Dio's Roman History: Books 41-45

was called to account and declared an enemy, while B.c. 49 Bocchus and Bogud were named kings, because they were hostile to him.

The ensuing year the Romans had two sets of B.c. 48 magistrates, contrary to custom, and a mighty battle was fought. The people of the city had chosen as consuls Caesar and Publius Servilius, along with praetors and all the other officers required by law. Those in Thessalonica had made no such appointments, although they had by some accounts about two hundred of the senate and also the consuls with them and had appropriated a small piece of land for the auguries, in order that these might seem to take place under some form of law, so that they regarded the people and the whole city as present there. They had not appointed new magistrates for the reason that the consuls had not proposed the lex cuiiatal; but instead they employed the same officials as before, merely changing their names and calling some proconsuls, others propraetors, and others proquaestors. For they were very careful about precedents, even though they had taken up arms against their country and abandoned it, and they were anxious that the acts rendered necessary by the exigencies of the situation should not all be in violation of the strict requirement of the ordinances. Nevertheless, these men mentioned were the magistrates of the two parties in name only, while in reality it was Pompey and Caesar who were supreme; for the sake of good repute they bore the legal titles of proconsul and

1 The lex curiata de imperio, passed by the comida curíala, formally conferred upon a consul or praetor his authority. Though largely a matter of form at this time, the magistrate was nevertheless not felt to be fully in possession of the privileges of his office until this vote had been passed.

consul respectively, yet their acts were not those B.c. 48 which these offices permitted, but whatever they themselves pleased.

Under these conditions, with the government divided in twain, Pompey was wintering in Thessalonica and not keeping a very careful watch upon the coast; for he did not suppose that Caesar had yet arrived in Italy from Spain, and even if he were there, he did not suspect that he would venture to cross the Ionian Gulf in the winter, at any rate. But Caesar was in Brundisium, waiting for spring, and when he ascertained that Pompey was some distance off and that the mainland opposite was rather carelessly guarded, he seized upon the "chance of war1" and attacked him while his attention was relaxed. At any rate, when the winter was about half gone, he set out with a portion of his army, as there were not enough ships to carry them all across at once, and eluding Маг-cus Bibulus, to whom the guarding of the sea had* been committed, he crossed to the Ceraunian Headlands, as they are called, the outermost point of Epirus, near the mouth of the Ionian Gulf. Arriving there before it became noised abroad that he would sail at all, he sent the ships to Brundisium for the others; but Bibulus damaged them on the return voyage and actually took some in tow, so that Caesar learned by experience that the voyage he had made was more fortunate than prudent.

1 The expression rh Kaivhv rov iro\é/j.ov appears first in Thucydides (iii. 30), and soon became proverbial; cf. Polybius xxix. 6, Diodorns xx. 30, 67, Cic. ad Att. v. 20, 3. Dio uses it again in xlix. 5, 1. It seems to be used generally in the favourable sense of " the (lucky) chance of war." The proverb ran ttoWh. та ttaivb. Tov iro\¿nov ("many are the surprises of war ").