B.C. Y.R. 712 ordered to pay under penalty of being informed against and 42 fined? And even while levying these exactions the triumvirs have not fully paid the sums promised to their troops, while we, who have done nothing contrary to justice, have given you all that we promised and have other funds ready for still larger rewards. So it comes about that the gods favor us because we do what is just. 97. "Besides the favor of the gods you can see that we have that of mankind by looking at these, your fellow-citizens, whom you have often beheld as your generals and your consuls, and who have won your praises as such. You see that they have had recourse to us as to men doing right and defending the republic. They espouse our cause, they offer up their prayers, and they coöperate with us for what still remains to be done. Far more just are the rewards we have offered to those who rescue them than those which the triumvirs offer for killing them. The triumvirs know that we, who killed Cæsar because he assumed the monarchy, would not tolerate them in assuming his power and that we would not assume it ourselves, but that we would restore to the people in common the government as we received it from our ancestors. So you see the two sides have not taken up arms for the same reason, the enemy aiming at monarchy and despotism, as their proscription already proves, while we seek nothing but the mere privilege of living as private citizens under the laws of our country made once more free. Naturally the men before you espouse our side as the gods had done previously. In war the greatest hope lies in the justice of one's cause. 98. "Let it give no one any concern that he has been one of Cæsar's soldiers. We were not his soldiers then, but our country's. The pay and the rewards given were not Cæsar's, but the republic's. For the same reason you are not now the soldiers of Cassius, or of Brutus, but of Rome. We, Roman generals, are your fellow-soldiers. If our enemies were of the same spirit with ourselves it would be possible for all to lay down their arms without danger, and give back all the armies to the commonwealth, and let it choose its own destiny. If they will accept such terms, we challenge them to do so. Since they will not (for they could not, on account of the proscription and the other Y.R. B.C. 712 things they have done), let us go forward, fellow-soldiers, 42 with unwavering confidence and honest zeal, fighting only for the freedom of the Senate and people of Rome." 99. They all cried out, "Let us go forward!" and urged him to lead them on immediately. Cassius was delighted with their spirit, and again proclaimed silence and again addressed them, saying: "May the gods who preside over just wars and over good faith reward your zeal, fellow-soldiers. How far superior we are to the enemy in everything that the human foresight of generals can provide let me tell you. We are equal to them in the number of legions, although we have left behind us the large detachments needed in many places. In cavalry and ships we greatly surpass them, as also in auxiliaries from kings and nations as far as the Medes and Parthians. Besides this we have to deal only with an enemy in front, while Pompeius is cooperating with us in Sicily in their rear, and in the Adriatic Murcus and Ahenobarbus with a large fleet and abundance of small craft, besides two legions of soldiers and a body of archers, are cruising hither and thither harassing them in various ways, while both land and sea in our rear are cleared of enemies. As regards money, which some call the sinews of war,' they are destitute. They cannot pay what they have promised their army. The proceeds of the proscription have not met their expectation, because no good man will buy lands entailed with hate. Nor can they obtain resources elsewhere from Italy, exhausted as it is by civil strife, exactions, and proscriptions. Thanks to abundant foresight, we have plenty for the present, so that we can give you more shortly, and there are other large sums on the road collected from the nations behind us. 100. "Provisions, the supply of which is the chief difficulty in large armies, they can obtain only from Macedonia, a mountainous region, and the narrow country of Thessaly, and this must be carried to them overland with severe labor. If they try to obtain any from Africa, or Lucania, or Apulia, Pompeius, Murcus, and Domitius will cut them off entirely. We have abundance, and it is 1 VεÛρа TOλÉμOV: "sinews of war." This phrase is older than Appian. It occurs in Cicero's Philippic, v. 2, "nervos belli, pecuniam infinitam." Y.R. 712 brought to us daily by sea without labor from all the islands and mainlands which lie between Thrace and the river Euphrates, and without hindrance, since we have no enemy in our rear. So it rests with us either to hasten the battle, or by delaying it to waste the enemy by hunger. Such and so great, fellow-soldiers, are our preparations, so far as they depend on human foresight. May the future event correspond to these preparations by your efforts and by the help of the gods. As we have paid you all that we promised for your former exploits and have rewarded your fidelity with abundant gifts, so for this greater battle we will, under the favor of the gods, provide you a reward worthy of it. And now, to increase the zeal with which you already advance to your task, and in remembrance of this assembly and of these words, we will make an additional gift from this platform to each soldier 1500 Italic drachmas,1 to each centurion five times that sum, and to each tribune in