CHAPTER XII.

SCIPIO AND DOMITIUS.

B.C. 48.

CAESAR now suspends his narrative and turns to the affairs of the East (c. 31). P. Scipio, the proconsul of Syria, after sustaining some loss in the mountains of the Amanus, the northern boundary of his province, had assumed the title of Imperator.' He made large requisitions of money on the towns of Syria and the petty rulers: he also exacted from the farmers (publicani) of the taxes the amount of two years' payment then due to the Roman treasury; and he also demanded as a loan the sum which would be due for the next year; and he required cavalry from all the province. Syria, we may be assured, would be compelled to make up to the farmers the money which had been extorted from them by the grasping proconsul. Scipio left behind him his neighbouring enemies the Parthians, who had destroyed M. Crassus in B.c. 53, and blockaded M. Bibulus in B.C. 50. He led his forces from Syria across the Taurus towards the province Asia, though Syria was in a state of the greatest anxiety about a Parthian war, and it was known that some of the soldiers had expressed their discontent and declared that they were ready to follow their commander against the enemy, but that they would not fight against a fellow-citizen and a Roman consul. However Scipio brought his men to Pergamum, one of the chief towns of the province Asia, where he placed them in winter quarters

1 Caesar's words contain a bitter sarcasm on the proconsul of Syria, and in these three chapters he has exposed the greediness of Scipio and his contempt for the man.

and in the richest cities; and he satisfied his discontented soldiers by great bounties and giving the towns up to them for plunder to secure their fidelity.

2

The money requisitions laid on the province of Asia were exacted with the utmost severity; and many devices were invented for satisfying the proconsul's greediness. A tax was imposed on every head, both slave and free: taxes were laid on columns and doors; corn, soldiers, arms, rowers, military engines, carriages were the subjects of requisitions: any name was used as a sufficient pretext for imposing a tax. Men with military authority were set over cities, and even small villages and fortified places; and he who exercised his power most severely, was considered to be the best man and the best citizen. The province was full of lictors and of men invested with power, it swarmed with praefecti and extortioners, who besides the money demanded as a requisition took more for themselves. They said that they were driven from home and country and were in want of all necessaries; and so they used this pretext as a cloak for their villainy. In addition to all this there happened what is usual in time of war: the rate of interest rose very high in consequence of the demand imposed on all; and in those two years debt in the province was increased. Nor did these exactions save the Roman citizens of the province, for certain sums were levied on the several judicial districts (conventus) and on the several towns and it was declared that these sums were exacted as a loan under a resolution of the Senate; and the Roman citizens must of course contribute to the loan. The Publicani also advanced as a loan the taxes which they would collect in the following year. At Ephesus Scipio ordered the money to be taken from the temple of Diana, which it was an ancient practice to

If a man had columns to his house, he would be taxed in respect of the columns, for they would be taken as evidence of wealth. We tax in the same way. In England a man pays a tax on his carriage and horses, because the possession of them is evidence that he has more money than many other people; and as money is wanted for state expenses, such a man is selected as a contributor. So Scipio used any name as a pretext for taxing: it might be coach or horses, or plate, or columns or doors.

3 Praefecti. See vol. iv. p. 424.

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deposit there, and a day was fixed for this purpose. When Scipio had gone to the temple accompanied by several senators as witnesses, he received a letter from Pompeius, which informed him that Caesar had crossed the sea with his legions, and that Scipio must hasten with his army and postpone everything else. On receiving this letter Scipio dismissed those whom he had summoned, made preparation for his march to Macedonia, and set out a few days later. So the treasure at Ephesus was saved.

Here we learn that Scipio was in the province Asia when Caesar crossed from Brundisium to Epirus, and consequently Scipio had marched from Syria in the summer or autumn of B.C. 49, a fact which explains Caesar's expression " in those two years." Scipio passed the latter part of B.c. 49 in Asia and did not leave it before the early part of B.C. 48. The story of his quitting the temple on receiving the letter and not completing the robbery which he had begun, appears very improbable; but each person may explain the matter if he can.

