A. Urb. 704. Cic. 58. Coss.---C. Claudius Marcellus. L. Corn. Lentulus Crus.

no success from the war; and there was no opportunity of destroying it so favourable, as when Pompey himself was at such a distance from it. This was the reason of his marching back with so much expedition to find, as he said, " an army without a general, and "return to a general without an army *." The event shewed, that he judged right; for within forty days from the first sight of his enemy in Spain, he made himself master of the whole province ‡.

A. Urb. 705. Cic. 59. Coss.---C. Julius Cæsar II. P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus.

AFTER the reduction of Spain, he was created Dictator by M. Lepidus, then prætor at Rome, and by his dictatorial power declared himself consul, with P. Servilius Isauricus; but he was no sooner invested with this office, than he marched to Brundisium, and embarked on the fourth of January, in order to find out Pompey. The carrying about in his person the supreme dignity of the empire, added no small authority to his cause, by making the cities and states abroad the more cautious of acting against him, or giving them a better pretence at least for opening their gates to the consul of Rome -t. Cicero, all this while, despairing of any good from the war, had been using all his

*Ire se ad exercitum sine duce, et inde reversurum ad ducem sine exercitu. Sueton. J. Cæs. 34.

Cæs. Comment. 1. 2.

+Illi se daturos negare, neque portas consuli præclusuros. Cæs. Comm. 1. 3. 590.

A. Urb. 705. Cic. 59. Coss.---C. Julius Cæsar II. P. Servilíus Vatia Isauricus.

endeavours to dispose his friends to peace, till Pompey forbade any farther mention of it in council, declaring, "that he valued neither life nor country, for which "he must be indebted to Cæsar, as the world must take "the case to be, should he accept any conditions in " his present circumstances +." He was sensible that he had hitherto been acting a contemptible part, and done nothing equal to the great name which he had acquired in the world; and was determined therefore, to retrieve his honour before he laid down his arms, by the destruction of his adversary, or to perish in the attempt.

During the blockade of Dyrrhachium, it was a current notion in Cæsar's army, that Pompey would draw off his troops into his ships, and remove the war to some distant place. Upon this Dolabella, who was with Cæsar, sent a letter to Cicero into Pompey's camp, exhorting him," that if Pompey should be driven from "these quarters, to seek some other country, he would "sit down quietly at Athens, or any city remote from "the war that it was time to think of his own safety, "and be a friend to himself, rather than to others: "that he had now fully satisfied his duty, his friend

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ship, and his engagements to that party, which he "had espoused in the republic: that there was no

+ Desperans victoriam, primum cœpi suadere pacem, cujus fueram semper auctor; deinde cum ab ea sententia Pompeius valde abhorreret. Ep. fam. 7. 3.

Vibullius- -de Cæsaris mandatis agere instituit; eum ingres9um in sermonem Pompeius interpellavit, et loqui plura prohibuit. Quid mihi, inquit, aut vita aut civitate opus est, quam beneficio Cæsaris habere videbor? Cæs. Comm. 596.

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A. Urb. 705. Cic. 59. Coss.---C Julius Cæsar II. P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus.

thing left, but to be where the republic itself now was, rather than by following that ancient one to be "in none at all--and that Cæsar would readily approve this conduct :" but the war took a quite different turn; and, instead of Pompey's running away from Dyrrhachium, Cæsar, by an unexpected defeat before it, was forced to retire the first, and leave to Pompey the credit of pursuing him, as in a kind of flight towards Macedonia.

While the two armies were thus employed, Cælius, now prætor at Rome, trusting to his power, and the success of his party, began to publish several violent and odious laws, especially one for the cancelling of all debts. This raised a great flame in the city, till he was over-ruled and deposed from his magistracy by the consul Servilius, and the senate: but being made desperate by this affront, he recalled Milo from his exile at Marseilles, whom Cæsar had refused to restore; and, in concert with him, resolved to raise some public commotion in favour of Pompey. In this disposition he wrote his last letter to Cicero; in which, after an account of his conversion, and the service which he was projecting, "You are asleep," says he," and do not know "how open and weak we are here: what are you doing? Are you waiting for a battle, which is sure to

Illud autem a te peto, ut, si jam ille evitaverit hoc periculum, et se abdiderit in classem, tu tuis rebus consulas: et aliquando tibi potius quam cuivis sis amicus. Satis factum est jam a te vel officio, vel familiaritati; satisfactum etiam partibus, et ei reipub. quam tu probabas. Reliquum est, ubi nunc est respub. ibi simus potius, quam dum veterem illam sequamur, simus in nulla. Ep. fam. 9.9. Cæs. Comment. 3. 600.

A. Urb. 705. Cic. 59. Coss.---C. Julius Cæsar II. P. Servilius. Vatia Isauricus.

"be against you? I am not acquainted with your

troops; but ours have been long used to fight hard; "and to bear cold and hunger with ease *." But this disturbance, which began to alarm all Italy, was soon ended by the death of the authors of it, Milo and Cælius, who perished in their rash attempt, being destroyed by the soldiers whom they were endeavouring to debauch. They had both attached themselves very early to the interests and the authority of Cicero, and were qualified, by their parts and fortunes, to have, made a principal figure in the republic, if they had continued in those sentiments, and adhered to his advice; but their passions, pleasures, and ambition got the ascendant, and, through a factious and turbulent life, hurried them on to this wretched fate.

All thoughts of peace being now laid aside, Cicero's next advice to Pompey was, to draw the war into length, nor ever to give Cæsar the opportunity of a battle. Pompey approved this counsel, and pursued it for some time, till he gained the advantage abovementioned before Dyrrhachium; which gave him such a confidence in his own troops, and such a contempt of Cæsar's," that from this moment," says Cicero, "this great man ceased to be a general; opposed a raw, new-raised army, to the most robust and vete

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* Vos dormitis, nec hæc adhuc mihi videmini intelligere, quam nos pateamus, et quam simus imbecilli-quid istic facitis? prælium expectatis, quod firmissimum est? vestras copias non novi. Nostri valde depugnare, et facile algere et esurire consueverunt. Ep. fam. 8. 17.

A. Urb. 705. Cic. 59. Coss.-C. Julius Cæsar II. P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus.

"ran legions; was shamefully beaten; and, with the "loss of his camp, forced to fly away alone +."

Had Cicero's advice been followed, Cæsar must inevitably have been ruined: for Pompey's fleet would have cut off all supplies from him by sea; and it was not possible for him to subsist long at land; while an enemy, superior in number of troops, was perpetually harassing him, and wasting the country: and the rereport every where spread of his flying from Dyrrhachium before a victorious army, which was pursuing him, made his march'every way the more difficult, and the people of the country more shy of assisting him; till the despicable figure that he seemed to make, raised such an impatience for fighting, and assurance of victory in the Pompeian chiefs, as drew them to the fatal resolution of giving him battle at Pharsalia. There was another motive likewise suggested to us by Cicero, which seems to have had no small influence in determining Pompey to this unhappy step; his superstitious regard to omens, and the admonitions of diviners, to which his nature was strongly addicted. The haruspices were all on his side, and flattered him with every thing that was prosperous: and, besides those in his own camp, the whole fraternity of them at Rome were sending him perpetual accounts of the fortunate

+ Cum ab ea sententia Pompeius valde abhorreret, suadere institui, ut bellum duceret: hoc interdum probabat et in ea sententia videbatur fore, et fuisset fortasse, nisi quadam ex pugna cœpisset militibus suis confidere. Ex eo tempore vir ille summus nullus Imperator fuit: victus turpissime, amissis etiam castris, solus fugit. Ep. fam. 7. 3.