For Caesar, returning victorious from Gaul, demanded that a second consulship be decreed to him in his absence. This was opposed by the consul Marcellus, with Pompey’s support; then the senate decreed that Caesar should not come to the City unless he had disbanded his army; and on the authority of the consul Marcellus, Pompey was sent with military command to the legions that were at Luceria.
1 Nam rediens Caesar uictor ex Gallia decerni sibi absenti alterum consulatum poposcit. contradictum est a Marcello consule adnitente Pompeio, deinde decretum est a senatu, ut in urbem Caesar non nisi dimisso exercitu ueniret, et ex Marcelli consulis auctoritate ad legiones, quae apud Luceriam erant, Pompeius cum imperio missus est.
Caesar betook himself to Ravenna. Mark Antony and Publius Cassius, tribunes of the plebs, interceding on Caesar’s behalf, were barred from the senate house and the forum at the order of the consul Lentulus, and set out for Caesar, with Curio and Caelius accompanying them.1
2 Caesar Rauennam sese contulit. M. Antonius et P. Cassius tribuni plebis pro Caesare intercedentes, interdicente Lentulo consule curia foroque prohibiti, ad Caesarem profecti sunt Curione simul Caelioque comitantibus.
1The tribune was Quintus Cassius Longinus; Orosius gives him the praenomen Publius.
Caesar crossed the river Rubicon, and as soon as he came to Ariminum, he instructed the five cohorts which were all he then had — with which, as Livy says, he attacked the whole world — in what needed to be done. Lamenting the wrongs done to him, he declared that the cause of the civil war was the restoration of the tribunes to their country.
3 Caesar Rubicone flumine transmeato, mox ut Ariminum uenit, quinque cohortes, quas tunc solas habebat, cum quibus, ut ait Liuius, orbem terrarum adortus est, quid facto opus esset, edocuit. deplorans iniurias suas, causam belli ciuilis, pro restituendis in patriam tribunis, esse testatus est.
Then through Antony he took over from Lucretius seven cohorts that were stationed at Sulmo, and brought over to his side three legions that were stationed with Domitius at Corfinium. Pompey and the whole senate, alarmed at Caesar’s growing strength, crossed into Greece as though driven out of Italy, and chose Dyrrachium as the seat for waging the war.
4 inde per Antonium septem cohortes, quae apud Sulmonem morabantur, a Lucretio recepit, tres legiones, quae cum Domitio apud Corfinium morabantur, ad suas partes traduxit. Pompeius atque omnis senatus, crescentibus Caesaris uiribus trepidi, tamquam Italia pulsi in Graeciam transuecti, Dyrrachium gerendi belli sedem delegerunt.
Caesar came to Rome, and when money from the treasury was refused him, he broke down the doors and seized it, and brought out of it 4,135 pounds of gold and nearly 900,000 pounds of silver.
5 Caesar Romam uenit negatamque sibi ex aerario pecuniam fractis foribus inuasit protulitque ex eo auri pondo quattuor milia centum triginta et quinque, argenti pondo prope nongenta millia.
Departing from there to the legions at Ariminum, he soon crossed the Alps and came to Marseille; leaving Trebonius with three legions to besiege it, because it had not received him, he hastened to the Spanish provinces, which Lucius Afranius, Marcus Petreius and Marcus Varro, Pompey’s generals, held with their legions. There he overcame Petreius and Afranius in many battles, made an agreement with them and let them go.
6 inde digressus Ariminum ad legiones, mox Alpes transuectus Massiliam uenit, ad quam oppugnandam, cur receptus non esset, Trebonium cum tribus legionibus relinquens, ad Hispanias contendit, quas L. Afranius et M. Petreius et M. Varro Pompeiani duces cum legionibus obtinebant. ibi multis proeliis Petreium Afraniumque superatos conposita pactione dimisit.
In Further Spain he took over two legions from Marcus Varro. His generals likewise prevailed: Curio drove Cato out of Sicily, Valerius drove Cotta out of Sardinia, and Varus drove Tubero out of Africa. Caesar, returning to Marseille, which had been subdued by siege, granted it only life and liberty and stripped it of everything else.
