Civil Wars

Pompey's suspicions were aroused by all that he observed -- the marshalling of the army, the meanness of the skiff, and the fact that the king himself did not come to meet him nor send any of his high dignitaries. Nevertheless, he entered the skiff, repeating to himself these lines of Sophocles, "Whoever resorts to a tyrant becomes his slave, even if he were free when he went." While rowing to the shore all were silent, and this made him still more suspicious. Finally, either recognizing Sempronius as a Roman soldier who had served under him or guessing that he was such because he alone remained standing (for, according to military discipline, a soldier does not sit in the presence of his commander), he turned to him and said, "Do I not know you, comrade? " The other nodded and, as Pompey turned away, he immediately gave him the first stab and the others followed his example. Pompey's wife and friends who saw this at a distance cried out and, lifting their hands to heaven, invoked the gods, the avengers of violated faith. Then they sailed away in all haste as from an enemy's country.

The servants of Pothinus cut off Pompey's head and kept it for Cæsar, in expectation of a large reward, but he visited condign punishment on them for their nefarious deed. The remainder of the body was buried by somebody on the shore, and a small monument was erected over it, on which somebody else wrote this inscription: --

"What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance."[*](Plutarch gives a pathetic account of Pompey's funeral, which was performed by his freedman Philippus and one old Roman who had served as a soldier under him, and who was now living in exile and poverty. " Such," says another historian, " was the departure from life of a most excellent and illustrious man, after three consulships and as many triumphs, who had ruled the whole world and had reached a position above which it was not possible to rise, in the 58th year of his age and on the day before his birthday. So greatly had fortune been at strife with herself in his case that he who had been in want of earth to conquer was now in want of enough for a grave." (Velleius, ii. 53.) Dio Cassius (lxix. 11), describing the Emperor Hadrian's tour in the East A.D. 122, says that "while he was passing from Judea to Egypt he offered a funeral sacrifice for Pompey, on which occasion the following verse escaped him: 'What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance.' He also rebuilt the tomb that had fallen into ruin." This is not inconsistent with Appian's narrative.)

In the course of time the monument was wholly covered with sand, and the bronze images that had been erected to Pompey by his partisans at a later period near Mount Casius had been degraded and removed to the secret recess of the temple, but in my time they were sought for and found by the Roman emperor Hadrian, while making a journey thither, who cleared away the rubbish from the monument and made it again conspicuous, and placed Pompey's images in their proper places. Such was the end of Pompey, who had carried on the greatest wars and had made the greatest additions to the empire of the Romans, and had acquired by that means the title of Great. He had never been defeated before,[*](This is an error. Pompey was defeated by Sertorius in Spain, and the fact is mentioned in so many words by Appian himself in the preceding book Sec. 110: o( de\ *sertw/rios e)ni/ka *pomph/i+on.) but had remained unvanquished and most fortunate from his youth till now. From his twenty-third to his fifty-eighth year he had not ceased to exercise royal power, but on account of his jealousy of Cæsar he had seemed to rule in the interest of the people.

Lucius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, and the other notables who had escaped from the battle of Pharsalus, more prudent than Pompey, proceeded to Corcyra and joined Cato, who had been left there with another army and 300 triremes. The leaders apportioned the fleet among themselves, and Cassius sailed to Pharnaces in Pontus to induce him to take up arms against Cæsar. Scipio and Cato embarked for Africa, relying on Varus and his army and his ally, Juba, king of Numidia. The elder son of Pompey, together with Labienus and Scapula, each with his own part of the army, hastened to Spain and, having detached it from Cæsar, collected a new army of Spaniards, Celtiberians, and slaves, and made formidable preparations for war. So great were the forces still remaining which Pompey had prepared, and which Pompey himself over-looked and ran away from in his insanity. Cato had been chosen commander of the forces in Africa, but he declined the appointment since there were consulars present who outranked him, he having held only the prætorship in Rome. So Lucius Scipio was made the commander and he collected and drilled a large army there. Thus two armies of considerable magnitude were brought together against Cæsar, one in Africa and the other in Spain.

