Pompeio arbitratur, simul iudiciorum metus, adulatio atque ostentatio sui et potentium, qui in re publica iudiciisque tum plurimum pollebant. Ipse Pompeius, ab inimicis Caesaris incitatus et quod neminem dignitate secum exaequari volebat, totum se ab eius amicitia averterat et cum communibus inimicis in gratiam redierat, quorum ipse maximam partem illo affinitatis tempore iniunxerat Caesari; simul infamia duarum legionum permotus, quas ab itinere Asiae Syriaeque ad suam potentiam dominatumque converterat, rem ad arma deduci studebat.
5. For these reasons everything is done in hurry and confusion. Caesar’s friends are allowed no time to inform him, nor are the tribunes given any opportunity of protesting against the peril that threatened them, nor even of retaining, by the exercise of their veto, the most fundamental of their rights, which L. Sulla had left them, but within the limit of seven days they are compelled to take measures for their own safety, whereas the most turbulent of the tribunes in earlier times had been wont to regard with apprehension the conclusion of at least eight months of administration. Recourse is had to that extreme and ultimate decree of the senate which had never previously been resorted to except when the city was at the point of destruction and all despaired of safety through the audacity of malefactors: “The consuls, the praetors, the tribunes, and all the proconsular who are near the city shall take measures that the state incur no harm.” These resolutions are recorded by decree of the senate on January 7. So on the first five days on which a meeting of the senate could be held after the date on which Lentulus entered on his consulship, except two election days, decrees of the severest and harshest character are passed affecting Caesar’s imperial command and those highly important officials, the tribunes of the people. The tribunes at once flee from the city and betake themselves to Caesar. He was at that time at Ravenna and was awaiting a reply to his very lenient demands, in the hope that by some sense of equity a peaceable conclusion might be reached.
5. His de causis aguntur omnia raptim atque turbate. Nec docendi Caesaris propinquis eius spatium datur, nec tribunis plebis sui periculi deprecandi neque etiam extremi iuris intercessione retinendi, quod L. Sulla reliquerat, facultas tribuitur, sed de sua salute septimo die cogitare coguntur, quod illi turbulentissimi superioribus temporibus tribuni plebis octavo denique mense suarum actionum respicere ac timere consuerant. Decurritur ad illud extremum atque ultimum senatusconsultum, quo nisi paene in ipso urbis incendio atque in desperatione omnium salutis sceleratorum audacia numquam ante descensum est: dent operam consules, praetores, tribuni plebis quique pro consulibus sint ad urbem, ne quid res publica detrimenti capiat. Haec senatusconsulto perscribuntur a. d. vii. Id. Iam Itaque v primis diebus, quibus haberi senatus potuit, qua ex die consulatum iniit Lentulus, biduo excepto comitiali et de imperio Caesaris et de amplissimis viris, tribunis plebis, gravissime acerbissimeque decernitur. Profugiunt statim ex urbe tribuni plebis seseque ad Caesarem conferunt. Is eo tempore erat Ravennae exspectabatque suis lenissimis postulatis responsa, si qua hominum aequitate res ad otium deduci posset.
6. On the following days the senate meets outside the city. Pompeius carries out the policy which he had indicated by the mouth of Scipio. He commends the manly consistency of the senate, and sets forth the strength of his forces, showing that he has ten legions ready to hand, and, moreover, that he had ascertained for certain that the troops were ill-disposed to Caesar and could not be persuaded to defend or follow him. Other matters are at once referred to the senate—that a levy should be held throughout Italy, that Faustus Sulla should he at once sent into Mauritania, and that a grant of money should be made to Pompeius from the treasury. A motion is also proposed that King Juba should be styled Ally and Friend. But Marcellus refuses to allow this for the present. The tribune Philippus vetoes the motion about Faustus. On the other matters decrees of the senate are recorded in writing. The provinces, two consular, the rest praetorian, are decreed to private persons. Syria falls to Scipio, Gallia to L. Domitius; Philippus and Cotta are passed over by private arrangement, nor are their lots cast into the urn. To the rest of the provinces praetors are sent. Nor do they wait, as had been the habit in previous years, for a motion to be brought before the people about their imperial command; but, wearing the scarlet military cloak, they leave Rome after offering the usual vows. The consuls quit the city, a thing which had never previously happened, and private persons have lictors in the city and the Capitol, contrary to all the precedents of the past. Levies are held throughout Italy, arms are requisitioned, sums of money are exacted from the municipal towns and carried off from the temples, and all divine and human rights are thrown into confusion.