7 in ulteriore uero Hispania duas legiones a M. Varrone suscepit. similiter et duces eius, hoc est Curio Catonem Sicilia expulit, Valerius Cottam Sardinia, Tuberonem Africa Varus eiecit. Caesar Massiliam rediens, obsidione domitam uita tantum et libertate concessa ceteris rebus abrasit.
But Dolabella, of Caesar’s party, was defeated in Illyricum by Octavius and Libo, stripped of his forces, and fled to Antonius. Basilus and Sallust, each with the single legion he commanded, and likewise Antonius, and Hortensius too, hastening from the Lower Sea with a fleet, all set out together against Octavius and Libo, and were defeated.2
8 At uero Dolabella partium Caesaris in Illyrico per Octauium et Libonem uictus copiisque exutus ad Antonium fugit. Basilus et Sallustius cum singulis legionibus, quibus praeerant, similiter et Antonius, Hortensius quoque ab infimo mari cum classe concurrens, omnesque pariter aduersus Octauium et Libonem profecti et uicti sunt.
2This Antonius is Gaius Antonius, Mark Antony’s brother.
When Antonius had surrendered to Octavius with fifteen cohorts, all were led away by Libo to Pompey. Curio crossed with his army from Sicily into Africa; King Juba at once caught him and slaughtered him with all his forces. Octavius, attempting to storm Salonae, lost almost all the forces he led.
9 Antonius cum se Octauio cum quindecim cohortibus dedisset, omnes ad Pompeium a Libone deducti sunt. Curio ex Sicilia in Africam cum exercitu transgressus est: quem Iuba rex continuo exceptum cum omnibus copiis trucidauit. Octauius Salonas oppugnare conatus, omnes paene copias quas duxit amisit.
Caelius revolted from Caesar and joined Milo the exile; and when both attempted to storm Capua with a band of slaves, they were killed. Bibulus, at Corcyra, overcome by shame because the enemy had made a mockery of the watch which he was keeping over the sea and the town, wore himself out with fasting and sleeplessness.
10 Caelius desciuit a Caesare ac se Miloni exuli iunxit; cumque ambo seruorum manu Capuam oppugnare molirentur, occisi sunt. Bibulus apud Corcyram pudore uictus, quod custodiae eius, quam pelago et oppido praetendebat, hostis inluserat, inedia sese uigiliisque confecit.
Appius Claudius Censorinus, who was guarding Greece at Pompey’s command, wished to put to the test the credibility of the Pythian oracle, which had by then been abolished. For the prophetess, compelled by him to go down into the cave, is said to have answered him when he consulted her about the war: “This war does not concern you, Roman; you will possess the Hollows of Euboea.” Now they call the Euboean Gulf “the Hollows.” And so Appius went away uncertain, at a loss over the perplexing oracle.3
11 Appius Claudius Censorinus, qui iussu Pompei Graeciam tuebatur, iam abolitam Pythici oraculi fidem uoluit experiri: quippe ab eo adacta uates descendere in specum respondisse fertur de bello consulenti: Nihil ad te hoc, Romane, bellum pertinet, Euboeae coela obtinebis. coela autem uocant Euboicum sinum. ita Appius perplexa incertus sorte discessit.
3This is Appius Claudius Pulcher, consul in 54 BC; the cognomen Censorinus is Orosius’s error. The oracle was held to be fulfilled when he died in Euboea before the battle of Pharsalus.
This consulter prompts us to consult our detractors on a certain point. They complain, of course, that by the faith of the Christians their rites have been forbidden and their ceremonies done away with, and for this reason above all: that with entrails and prophecies ceasing, future disasters are not avoided, because they cannot be known.
12 Admonet nos aliquid ab obtrectatoribus nostris consultor iste consulere. queruntur utique fide Christianorum sibi sacra interdicta caerimoniasque sublatas et ob hoc ideo maxime, quod extis uaticiniisque cessantibus futurae clades, quia sciri nequeunt, non uitantur.