Cæsar remained two days at Pharsalus after the victory, offering sacrifice and giving his army a respite from fighting. Then he set free his Thessalian allies and granted pardon to the suppliant Athenians, and said to them, " How often will the glory of your ancestors save you from self-destruction?" On the third day he marched eastward, having learned that Pompey had fled thither, and for want of triremes he essayed to cross the Hellespont in skiffs. Here Cassius came upon him in mid-stream, with a part of his fleet, as he was hastening to Pharnaces. Although he might have mastered these small boats with his numerous triremes he was panic-stricken by Cæsar's astounding success, which was then heralded with consternation everywhere, and he thought that Cæsar had sailed purposely against him. So he extended his hands in entreaty from his trireme toward the skiff, begged pardon, and surrendered his fleet. So great was the power of Cæsar's prestige. I can see no other reason myself, nor can I think of any other instance where fortune was more propitious in a trying emergency than when Cassius, a most valiant man, with seventy triremes, fell in with Cæsar when he was unprepared, but did not venture to come to blows with him. And yet he who thus disgracefully surrendered to Cæsar, through fear alone, when the latter was crossing the straits, afterward murdered him in Rome when he was at the height of his power; by which fact it is evident that the panic which then seized Cassius was due to the fortune by which Cæsar was uplifted.[*](This is a dubious tale. Cæsar tells us (iii. 101) that Cassius was in Sicily with a fleet when the news of Pharsalus arrived; that when the first news of the battle came the Pompeians considered it a fiction invented by Cæsar's friends, but that when they were convinced that it was true, Cassius departed with his fleet. Then Cæsar describes his own movements, saying that he considered it necessary to drop everything else and pursue Pompey, and that he pushed on every day as far as his cavalry could go, having ordered one legion to follow by shorter marches. He must have passed the Hellespont before Cassius sailed from Sicily. Again, Cicero in his second Philippic (11), while defending himself against Antony's charge that he had advised the assassination of Cæsar, says that he is not entitled to share this glory with Brutus and Cassius. Neither of them needed his advice. " Cassius," he adds, "would have done the deed himself in Cilicia, at the mouth of the river Cydnus, without the help of his illustrious friends, if Cæsar had landed on the shore where he (Cassius) had halted, instead of the opposite one." In other words they passed each other at the mouth of the Cydnus, as Cæsar was proceeding to Egypt. Suetonius (Jul. 63) says that it was Lucius Cassius whom Cæsar met in the Hellespont.)

Being thus unexpectedly saved, Cæsar passed the Hellespont and granted pardon to the Ionians, the Æolians, and the other peoples who inhabit the great peninsula called by the common name of Lower Asia, and who sent ambassadors to him to ask it. Learning that Pompey had gone to Egypt he sailed for Rhodes. He did not wait there for his army, which was coming forward by detachments, but embarked with those whom he had on board the triremes of Cassius and the Rhodians. Letting nobody know whither he intended to go he set sail toward evening, telling the other pilots to steer by the torch of his own ship by night and by his signal in the daytime. After they had proceeded a long way from the land he ordered his pilot to steer for Alexandria. After a three days' sail he arrived there. He was received by the king's guardians, the king himself being still at Mount Casius. At first, on account of the smallness of his forces, he pretended to take his ease, receiving visitors in a friendly way, traversing the city, admiring its beauty, and listening to the lectures of the philosophers while he stood among the crowd. Thus he gained the good-will and esteem of the Alexandrians as one who had no designs against them.