6. Proximis diebus habetur extra urbem senatus. Pompeius eadem illa, quae per Scipionem ostenderat, agit; senatus virtutem constantiamque collaudat; copias suas exponit; legiones habere sese paratas x; praeterea cognitum compertumque sibi, alieno esse animo in Caesarem milites neque eis posse persuaderi, uti eum defendant aut sequantur. Statim de reliquis rebus ad senatum refertur: tota Italia delectus habeatur; Faustus Sulla propere in Mauritaniam mittatur; pecunia uti ex aerario Pompeio detur. Refertur etiam de rege Iuba, ut socius sit atque amicus; Marcellus vero passurum se in praesentia negat. De Fausto impedit Philippus, tribunus plebis. De reliquis rebus senatusconsulta perscribuntur. Provinciae privatis decernuntur duae consulares, reliquae praetoriae. Scipioni obvenit Syria, L. Domitio Gallia; Philippus et Cotta privato consilio praetereuntur, neque eorum sortes deiciuntur. In reliquas provincias praetores mittuntur. Neque exspectant, quod superioribus annis acciderat, ut de eorum imperio ad populum feratur, paludatique votis nuncupatis exeunt. Consules, quod ante id tempus accidit numquam, ex urbe proficiscuntur, lictoresque habent in urbe et Capitolio privati contra omnia vetustatis exempla. Tota Italia delectus habentur, arma imperantur; pecuniae a municipiis exiguntur, e fanis tolluntur: omnia divina humanaque iura permiscentur.
7. When this was known Caesar addresses his troops. He relates all the wrongs that his enemies had ever done him, and complains that Pompeius had been led astray and corrupted by them through jealousy and a desire to detract from his credit, though he had himself always supported and aided his honour and dignity. He complains that a new precedent had been introduced into the state whereby the right of tribunicial intervention, which in earlier years had been restored by arms, was now being branded with ignominy and crushed by arms. Sulla, he said, though stripping the tribunicial power of everything, had nevertheless left its right of intervention free, while Pompeius, who had the credit of having restored the privileges that were lost, had taken away even those that they had before. There had been no instance of the decree that the magistrates should take measures to prevent the state from suffering harm (the declaration and decision of the senate by which the Roman people are called to arms) except in the case of pernicious laws, tribunicial violence, a popular secession, or the seizure of temples and elevated positions: and he explains that these precedents of a former age had been expiated by the downfall of Saturninus and of the Gracchi. No event of this kind had occurred at the time in question or had even been thought of. He exhorts them to defend from his enemies the reputation and dignity of the commander under whose guidance they have administered the state with unfailing good fortune for nine years, fought many successful battles, and pacified the whole of Gaul and Germany. Thereupon the men of the Thirteenth Legion, which was present (he had called this out at the beginning of the disorder; the rest had not yet come together), exclaim that they are ready to repel the wrongs of their commander and of the tribunes.
7. Quibus rebus cognitis Caesar apud milites contionatur. Omnium temporum iniurias inimicorum in se commemorat; a quibus deductum ac depravatum Pompeium queritur invidia atque obtrectatione laudis suae, cuius ipse honori et dignitati semper faverit adiutorque fuerit. Novum in re publica introductum exemplum queritur, ut tribunicia intercessio armis notaretur atque opprimeretur, quae superioribus annis armis esset restituta. Sullam nudata omnibus rebus tribunicia potestate tamen intercessionem liberam reliquisse. Pompeium, qui amissa restituisse videatur, dona etiam, quae ante habuerint, ademisse. Quotienscumque sit decretum, darent, operam magistratus, ne quid res publica detrimenti caperet (qua voce et quo senatusconsulto populus Romanus ad arma sit vocatus), factum in perniciosis legibus, in vi tribunicia, in secessione populi templis locisque editioribus occupatis: atque haec superioris aetatis exempla expiata Saturnini atque Gracchorum casibus docet; quarum rerum illo tempore nihil factum, ne cogitatum quidem. Hortatur, cuius imperatoris ductu VIIII annis rem publicam felicissime gesserint plurimaque proelia secunda fecerint, omnem Galliam Germaniamque pacaverint, ut eius existimationem dignitatemque ab inimicis defendant. Conclamant legionis XIII, quae aderat, milites—hanc enim initio tumultus evocaverat, reliquae nondum convenerant—sese paratos esse imperatoris sui tribunorumque plebis iniurias defendere.
