seized the towns, as Cicero says. On the 23rd of January in the morning Cicero saw L. Caesar at Minturnae, as I have already said, on his return from his first visit to Caesar. At this time it was known that Caesar's old legatus T. Labienus had deserted him. Labienus joined Pompeius on the 22nd at Teanum Sidicinum, and gave him comfort by his report of the small amount of Caesar's force. If Cicero then tells the truth, Caesar seized the four towns before the 18th of January and before he received the final answer of the consuls, which showed that he could not hope for peace. According to Caesar's statement (B. C. i. 14) the Senate did not leave Rome until Caesar had taken Auximum which is south of Ancona. Plutarch (Caesar, c. 33) describes the terror in Italy and at Rome when it was known that Cæsar had passed the boundary of his province and taken Ariminum. All was in confusion, and Pompeius "left the city after giving his commands to the Senate to follow, and that no one should stay who preferred his country and freedom to tyranny." The consuls, he adds, fled without even making the usual sacrifices before quitting the city, and most of the senators ran off in a disorderly manner carrying off with them what first came to hand. Appian (B. C. ii. 35) supposed that as soon as Caesar took Ariminum he advanced farther south and seized other places, and these events being known at Rome caused the greatest alarm. "Now," said Favonius, alluding to an arrogant expression of Pompeius, "now is the time to stamp your foot and call armies out of the earth." Pompeius replied, "You shall have the armies, if you will follow me, and leave Rome and Italy too, if it shall be necessary. After uttering threats against those who should desert their country in this time of peril, he immediately went to Capua to his army, and the consuls followed him. The rest of the senators passed the night in the Senate-house, but most of them in the morning quitted the city and went after Pompeius. Dion (41. c. 4—9) in his usual fashion has loaded his narrative with tiresome particulars, but he seems, like Appian, to have supposed that

to Cicero written on the 21st of January and after that date to the 9th of March. The subject of all these letters was whether Cicero should stay in Italy or join Pompeius if he left Italy.

after the capture of Ariminum Caesar immediately moved southwards and took all the towns on his road. Pompeius, he says, not being ready to meet Caesar, sent to him L. Caesar and L. Roscius the praetor to propose terms of agreement, and when they brought Caesar's answer, they were sent to him again; but before the return of the men from the second mission, Pompeius retired to Campania. The probable conclusion from all the evidence is that Caesar had occupied other towns besides Ariminum before Pompeius left Rome, and therefore before the 18th of January, the day on which "we," as Cicero says, left the city.

The events, which followed the interruption of the negotiations for peace to the escape of Pompeius from Brundisium, belong respectively to the retreat of Pompeius into Apulia and thence to Brundisium, and to the advance of Caesar.

After the meeting at Teanum the consuls went to Capua, and Pompeius wished Cicero to go there to aid in the raising of troops. The Campanian settlers (coloni) did not answer readily to the appeal. Pompeius went to Larinum near the coast of the Hadriatic, and took Labienus with him. Cicero said that Labienus was a hero when he deserted Caesar; and a few weeks after he said that Labienus was not worth much." Pompeius perhaps had already determined to leave Italy, but Cicero could not discover what his intention was. He wrote to Cicero about the end of January and informed him that he expected to have a strong force in a few days, and that if he advanced northward to Picenum, the Senate might return to Rome (Ad Attic. vii. 16. 2). On the 4th of February Cicero went in a heavy rain to Capua to meet the consuls according to their order, but they were not there. It was said that they were coming, but without forces and unprepared; and there was also a report that Pompeius was at Luceria in Apulia with some troops, which were not very trustworthy. It was reported also that Caesar was advancing, not to fight, for there was no one to fight with, but to intercept the flight of his enemies. Cicero declares his readiness to die with Pompeius, if he would stay in Italy (Ad Attic. vii. 20). About the middle of February Pompeius invited Cicero to Luceria,