proportion." IOI. Having thus spoken and having put his army in good spirits by deed and word and gifts, he dissolved the assembly. The soldiers remained a long time heaping praises on Cassius and Brutus and promising to do their duty. The generals immediately counted out the money to them, and to the bravest awarded an additional sum on various pretexts. As they received their pay they were dismissed by detachments on the march to Doriscus, and the generals themselves followed soon afterward. Two eagles alighted upon the two silver eagles which surmounted the standards, pecking at them, or, as others say, protecting them, and there they remained, being fed by the generals from the public stores until the day before the battle, when they flew away. After marching two days around the gulf of Melas the army came to Ænus and thence to Doriscus and other towns on the coast as far as Mount Serrium.2 1 This is the only place in Appian where we find the phrase " Italic drachmas." What is meant is the Roman denarius, equal to sixteen American cents. 2 Both Doriscus and Mount Serrium are mentioned in Pliny's Natural History (iv. 18). B.C. 42 CHAPTER XIII Y.R. 712 Tillius Cimber flanks the Enemy with his Fleet - Brutus and Cassius impeded by the Mountains- Severe Labors in the Thracian Forests - They arrive at Philippi― They encamp on the Hills 102. As Mount Serrium projected into the sea Cassius and Brutus turned to the mainland, but they sent Tillius Cimber with the fleet and one legion of troops and some archers to sail around the promontory, which, although fertile, was formerly deserted because the Thracians were not accustomed to the sea and avoided the coast for fear of pirates. So the Chalcideans and other Greeks took possession of it, being seafaring people, and caused it to flourish with commerce and agriculture, and the Thracians were much gratified by the opportunity for the exchange of products. Finally Philip, the son of Amyntas, drove out the Chalcideans and other Greeks so that no traces of them were to be seen except the ruins of their temples. Tillius sailed along this promontory, again deserted, as he had been ordered to do by Cassius and Brutus, measuring and mapping places suitable for camps, and approaching it with his ships now and then in order that the forces of Norbanus might abandon the pass, under the belief that it was useless to hold it longer. And it turned out as he had anticipated, for on the appearance of the ships Norbanus became alarmed for the Sapaan pass and called on Decidius to hasten from that of the Corpileans to his assistance, which he did. As soon as the latter pass was abandoned Brutus and Cassius marched through it. 103. When the stratagem became manifest Norbanus and Decidius occupied the gorge of the Sapaans strongly. Again Brutus and Cassius could find no passage. They fell into discouragement lest they should now have to begin the roundabout journey which they had disdained, and to turn upon their own tracks, although pressed by time and the lateness of the season. While they were in this mood Rhascupolis said that there was a circuitous route (along the very side of the Sapaan mountain) of three days' march, which had been impassable to men up to this time on account of rocks, scarcity of water, and dense forests. B.C. 42 Y.R. B.C. 712 If they would carry their water and make a narrow but suf- 42 ficient pathway, they would be so enveloped in shade that they would not be perceived even by birds. On the fourth day they would come to the river Harpessus, which falls into the Hebrus, and in one day more they would be at Philippi, flanking the enemy so as to cut him off completely and leave him no chance to retreat. They adopted this plan since there was nothing else to do, and especially because it held out the hope of surrounding so large a force of the enemy. 104. They sent a detachment in advance under command of Lucius Bibulus, in company with Rhascupolis, to cut a path. They found it a very laborious task, but they accomplished it nevertheless with enthusiastic zeal, and all the more when some who had gone ahead came back and said that they had had a distant view of the river. On the fourth day, fatigued with labor and thirst, the water which they carried being nearly exhausted, they recollected that it had been said that they should be in a waterless region only three days. So they fell into a panic, fearing that they were the victims of a stratagem. They did not disbelieve those who had been sent in advance and who said that they had seen the river, but they thought that they themselves had been led in a different direction. They lost heart and cried aloud, and when they saw Rhascupolis riding by and exhorting them to have courage, they reviled him and threw stones at him. While Bibulus was beseeching them with words of good cheer to persevere to the end, towards evening the river was seen by those in front, who, as was natural, raised a cry of joy, which was taken up by those behind in due order until it reached the rear. When Brutus and Cassius learned this they hurried forward at once, leading on the remainder of their army through the pathway that had been cleared. Nevertheless, they did not conceal their doings from the enemy altogether, nor surround them, for Rhascus, the brother of Rhascupolis, having his suspicions aroused by the shouting, made a reconnoissance; and when he saw what was being done he was astonished at so large an army traversing a pathway where no water could be obtained, and where he thought not even a wild beast could penetrate by reason of the dense foliage, |