8. Having thus learnt the disposition of the soldiery, he sets out for Ariminum with that legion, and there meets the tribunes who had fled to him. The rest of the legions he summons from their winter quarters and orders them to follow him. Thither comes the young L. Caesar whose father was one of Caesar’s legates. When their first greetings were over he explains—and this was the real reason of his coming —that he has a message from Pompeius to give him regarding a personal matter. He says that Pompeius wishes to be cleared of reproach in the eyes of Caesar, who should not construe as an affront to himself what he had done for the sake of the state. He had always placed the interests of the republic before private claims. Caesar, too, considering his high position, should give up for the benefit of the state his partisan zeal and passion, nor be so bitterly angry with his enemies as to injure the commonwealth in the hope that he is injuring them. He adds a few other remarks of this kind, at the same lime making excuses for Pompeius. The praetor Roscius lays substantially the same proposals before Caesar, and in the same language, and makes it clear that he received them from Pompeius.
8. Cognita militum voluntate Ariminum cum ea legione proficiscitur ibique tribunos plebis, qui ad eum profugerant, convenit; reliquas legiones ex hibernis evocat et subsequi iubet. Eo L. Caesar adulescens venit, cuius pater Caesaris erat legatus. Is reliquo sermone confecto, cuius rei causa venerat, habere se a Pompeio ad eum privati officii mandata demonstrat: velle Pompeium se Caesari purgatum, ne ea, quae rei publicae causa egerit, in suam contumeliam vertat. Semper se rei publicae commoda privatis necessitudinibus habuisse potiora. Caesarem quoque pro sua dignitate debere et studium et iracundiam suam rei publicae dimittere neque adeo graviter irasci inimicis, ut, cum illis nocere se speret, rei publicae noceat. Pauca eiusdem generis addit cum excusatione Pompei coniuncta. Eadem fere atque eisdem verbis praetor Roscius agit cum Caesare sibique Pompeium commemorasse demonstrat.
9. Though these proceedings seemed to have no effect in lessening the sense of wrong, nevertheless now that he had found suitable persons to convey his wishes to Pompeius he makes a request of each of them that, as they had brought him the messages of Pompeius, they should not object to convey his demands in reply, in the hope that by a little trouble they might be able to put an end to serious disputes and free the whole of Italy from alarm. “As for myself,” he said, “I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life. I was indignant that a benefit conferred on me by the Roman people was being insolently wrested from me by my enemies, and that, robbed of my six months’ command, I was being dragged back to the city, when the people had directed that I should be allowed to be a candidate in absence at the next election. Nevertheless, for the sake of the state I have borne with equanimity this infringement of my prerogative; when I sent a dispatch to the senate proposing that all should give up arms failed to obtain even this request. Levies are being held throughout Italy, two legions which had been filched from me under the pretence of a Parthian war are being held back, the state is in arms. To what does all this tend but to my own ruin? Still Lam_prepared to resort to anything, to submit to anything, for the sake of the commonwealth.. Let Pompeius go to his own provinces, let us disband our armies, let everyone in Italy lay down his arms, let fear be banished from the state, let free elections and the whole control of the republic be handed over to the senate and the Roman people. That this may be done more easily and on definite terms and be ratified by an oath, let Pompeius himself come nearer or allow me to approach him. In this way a conference will settle all disputes.”
9. Quae res etsi nihil ad levandas iniurias pertinere videbantur, tamen idoneos nactus homines, per quos ea, quae vellet, ad eum perferrentur, petit ab utroque, quoniam Pompei mandata ad se detulerint, ne graventur sua quoque ad eum postulata deferre, si parvo labore magnas controversias tollere atque omnem Italiam metu liberare possint. Sibi semper primam rei publicae fuisse dignitatem vitaque potiorem. Doluisse se, quod populi Romani beneficium sibi per contumeliam ab inimicis extorqueretur, ereptoque semenstri imperio in urbem retraheretur, cuius absentis rationem haberi proximis comitiis populus iussisset. Tamen hanc iacturam honoris sui rei publicae causa aequo animo tulisse: cum litteras ad senatum miserit, ut omnes ab exercitibus discederent ne id quidem impetravisse. Tota Italia delectus haberi, retineri legiones II, quae ab se simulatione Parthici belli sint abductae, civitatem esse in armis. Quonam haec omnia nisi ad suam perniciem pertinere? Sed tamen ad omnia se descendere paratum atque omnia pati rei publicae causa. Proficiscatur Pompeius in suas provincias, ipsi exercitus dimittant, discedant in Italia omnes ab armis, metus e civitate tollatur, libera comitia atque omnis res publica senatui populoque Romano permittatur. Haec quo facilius certisque condicionibus fiant et iureiurando sanciantur, aut ipse propius accedat aut se patiatur accedere: fore, uti per colloquia omnes controversiae componantur, Acceptis mandatis Roscius cum L.