Why then, long before the rule of Caesar and the birth of Christ, as their own authors attest, had the credibility of the Pythian oracle been abolished? Abolished, moreover, because it was despised. And why despised, if not because it was false, or empty, or doubtful? Whence the poet prudently gave warning: “Unanswered they depart, and hate the Sibyl’s seat.”
13 cur ergo longe ante imperium Caesaris natiuitatemque Christi, sicut ipsorum auctores adtestantur, abolita fuerat Pythici oraculi fides? abolita autem ideo, quia contempta. porro autem quare contempta, nisi quia uel falsa uel uana uel dubia? unde prudenter poeta praemonuit: Inconsulti abeunt sedemque odere Sibyllae.
And lest they should perhaps think of little weight what was abolished and made obsolete through contempt — whether the divinity or its seat: this was that Pythian Apollo who, they say, having killed the great serpent Python, author and prince of all prophecy, became heir to its seat, its divination and its name, and chose to give his responses in the very place where divination itself seemed to have arisen together with its author;
14 Et ne forte parui id pendant, quod contemptu abolitum atque antiquatum fuit, hoc est aut numen aut sedem: Apollo ille Pythius erat, quem ferunt magno illo Pythone serpente interfecto, totius uaticinationis auctore et principe, heredem et sedis et diuinationis et nominis exstitisse ibique eum reddere elegisse responsa, ubi orta cum auctore ipsa diuinatio uidebatur,
he, moreover, whom in other parts of the earth too the whole madness of the frenzied belches forth with foaming mouths and raving rushing to and fro; to whom very many kings of the earth ran, as to the living voice of a deity consulted; to whom the Romans themselves very often sent the richest gifts.
15 praeterea quem per alias quoque terrarum partes spumantibus buccis rabidoque discursu omnis furiatorum ructat insania, ad quem plurimi terrarum reges quasi ad uiuam uocem consulti numinis cucurrerunt, cui saepissime ipsi quoque Romani opulentissima dona miserunt.
But if this Pythian Apollo was by degrees despised, abandoned and abolished as experience came to discern the truth, what living word can be hoped for from a dead beast, what truth from a crazed little woman? What, finally, will “the fat Tyrrhenian, when he has blown the ivory horn at the altars,” not invent when he is hungry, once the entrails of a fattened beast are laid out, if, as they themselves confess, Apollo himself leads men astray by speaking either obscurely or falsely?
16 at si Apollo iste Pythius paulatim discernente experientia contemptus relictus atque abolitus est, quid uiuum de mortua pecude, quid uerum de amente muliercula sperari potest? quid postremo, Inflauit cum pinguis ebur Tyrrhenus ad aras, expositis opimae pecudis intestinis, non finget esuriens, si, ut ipsi fatentur, uel obscura uel falsa dicendo ipse Apollo seducit?
Let them therefore bear it with equanimity, even if for the present they are unwilling to imitate it, that we, by the judgement of truth, should also forbid what their ancestors were able to despise even from experience.
17 quamobrem aequo animo ferant, etsi imitari interim nolunt, nos id ueritatis iudicio etiam prohibere, quod potuerunt maiores eorum uel experiendo contemnere.
Meanwhile many kings of the East came together to Pompey at Dyrrachium with auxiliaries. When Caesar had come there, he encircled Pompey with a siege, in vain, fencing off fifteen miles of land with a ditch, while the seas lay open to the other side.
18 Interea apud Dyrrachium multi orientis reges ad Pompeium cum auxiliis conuenerunt. quo cum Caesar uenisset, Pompeium obsidione frustra cinxit, ipse terram quindecim m. p. fossa praestruens, cum illi maria paterent.
Pompey overthrew a certain fort near the sea, which Marcellinus was guarding, and killed Caesar’s garrisons stationed there. Caesar attacked Torquatus and a single legion in order to storm their position.
19 Pompeius castellum quoddam propinquum mari, quod Marcellinus tuebatur, euertit praesidiaque Caesaris, quae ibidem morabantur, occidit. Caesar Torquatum legionemque unam, ut expugnaret, adgressus est.
Pompey, learning of this danger to his allies, drew all his forces there; and Caesar at once abandoned the siege and turned against him. Torquatus, however, bursting out on the instant, pursued him from behind.