After his junction with the army of Antonius, Caesar took from Oricum the legion which he had placed there, for he thought it prudent to attempt to get possession of the adjacent parts and to advance farther into the interior. Ambassadors from Thessaly and Aetolia had informed him that if he would send a protecting force, the towns of those countries would obey his orders. Accordingly he sent to Thessaly L. Cassius Longinus, the younger brother of C. Cassius Longinus, with a legion of recruits, named the twenty-seventh and two hundred horsemen; and C. Calvisius Sabinus with five cohorts and a few horsemen into Aetolia. They were instructed particularly to look after the corn supplies, as these parts were near to Caesar's camp. Caesar ordered Cn. Domitius Calvinus (consul B.C. 53) with two legions, the eleventh and twelfth and five hundred horsemen to march into Macedonia, for Menedemus, a chief personage in that part of the province which was called Free Macedonia,' who had been sent as an

"Depositas antiquitus." These words seem not to mean "money which had long been deposited in the temple," but deposits which it had been usual to make for a long time past.

5 Libera Macedonia, Free Macedonia, is described by Strabo (p 326) thus:

ambassador, declared that his countrymen were in favour of Caesar. As soon as Calvisius arrived in Aetolia, he was received by the people with hearty goodwill, the garrisons of the enemy quitted the towns of Calydon and Naupactus on the Corinthian gulf, and all Aetolia was in the power of Calvisius. When Cassius with his legion reached Thessaly, he found two parties in the country: Hegesaretus, a man who had great influence was a partisan of Pompeius, and Petraeus a young man of the highest rank with his friends was strongly in the interest of Caesar.

At the time when Domitius reached Macedonia, where embassies from the towns came to meet him, it was also announced that Scipio was near with his legions. He had crossed from Asia to the European side and advanced by the Via Egnatia through Thessalonica. Scipio's arrival caused much excitement and rumour through the country, apparently from an expectation that he would do great things, for when something unusual surprises us, as Caesar says, report generally exceeds the reality. Without halting Scipio advanced impetuously against Domitius, but when he was about twenty miles distant, he suddenly changed his route and marched against C. Cassius Longinus towards Thessaly. This was done with such expedition that Scipio's presence and his approach were announced at the same time; and in order that his march might not be delayed, Scipio left M. Favonius on the Haliacmon (Indjeh Kara-su), a river which separates Macedonia from Thessaly and enters the north part of the Thermaic gulf. Favonius with eight cohorts was instructed to protect the baggage and to make a fort. At the same time the cavalry of King Cotys (p. 119), who had been used to hover about Thessaly, hurried towards the camp of Cassius. Alarmed by hearing of Scipio's approach, and seeing the cavalry which he supposed to be Scipio's, Cassius turned towards the mountains which surrounded Thessaly and began his march to the south-west towards Ambracia, which is on the north side of the Ambraciot bay, now the gulf of Arta. While Scipio was hastening in "they called the parts about Lyncestis and Pelagonia and Orestias and Elimeia by the name of Upper Macedonia; but at a later time it was called also Free."

pursuit of Cassius, he was overtaken by a letter from Favonius which informed him that Domitius with his legions was near and that he could not defend his post without aid. On receiving this letter Scipio changed his purpose and the direction of his march: he gave up the pursuit of Cassius, and marching day and night reached Favonius so opportunely that the dust raised by the army of Domitius and Scipio's advanced parties were seen at the time.

Goeler says (p. 14), "When Cn. Domitius arrived at the place of his destination, the neighbourhood of Heraclea, Scipio also at the same time arrived with his two legions from Syria." There is no evidence of the truth of this statement, which assumes that Domitius was on the Via Egnatia, and if we admit that he was, no conclusion can be derived from Caesar's text as to the positions of Domitius and Scipio when they were so near one another. Scipio, we assume, had advanced by the Via Egnatia, and almost the only fact which enables us to conjecture how far he had advanced, is that by turning south he came to the Haliacmon.

Scipio on his return waited two days in his camp on the Haliaemon, which was between him and Domitius: on the third day at dawn he led his army over the river by a ford and made a camp, and on the next day in the morning he drew up his forces in front of it. Domitius then determined to bring out his legions and to fight. There was between the two camps a plain about six miles in extent, and Domitius led out his troops and made his order of battle on lower ground than Scipio's camp; but Scipio persisted in not leaving his entrenchments. Domitius had great difficulty in keeping his men from fighting, which he did chiefly because a stream with steep banks, which ran below Scipio's camp, made the attack difficult. Scipio observing the ardour of the enemy for battle, and suspecting that on the next day he should either be compelled to fight, or to his disgrace he must keep within his camp after raising great expectation by his arrival, retreated across the river by night, without even giving the usual signal for packing up the baggage, returned to the place from which he had come, and fixed his camp in an