10. Having received his instructions, Roscius arrives at Capua with L. Caesar, and there finds the consuls and Pompeius, and delivers Caesar’s demands. After deliberation they reply and send him back by their hands written instructions, the main purport of which was that Caesar should return to Gaul, quit Ariminum and disband his forces; if he did this, Pompeius would go to the Spanish provinces. Meanwhile, until a pledge was given that Caesar would carry out his promise, the consuls and Pompeius would not interrupt their levies.
10. Caesare Capuam pervenit ibique consules Pompeiumque invenit; postulata Caesaris renuntiat. Illi deliberata re respondent scriptaque ad eum mandata per eos remittunt; quorum haec erat summa: Caesar in Galliam reverteretur, Arimino excederet, exercitus dimitteret; quae si fecisset, Pompeium in Hispanias iturum. Interea, quoad fides esset data Caesarem facturum, quae polliceretur, non intermissuros consules Pompeiumque delectus.
11. It was an unfair bargain to demand that Caesar should quit Ariminum and return to his province while he himself retained his provinces and legions that were not his own: to wish that Caesar’s army should be disbanded while he himself continued his levies: to promise that he would go to his province and not to fix a limit of time for his departure, so that if he had not gone when Caesar’s consulship was over he would nevertheless be held guiltless of breaking his word: finally, his refusal to give an opportunity for a conference and to promise that he would approach Caesar tended to produce a profound despair of peace. And so he sends M. Antonius with five cohorts from Ariminum to Arretium, and himself stops at Ariminum with two cohorts and arranges to hold a levy there; he occupies Pisaurum, Fanum, and Ancona, each with one cohort.
11. Erat iniqua condicio postulare, ut Caesar Arimino excederet atque in provinciam reverteretur, ipsum et provincias et legiones alienas tenere; exercitum Caesaris velle dimitti, delectus habere; polliceri se in provinciam iturum neque, ante quem diem iturus sit, definire, ut, si peracto consulatu Caesar profectus esset, nulla tamen mendacii religione obstrictus videretur; tempus vero colloquio non dare neque accessurum polliceri magnam pacis desperationem afferebat. Itaque ab Arimino M, Antonium cum cohortibus v Arretium mittit; ipse Arimini cum duabus subsistit ibique delectum habere instituit; Pisaurum, Fanum, Anconam singulis cohortibus occupat.
12. Meanwhile, having been told that the praetor Thermus was holding Iguvium with five cohorts and fortifying the town, and that all the inhabitants of Iguvium were extremely well disposed towards himself, he sends Curio thither with the three cohorts which he had at Pisaurum and Ariminum. Learning of his approach, Thermus, mistrusting the goodwill of the community, withdraws his cohorts from the town and flies. His troops desert him on the way and return home. Curio with the utmost goodwill of everyone recovers Iguvium. Hearing of this, Caesar, relying on the goodwill of the townsfolk, removes the cohorts of the Thirteenth Legion from the garrisons and proceeds to Auximum. This town Attius was holding with cohorts that he had introduced into it, and, sending round senators, was levying troops throughout Picenum.
12. Interea certior factus Iguvium Thermum praetorem cohortibus v tenere, oppidum munire, omniumque esse Iguvinorum optimam erga se voluntatem, Curionem cum tribus cohortibus, quas Pisauri et Arimini habebat, mittit. Cuius adventu cognito diffisus municipii voluntati Thermus cohortes ex urbe reducit et profugit. Milites in itinere ab eo discedunt ac domum revertuntur. Curio summa omnium voluntate Iguvium recipit. Quibus rebus cognitis confisus municipiorum voluntatibus Caesar cohortes legionis XIII ex praesidiis deducit Auximumque proficiscitur; quod oppidum Attius cohortibus introductis tenebat delectumque toto Piceno circummissis senatoribus habebat.
