THIRD BOOK OF THE CIVIL WAR.—C?SAR FOLLOWS POMPEY INTO ILLYRIA.—THE LINES OF PETRA AND THE BATTLE OF PHARSALIA.—B.C. 48.

C?sar begins the last book of his last Commentary by telling us that this was the year in which he, C?sar, was by the law permitted to name a consul¹. He names Publius Servilius to act in conjunction with himself. The meaning of this is, that, as C?sar had been created Dictator, Pompey having taken with him into Illyria the consuls² of the previous year, C?sar was now the only magistrate³ under whose authority a consul could be elected. No doubt he did choose the man, but the election was supposed to have been made in accordance with the forms of the Republic. He remained at Rome as Dictator for eleven days, during which he made various laws, of which the chief object was to lessen⁴ the insecurity caused by the disruption of the ordinary course of things; and then he went down to Brindisi on the track of Pompey. He had twelve legions with him, but was but badly off for ships in which to transport them; and he owns that the health of the men is bad, an autumn in the south of Italy having been very severe{147} on men accustomed to the healthy climate of Gaul and the north of Spain. Pompey, he tells us, had had a whole year to prepare his army,—a whole year, without warfare⁵, and had collected men and ships and money, and all that support which assent⁶ gives, from Asia and the Cyclades, from Corcyra, Athens, Bithynia, Cilicia, Ph?nicia, Egypt, and the free states of Achaia. He had with him nine Roman legions, and is expecting two more with his father-in-law Scipio out of Syria. He has three thousand archers⁷ from Crete, from Sparta, and from Pontus; he has twelve hundred slingers, and he has seven thousand cavalry⁸ from Galatia, Cappadocia, and Thrace. A valorous prince from Macedonia had brought him two hundred men, all mounted. Five hundred of Galatian and German cavalry, who had been left to overawe Ptolemy in Egypt, are brought to Pompey by the filial care of young Cn?us. He too had armed eight hundred of their own family retainers, and had brought them armed. Antiochus of Commagena sends him two hundred mounted archers,—mercenaries, however, not sent without promise of high payment. Dardani,—men from the land of old Troy, Bessi, from the banks of the Hebrus, Thessalians and Macedonians, have all been crowded together under Pompey’s standard. We feel that C?sar’s mouth waters as he recounts them. But we feel also that he is preparing for the

分享到：