20 hoc periculo sociorum Pompeius cognito omnes eo copias contraxit: in quem se ilico Caesar omissa obsidione conuertit. Torquatus autem e uestigio prorumpens auersum insecutus est.
Thus Caesar’s soldiers, terrified by danger on both sides, fled, though Caesar himself tried in vain to stop them. But Pompey, the victor even by Caesar’s own testimony, called back his army from the pursuit. Four thousand of Caesar’s soldiers, twenty-two centurions and a good many Roman knights were slain in that battle.
21 ita Caesaris milites ancipiti periculo territi ipso Caesare frustra obsistente fugerunt. Pompeius uero Caesaris quoque testimonio uictor persequentem reuocauit exercitum. quattuor milia militum Caesaris, centuriones uiginti et duo, equites Romani conplures in eo proelio caesi sunt.
From there Caesar went on with a rapid march through Epirus into Thessaly; Pompey followed with very great forces, and battle was joined.
22 Caesar inde citato agmine per Epirum in Thessaliam perrexit; Pompeius cum maximis copiis secutus bellumque commissum est.
And so the battle lines were drawn up on both sides. Pompey placed eighty-eight cohorts in triple order: there were forty thousand infantry, six hundred cavalry on the left wing and five hundred on the right, besides many kings and very many senators and Roman knights, not counting a great force of light-armed troops.4
23 itaque instruitur utrimque acies. Pompeius octoginta et octo cohortes triplici ordine locauit: fuerunt autem peditum quadraginta milia, equites in sinistro cornu sescenti, in dextro quingenti, praeterea reges multi, senatores equitesque Romani plurimi, absque leuium armaturarum magna copia.
4Pompey’s cavalry in fact numbered about 7,000 (Caesar, Civil War 3.84); the figures of 600 and 500 cannot be right.
Caesar likewise arranged eighty cohorts in triple order; he had fewer than thirty thousand infantry, and a thousand cavalry.
24 Caesar similiter octoginta cohortes triplici ordine disposuit, cui fuerunt minus quam triginta milia peditum, equites mille.
There one might see, and groan to see, the gathered strength of the Romans standing on the plains of Pharsalus for mutual slaughter — strength which, had concord ruled it, no peoples and no kings could have withstood.
25 uidere ibi et gemere erat contractas Romanorum uires in campis Pharsalicis ad occisionem mutuam constitisse, quas si concordia rexisset, nulli populi, nulli reges ferre potuissent.
At the first encounter Pompey’s cavalry was driven back and left his left flank bare. Then, when men had long been slaughtered on both sides with doubtful fortune, and on the one side Pompey, as he exhorted his men, kept saying, “Spare the citizens!” and yet did not do so, while on the other Caesar did what he urged, saying, “Soldier, strike the face!”, at length the whole army of Pompey fled, and its camp was plundered.
26 prima congressione equitatus Pompei pulsus sinistra latera nudauit. deinde cum diu utrimque dubia sorte caederentur atque ex alia parte Pompeius inter hortandum diceret parce ciuibus nec tamen faceret, ex alia uero Caesar hoc faceret, quod urgeret dicens miles, faciem feri, tandem uniuersus Pompei fugit exercitus, castraque direpta sunt.
In that battle fifteen thousand of the Pompeians were slain, and thirty-three centurions. Such was the issue of the battle at Old Pharsalus. Pompey, fleeing, found a merchant ship at the mouth of the river Peneus and crossed into Asia.
27 caesa sunt in eo proelio Pompeianorum quindecim milia, centuriones triginta et tres. hic exitus pugnae ad Palaeopharsalum fuit. Pompeius fugiens in ostio Penei amnis onerariam nauem nanctus in Asiam transiit.
From there he came by way of Cyprus to Egypt, and there, as soon as he touched the shore, he was killed by order of the young Ptolemy, to win the favour of the victorious Caesar. Pompey’s wife and sons fled; the rest of Pompey’s fleet was plundered and all who were on it most cruelly slaughtered, and there Pompeius Bithynicus too was killed. Lentulus, a man of consular rank, was put to death at Pelusium.