13. Learning of Caesar’s approach, the decurions of Auximum throng to meet Attius Varus and explain that they are not free to act at their discretion; that neither they nor the rest of their fellow-townsmen can endure that G. Caesar, holding imperial command, having deserved so well of the state and after performing such exploits, should be prevented from entering the walls of the town: so let Varus have regard to the future and his own peril. Stirred by their words, he withdraws from the town the garrison that he had brought in and takes to flight. A few of Caesar’s men of the first century followed him and compelled him to halt. An engagement is fought and Varus is deserted by his followers; some of his men retire to their homes, the rest make their way to Caesar; and among them L. Pupius, a centurion of the first company who had previously held the same rank in the army of Gn. Pompeius, is arrested with them and brought before him. Caesar, however, commends the men of Attius’ detachment, sends Pupius away, and thanks the inhabitants of Auximum, promising to remember their action.
13. Adventu Caesaris cognito decuriones Auximi ad Attium Varum frequentes conveniunt; docent sui iudicii rem non esse; neque se neque reliquos municipes pati posse C. Caesarem imperatorem, bene de re publica meritum, tantis rebus gestis oppido moenibusque prohiberi; proinde habeat rationem i posteritatis et periculi sui. Quorum oratione permotus Varus praesidium, quod introduxerat, ex oppido educit ac profugit. Hunc ex primo ordine pauci Caesaris consecuti milites consistere coegerunt. Commisso proelio deseritur a suis Varus; nonnulla pars militum domum discedit; reliqui ad Caesarem I perveniunt, atque una cum cis deprensus L. Pupius, I primi pili centurio, adducitur, qui hunc eundem ordinem in exercitu Cn. Pompei antea duxerat. At Caesar milites Attianos collaudat, Pupium dimittit, Auximatibus agit gratias seque eorum facti memorem fore pollicetur.
14. When these events were announced at Rome such consternation seized at once on the inhabitants that when the consul Lentulus had come to open the treasury for the purpose of providing a sum of money for Pompeius in. accordance with a decree of the senate, as soon as ever he had opened the inner treasury he fled from the city; for news was falsely brought that Caesar was on the very point of arriving and that his cavalry had already come. Lentulus was followed by his colleague Marcellus and by most of the magistrates. Gn. Pompeius had left the city the day before and was on his way to the legions which he had taken from Caesar and distributed in winter quarters in Apulia. The levying of troops round the city is broken off; no one thinks there is any safety this side of Capua. It was at Capua that they first rally with renewed courage and begin to raise a levy among the colonists who had been planted there under the Julian law, while Lentulus brings the gladiators, whom Caesar kept in a training school there, into the forum and encourages them by the prospect of liberty, gives them horses, and orders them to follow him; y but afterwards, on the admonition of his followers, because such a proceeding was censured by the general judgment, he distributes them for safe keeping among his friends in the burgess-body at Capua.
14. Quibus rebus Romam nuntiatis tantus repente terror invasit, ut, cum Lentulus consul ad aperiendum aerarium venisset ad pecuniam Pompeio ex senatusconsulto proferendam, protinus aperto sanctiore aerario ex urbe profugeret. Caesar enim adventare iam iamque et adesse eius equites falso nuntiabantur. Hunc Marcellus collega et plerique magistratus consecuti sunt. Cn. Pompeius pridie eius diei ex urbe profectus iter ad legiones habebat, quas a Caesare acceptas in Apulia hibernorum causa disposuerat. Delectus circa urbem intermittuntur; nihil citra Capuam tutum esse omnibus videtur. Capuae primum se confirmant et colligunt delectumque colonorum, qui lege Iulia Capuam deducti erant, habere instituunt; gladiatoresque, quos ibi Caesar in ludo habebat, ad forum productos Lentulus spe libertatis confirmat atque his equos attribuit et se sequi iussit; quos postea monitus ab suis, quod ea res omnium iudicio reprehendebatur, circum familiares conventus Campani custodiae causa distribuit.