2 Plutarch (Caesar, c. 34) reports that when Labienus deserted, Caesar sent his property and baggage after him.

where he would be safer than in any other place (Ad Attic. viii. 1). Cicero replied that he did not inquire where he would be safest, and that he would go to Pompeius if he wished it, either for his own sake or for the interests of the State and he urged him not to leave Italy. Cicero suspected that Pompeius would leave Italy, and he found or thought that he could not safely join him owing to Caesar's rapid advance southwards. Perhaps he never intended to join Pompeius. He wrote to Atticus (viii. 3) a long letter, in which he asked his advice on this question, What should he do, if Pompeius quitted Italy? This letter is a proof that he thought of his own safety more than anything else. He had sufficient evidence of Caesar's friendly disposition towards him even now; and Atticus knew, as Cicero says, that he had long foreseen the present state of affairs and had for this reason secured Caesar's friendship. Cicero certainly preferred the side of the Senate, if we can believe anything that he wrote at this time. Still the issue of the quarrel was uncertain, and what should he do if Pompeius were successful? It is a just conclusion that he would have declared for Caesar, if he had not feared the possibility of Pompeius ultimately gaining the victory, though he did not expect it. At this time Cicero had a ship waiting for him at Caieta on the west coast and another at Brundisium on the east coast: he could escape by two ways. Pompeius was also preparing for flight. He sent Scipio with two cohorts to Brundisium, and on the 20th of February he wrote from Canusium (Canosa) to ask Cicero to join him at Brundisium (Ad Att. viii. 11. D. 4), but Cicero informed him that he could not come: the road was stopped. In the letter just referred to Cicero tells Pompeius that when he wrote a letter, which had been delivered at Canusium, he had no suspicion that Pompeius in the interest of the State would cross the sea; which contradicts what he had already written to Atticus (viii. 3, 1), where he says that he did suspect that Pompeius would leave Italy. Pompeius was at Brundisium about the 22nd of February, and all the troops were ordered to join him there. He had given up, perhaps he never entertained, the purpose of opposing Caesar in Italy, and his sensible remarks in a letter to L. Domitius,

He

give sufficient reason for his resolve to cross the sea. could not trust the soldiers that he had with him so far as to hazard a decisive battle: the new troops raised by the consuls were not yet collected, and could not come together soon; and if they did, he writes to Domitius, how little reliance you can place on troops, who do not even know one another, and are opposed to veteran legions, you know very well. Yet Cicero in his arrogant conceit had called Pompeius an incompetent commander. (Ad Attic. viii. 12, and the letters of Pompeius to the consuls C. Marcellus, L. Lentulus; and to L. Domitius.)

On the 2nd of February Cicero informs Atticus (vii. 17. 3) that he had received a letter from his old friend the lawyer Trebatius, who was with Caesar, a letter written on the 22nd of January at Caesar's request: Caesar wished Cicero to be at Rome, for he had just heard of him and others quitting the city. Cicero replied to Trebatius that it would be difficult at that time to comply with Caesar's wish, but he said that he was staying in the country and that he had neither undertaken the raising of troops nor any other business; and further, that he will continue in this mind so long as there shall be hope of peace. Yet he wrote to Pompeius after the middle of February (Ad Attic. viii. 11. B) and reported that on the day when Pompeius left Teanum, the 23rd of January, he had gone to Capua as Pompeius wished him to do, where he found that T. Ampius was busily mustering troops, and Scribonius. Libo to whom they were handed over, was most active. Cicero was also present at Capua to meet the consuls on the 5th of February as we have seen. According to his own evidence, he was playing a double part and deceiving Pompeius. He informed Atticus (vii. 21) that while he was at Capua, from the 5th to the 7th of February, there was no levy of troops going on anywhere. On the 7th of February the tribune C. Cassius brought a message to the consuls from Pompeius that they should go to Rome, take the money out of the sacred treasury (aerarium sanctius) and return immediately; but this would have been very hazardous, as Cicero says. The consul Lentulus replied that Pompeius should first march into Picenum; but Picenum, says Cicero,

was already lost, and nobody knew it except himself from the letters of Dolabella, who as well as Caelius informed him that Caesar was quite satisfied with the conduct of Cicero. A letter from Philotimus on the 9th of February brought a report about the strength of L. Domitius' army which comforted Cicero's friends, who were with him at Formiae, but Cicero did not trust the report. On the 17th of February Pompeius received a letter from L. Domitius, a copy of which he forwarded to one of the consuls, and requested the consul to join him with his troops, but to leave a sufficient garrison at Capua. Pompeius soon announced to the consuls his intention to retire to Brundisium with the greater part of the troops and to take them over the sea to Dyrrhachium; and the consuls joined him in Apulia before the 20th of February, as Pompeius informed Cicero (ad Attic. viii. 11. c). At this time Cicero received frequent letters from Caesar, who expressed his satisfaction at his inactivity, and entreated him to continue quiet; and on the 24th of February the younger Balbus brought him from Caesar a message to the same effect, and a letter and message from Caesar to the consul Lentulus, in which Caesar promised him a province and other things, if he would return to Rome. But it was too late. Cicero on the 25th of February supposed that Pompeius might be at Brundisium, for he had advanced towards this town before his legions left Luceria. "But the vigilance, rapidity and activity of this monster is terrible," says Cicero: "what will happen, I cannot tell." He was afraid that Caesar would overtake Pompeius.

While on the side of Pompeius there was disunion, treachery, irresolution, and no fixed purpose except the resolve of Pompeius to leave Italy without fighting, Caesar pursued his victorious career in the hope of finishing the war by the defeat of his rival. It is necessary to follow Caesar's narrative, though it appears certain that he erroneously supposed or at least he has said that the consuls and Pompeius did not leave Rome until he had taken Auximum. After the occupation of Ancona, being informed that Q. Minucius Thermus, who held Iguvium (Gubbio) with five cohorts, was fortifying the town, and that the townsmen were well disposed to change sides,