28 inde per Cyprum in Aegyptum uenit ibique mox ut litus attigit, iussu Ptolemaei adulescentis in gratiam Caesaris uictoris occisus est. Pompei uxor filiique fugerunt; cetera Pompeiana classis direpta est omnibus qui in ea erant crudelissime trucidatis, ibique et Pompeius Bithynicus occisus est. Lentulus uero uir consularis apud Pelusium interfectus est.
Caesar, having settled matters in Thessaly, came to Alexandria; and when Pompey’s head and ring were brought to him and he saw them, he wept. And when he had taken up residence in the palace, he was tricked by the king’s guardians so that he should not receive money: they cunningly stripped their own temples, both to show that the royal treasuries were empty and to stir up the people to hatred of Caesar.
29 Caesar conpositis apud Thessaliam rebus Alexandriam uenit perlatoque ad se ac uiso Pompei capite anuloque fleuit; cumque se in regiam recepisset, eludebatur a tutoribus, quo minus pecuniam acciperet, templa sua astu spoliantibus, ut et regios thesauros uacuos esse ostenderent et in inuidiam Caesaris populum concitarent.
Moreover Achillas, the king’s general, once steeped in the blood of Pompey, was plotting the death of Caesar too. For when ordered to disband the army of twenty thousand armed men which he commanded, he not only spurned the command but even drew up his battle line.
30 praeterea Achillas dux regius, imbutus semel Pompei sanguine, Caesaris quoque necem meditabatur. nam iussus exercitum dimittere, cui praeerat, uiginti milium armatorum, non modo spreuit imperium, uerum et aciem direxit.
In the battle itself the royal fleet, which happened to be drawn up on shore, was ordered to be burned. When that flame had spread to part of the city too, it burned up four hundred thousand books stored in buildings that happened to be nearby — a singular monument indeed of the zeal and care of the men of old, who had gathered together so many and such great works of illustrious minds.
31 in ipso proelio regia classis forte subducta iubetur incendi. ea flamma cum partem quoque urbis inuasisset, quadringenta milia librorum proximis forte aedibus condita exussit, singulare profecto monumentum studii curaeque maiorum, qui tot tantaque inlustrium ingeniorum opera congesserant.
Hence, although even today there exist in the temples book-chests, which we ourselves have seen, and which, men recall, were emptied when they were plundered by our own people in our own times — and this is indeed true — yet it is more honourable to believe that other books had been acquired to rival the zeal for learning of former days, than that there was at that time some other library which could be believed to have existed apart from the four hundred thousand books, and so to have escaped.
32 unde quamlibet hodieque in templis extent, quae et nos uidimus, armaria librorum, quibus direptis exinanita ea a nostris hominibus nostris temporibus memorent - quod quidem uerum est -, tamen honestius creditur alios libros fuisse quaesitos, qui pristinas studiorum curas aemularentur, quam aliam ullam tunc fuisse bibliothecam, quae extra quadringenta milia librorum fuisse ac per hoc euasisse credatur.
Afterwards Caesar took the island on which the Pharos stands. Achillas came there with the Gabinian soldiers. A huge battle was fought: a great multitude of Caesar’s soldiers fell there, and all the murderers of Pompey were killed as well.
33 Caesar postea insulam, ubi Pharos est, cepit. eo Achillas cum Gabinianis militibus uenit. ingens pugna commissa est: magna ibi Caesarianorum militum multitudo cecidit, omnes etiam interfectores Pompei interfecti sunt.
Caesar, pressed by the force of the enemy bearing down on him, boarded a skiff; and when this was soon weighed down and sunk by the weight of those who followed him, he reached a ship two hundred paces away by swimming, holding up the one hand in which he held his papers. Soon, attacked in a naval battle, he with great good fortune either sank or captured the royal fleet.
34 Caesar ui insistentium hostium pressus scapham escendit: qua mox pondere subsequentium grauata ac mersa, per ducentos passus ad nauem una manu eleuata, qua chartas tenebat, nando peruenit, mox nauali certamine pulsatus, magna felicitate classem regiam aut depressit aut cepit.