15. Caesar, starting from Auximum, traverses the whole of the Picene territory. All the prefectures of those parts receive him with the utmost gladness and assist his army with supplies of every kind. Even from Cingulum, a town which Labienus had founded and built at his own expense, envoys come to him and promise to do his bidding with the utmost eagerness. He requisitions soldiers; they send them. Meanwhile the Twelfth Legion overtakes Caesar. With these two legions he goes to Asculum in Picenum. Lentulus Spinther, who was holding that town with ten cohorts, as soon as he hears of Caesar’s approach, flies from the town, and while endeavouring to take his cohorts away with him is deserted by a great part of his men. Abandoned on the march with a few followers, he falls in with Vibullius Rufus, who had been sent by Pompeius into the Picene district to confirm the loyalty of the inhabitants. Vibullius, on learning from him of what was going on in Picenum, takes over his soldiers and lets him go free. He also collects from the neighbouring districts what cohorts he can from the Pompeian levies; among them he captures Lucilius Hirrus, flying from Camerinum with six cohorts which he had there in garrison. By gathering all these together he makes up thirteen cohorts. With them he makes his way by forced marches to Domitius Ahenobarbus at Corfinium and reports the arrival of Caesar with two legions. Domitius by himself had collected and brought from Alba about twenty cohorts, consisting of Marsi and Peligni, drawn from the neighbouring districts.
15. Auximo Caesar progressus omnem agrum Picenum percurrit. Cunctae earum regionum praefecturae libentissimis animis eum recipiunt exercitumque eius omnibus rebus iuvant. Etiam Cingulo, quod oppidum Labienus constituerat suaque pecunia exaedificaverat, ad eum legati veniunt quaeque imperaverit se cupidissime facturos pollicentur. Milites imperat: mittunt. Interea legio XII Caesarem consequitur. Cum his duabus Asculum Picenum proficiscitur. Id oppidum Lentulus Spinther x cohortibus tenebat; qui Caesaris adventu cognito profugit ex oppido cohortesque secum abducere conatus magna parte militum deseritur. Relictus in itinere cum paucis incidit in Vibullium Rufum missum a Pompeio in agrum Picenum confirmandorum hominum causa. A quo factus Vibullius certior, quae res in Piceno gererentur, milites ab eo accipit, ipsum dimittit. Item ex finitimis regionibus quas potest contrahit cohortes ex delectibus Pompeianis; in his Camerino fugientem Lucilium Hirrum cum sex cohortibus, quas ibi in praesidio habuerat, excipit; quibus coactis XIII efficit. Cum his ad Domitium Ahenobarbum Corfinium magnis itineribus pervenit Caesaremque adesse cum legionibus duabus nuntiat. Domitius per se circiter xx cohortes Alba, ex Marsis et Pelignis, finitimis ab regionibus coegerat.
16. On the recovery of Firmum and the expulsion of Lentulus, Caesar gives orders that the men who had deserted Lentulus should be sought for and a levy instituted. He stays there himself one day for foraging purposes and then hastens to Corfinium. On his arrival there five cohorts dispatched from the town by Domitius were breaking down the bridge over the river, distant about three miles from the town. A conflict taking place there with Caesar’s skirmishers, the Domitian troops were quickly driven from the bridge and withdrew into the town. Caesar, leading his troops across, halted outside the town and pitched camp close to the wall.
16. Recepto Firmo expulsoque Lentulo Caesar conquiri milites, qui ab eo discesserant, delectumque instituti iubet; ipse unum diem ibi rei frumentariae causa moratus Corfinium contendit. Eo cum venisset, cohortes v praemissae a Domitio ex oppido pontem fluminis interrumpebant, qui erat ab oppido milia passuum circiter III Ibi cum antecursoribus Caesaris proelio commisso celeriter Domitiani a ponte repulsi se in oppidum receperunt. Caesar legionibus transductis ad oppidum constitit iuxtaque murum castra posuit.
17. Learning what had occurred, Domitius offers a large reward to some men acquainted with the district, and sends them with dispatches to Pompeius in Apulia to beg and beseech him to come to his assistance, pointing out that Caesar could easily be cut off by two armies operating in the narrow passes and so be prevented from foraging. If Pompeius does not do this, Domitius says that he himself and more than thirty cohorts and a great number of senators and Roman knights will be imperilled. Meanwhile, having exhorted his men, he places engines on the walls and assigns each man a definite duty for the protection of the town. In a speech he promises the troops lands out of his own possessions, four acres apiece, and in like proportion to the centurions and reserves.
17. Re cognita Domitius ad Pompeium in Apuliam peritos regionum magno proposito praemio cum litteris mittit, qui petant atque orent, ut sibi subveniat: Caesarem duobus exercitibus et locorum angustiis facile intercludi posse frumentoque prohiberi. Quod nisi fecerit, se cohortesque amplius XXX magnumque numerum senatorum atque equitum Romanorum in periculum esse venturum. Interim suos cohortatus tormenta in muris disponit certasque cuique partes ad custodiam urbis attribuit; militibus in contione agros ex suis possessionibus pollicetur, quaterna in singulos iugera et pro rata parte centurionibus evocatisque.
18. Meanwhile word is brought to Caesar that the inhabitants of Sulmo, a town seven miles distant from Corfinium, are ready to carry out his wishes, but are prevented by the senator Q. Lucretius and by Attius the Pelignian, who were in occupation of the town with a garrison of seven cohorts. He sends M. Antonius thither with five cohorts of the Thirteenth Legion. The people of Sulmo as soon as they saw our standards opened the gates and sallied forth in a body, townsmen and soldiers, to meet and congratulate Antonius. Lucretius and Attius flung themselves from the wall. Attius is brought to Antonius and begs to be sent to Caesar. Antonius returns with the cohorts and Attius the same day on which he started. Caesar united these cohorts with his own army and let Attius go free. He determined during the first few days to strengthen his camp with extensive works, to bring in supplies of corn from the neighbouring towns, and to wait for the rest of his forces. Three days after, the Eighth Legion joins him and twenty-two cohorts from the new levies in Gaul and about three hundred horsemen from the Noric lung. On their arrival he pitches a second camp the other side of the town, and puts Curio in charge of it. On the subsequent days he set himself to surround the town with an earthwork and redoubts. The main part of this work having been carried out, about the same time the messengers sent by Pompeius return.
18. Interim Caesari nuntiatur Sulmonenses, quod oppidum a Corfinio VII milium intervallo abest, cupere ea facere, quae vellet, sed a Q. Lucretio senatore et Attio Peligno prohiberi, qui id oppidum vii cohortium praesidio tenebant. Mittit eo M. Antonium cum legionis XIII cohortibus V. Sulmonenses, simulatque signa nostra viderunt, portas aperuerunt universique, et oppidani et milites, obviam gratulantes Antonio exierunt. Lucretius et Attius de muro se deiecerunt. Attius ad Antonium deductus petit, ut ad Caesarem mitteretur. Antonius cum cohortibus et Attio eodem die, quo profectus erat, revertitur. Caesar eas cohortes cum exercitu suo coniunxit Attiumque incolumem dimisit. Caesar primis diebus castra magnis operibus munire et ex finitimis municipiis frumentum comportare reliquasque copias exspectare instituit. Eo triduo legio XXII ad eum venit cohortesque ex novis Galliae delectibus XXII equitesque ab rege Norico circiter CCC Quorum adventu altera castra ad alteram oppidi partem ponit; his castris Curionem praefecit. Reliquis diebus oppidum vallo castellisque circummunire instituit. Cuius operis maxima parte effecta eodem fere tempore missi a Pompeio revertuntur.
19. When the dispatch was read Domitius, concealing the facts, asserts in a public meeting that Pompeius would quickly come to their aid, and exhorts them not to lose heart, but to prepare whatever was required for the defence of the town. Privately he confers with a few of his friends and determines to adopt the plan of flight. As his looks belied his words, and all his actions were marked by more haste and timidity than he had usually shown on the previous days, while, contrary to his custom, he conversed much in secret with his own friends by way of taking counsel, and shunned general deliberations and gatherings, concealment and dissimulation were no longer possible. For Pompeius had sent back word that he would not utterly imperil the whole situation, and that it was not by his advice or consent that Domitius had betaken himself into the town of Corfinium, and bade him therefore come to him with all his forces if there should be any opportunity of doing so. This, however, was being rendered impossible by the blockade and investment of the town.
19. Litteris perlectis Domitius dissimulans in consilio pronuntiat Pompeium celeriter subsidio venturum hortaturque eos, ne animo deficiant quaeque usui ad defendendum oppidum sint parent. Ipse arcano cum paucis familiaribus suis colloquitur consiliumque fugae Rapere constituit. Cum vultus Domitii cum oratione non consentiret atque omnia trepidantius timidiusque ageret, quam superioribus diebus consuesset, multumque cum suis consiliandi causa secreto praeter consuetudinem colloqueretur, concilia conventusque hominum fugeret, res diutius tegi dissimularique non potuit. Pompeius enim rescripserat: sese rem in summum periculum deducturum non esse, neque suo consilio aut voluntate Domitium se in oppidum Corfinium contulisse; proinde, si qua fuisset facultas, ad se cum omnibus copiis veniret. Id ne fieri posset, obsidione atque oppidi circummunitione fiebat.
20. When the intentions of Domitius had been divulged, the troops who were at Corfinium draw apart in the early evening and hold a conference among themselves by means of the military tribunes, centurions, and the most respectable men of their own class. They say that they are being invested by Caesar; that his siege works and fortifications are almost completed; that their leader Domitius, in confidence and reliance on whom they have remained steadfast, has abandoned them all and is meditating flight; that they are bound to consider their own safety. The Marsi at first disagree with them and occupy that part of the town which seemed the most strongly fortified; and so great a dissension arises among them that they attempt to engage in hostilities and to fight out the issue, but soon after, messengers having been sent to and fro, they learn the facts, of which they were unaware, about the proposed flight of L. Domitius. And so all unanimously surround Domitius, who had been brought out before them, and guard him, and send envoys out of their number to Caesar, saying that they are ready to open the gates, to do his bidding, and to give up L. Domitius alive into his hands.
20. Divulgato Domitii consilio milites, qui erant Corfinii, prima vesperi secessionem faciunt atque ita inter se per tribunos militum centurionesque atque honestissimos sui generis colloquuntur: obsideri se a Caesare, opera munitionesque prope esse perfectas; ducem suum Domitium, cuius spe atque fiducia permanserint, proiectis omnibus fugae consilium capere: debere se suae salutis rationem habere. Ab his primo Marsi dissentire incipiunt eamque oppidi partem, quae munitissima videretur, occupant, tantaque inter eos dissensio exsistit, ut manum conserere atque armis dimicare conentur; post paulo tamen internuntiis ultro citroque missis quae ignorabant, de L. Domitii fuga, cognoscunt. Itaque omnes uno consilio Domitium productum in publicum circumsistunt et custodiunt legatosque ex suo numero ad Caesarem mittunt: sese paratos esse portas aperire quaeque imperaverit facere et L. Domitium vivum eius potestati tradere.
21. When these things were known, although Caesar thought it of great importance to get possession of the town at once and to transfer the cohorts to his own camp, lest any change of feeling should be effected by lavish gifts or by a strengthening of their courage or by false news, since, as he reflected, great crises often occurred in war through slight Influences; nevertheless, fearing lest the town should be plundered by the entry of the troops and the licence of night, he commends those who had come to him and dismisses them into the town and orders the gates and walls to be carefully guarded. He personally distributes his men over the earthworks which he had set himself to construct, not leaving fixed intervals, as had been the custom on previous days, but in an unbroken line of sentries and outposts, so that they may touch one another and fill up the whole line of investment; he sends round the tribunes and prefects, exhorting them not merely to be on their guard against sallies, but also to watch for the secret exit of individuals. And, in fact, no one among them all was so remiss and languid in ’spirit as to take rest that night. So keenly did they await the ultimate issue that their hearts and minds were drawn in different directions as they asked what was happening to the Corfinians themselves, what to Domitius, what to Lentulus and to the rest, and what chances were befalling each side.
21. Quibus rebus cognitis Caesar, etsi magni interesse arbitrabatur quam primum oppido potiri cohortesque ad se in castra traducere, ne qua aut largitionibus aut animi confirmatione aut falsis nuntiis commutatio fieret voluntatis, quod saepe in bello parvis momentis magni casus intercederent, tamen veritus, ne militum introitu et nocturni temporis licentia oppidum diriperetur, eos, qui venerant, collaudat atque in oppidum dimittit, portas murosque asservari iubet. Ipse eis operibus, quae facere instituerat, milites disponit non certis spatiis intermissis, ut erat superiorum dierum consuetudo, sed perpetuis vigiliis stationibusque, ut contingant inter se atque omnem munitionem expleant; tribunos militum et praefectos circummittit atque hortatur, non solum ab emptionibus caveant, sed etiam singulorum hominum occultos exitus asservent. Neque vero tam remisso ac languido animo quisquam omnium fuit, qui ea nocte conquieverit. Tanta erat summae rerum exspectatio, ut alius in aliam partem mente atque animo traheretur, quid ipsis Corfiniensibus, quid Domitio, quid Lentulo, quid reliquis accideret, qui quosque eventus exciperent.