When his soldiers arrived by sea he punished Pothinus and Achillas with death for their crime against Pompey.[*](Cæsar says that he put Pothinus to death for corresponding with the enemy while he was in Cæsar's custody, during the Alexandrian war. (iii. 112.) Hirtius, who wrote the Alexandrian War, says (i.4) that Achillas was put to death by Arsinoë, the younger sister of Cleopatra, who attempted to bring about a counter revolution and to secure the throne for herself. Plutarch contradicts himself in this matter. In his Life of Pompey (80) he says that Cæsar put both Pothinus and Achillas to death and implies that he did so to punish them for the murder of Pompey. In his Life of Cœsar (49) he says distinctly that Pothinus was put to death on account of a palace conspiracy against Cæsar in which both himself and Achillas were concerned, but that Achillas escaped.) (Theodotus escaped and was afterward crucified by Cassius, who found him wandering in Asia.[*](Plutarch, at the conclusion of his Life of Pompey, says that Theodotus was put to death with torture by Brutus, who found him leading a vagabond life in Asia.)) The Alexandrians thereupon rose in tumult, and the king's army marched against Cæsar and various battles took place around the palace and on the neighboring shores. In one of these Cæsar escaped by leaping into the sea and swimming a long distance in deep water. The Alexandrians captured his cloak and hung it up as a trophy. He fought the last battle against the king on the banks of the Nile, in [*](Y.R. 707) which he won a decisive victory. He consumed nine [*](B.C. 47) months in this strife, at the end of which he established Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt in place of her brother. He ascended the Nile with 400 ships, exploring the country in company with Cleopatra and enjoying himself with her in other ways. The details of these events are related more particularly in my Egyptian history. Cæsar could not bear to look at the head of Pompey when it was brought to him, but ordered that it be buried, and set apart for it a small plot of ground near the city which was dedicated to Nemesis, but in my time, while the Roman emperor Trajan was exterminating the Jewish race in Egypt, it was devastated by them in the exigencies of the war.

After Cæsar had performed these exploits in Alexandria he hastened by way of Syria against Pharnaces. The latter had Already accomplished many of his aims, had seized some of the Roman countries, had fought a battle with Cæsar's lieutenant, Domitius, and won a very brilliant victory over him. Being much elated by this affair he had subjugated the city of Amisus in Pontus, which adhered to the Roman interest, sold their inhabitants into slavery, and made all their boys eunuchs. On the approach of Cæsar he became alarmed and repented of his deeds, and when Cæsar was within 200 stades he sent ambassadors to him to treat for peace. They bore a golden crown and foolishly offered him the daughter of Pharnaces in marriage. When Cæsar learned what they were bringing he moved forward with his army, walking in advance and chatting with the ambassadors until he arrived at the camp of Pharnaces, when he merely said, "Why should I not take instant vengeance on this parricide?" Then he sprang upon his horse and at the first shout put Pharnaces to flight and killed a large number of the enemy, although he had with him only about 1000 of his own cavalry who had accompanied him in the advance. Here it is said that he exclaimed, "O fortunate Pompey, who wast considered and named the Great for warring against such men as these in the time of Mithridates, the father of this man." Of this battle he wrote to Rome the words, "I came, I saw, I conquered."

After this, Pharnaces was glad to escape to the kingdom which Pompey had assigned to him on the Bosporus. As Cæsar had no time to waste on small matters while such great wars were still unfinished elsewhere, he returned to the province of Asia and while passing through it transacted public business in the cities, which were oppressed by the farmers of the revenue, as I have shown in my Asiatic history.[*](Our author does not mention any Asiatic history in his preface. Photius in his enumeration of the works of Appian extant in his time speaks of the "tenth book, Grecian and Ionian." Schweighäuser thinks that this is the book here referred to.) Learning that a sedition had broken out in Rome and that Antony, his master of horse, had occupied the forum with soldiers, he laid aside everything else and hastened to the city. When he arrived there the sedition had been quieted, but another one sprang up against himself in the army because the promises made to them after the battle of Pharsalus had not been kept, and because they had been held in service beyond the term fixed by law. They demanded that they should be dismissed to their homes. Cæsar had made them certain indefinite promises at Pharsalus, and others equally indefinite after the war in Africa should be finished. Now he sent them a promise of 1000 drachmas more to each man. They answered him that they did not want any more promises but all cash down. Sallustius Crispus,[*](This was the historian Sallust. He was afterward appointed by Cæsar governor of Numidia. See Sec. 100 infra.) who had been sent to them on this business, had a narrow escape. He would have been killed if he had not fled. When Cæsar learned of this he stationed the legion, with which Antony had been guarding the city, around his own house and the city gates, as he apprehended attempts at plunder. Then, notwithstanding all his friends were alarmed and cautioned him against the fury of the soldiers, he went boldly among them while they were still riotous in the Campus Martius, without sending word beforehand, and showed himself on the platform.

The soldiers ran together tumultuously without arms, and, as was their custom, saluted their commander who had suddenly appeared among them. When he bade them tell what they wanted they were so surprised that they did not venture to speak openly of the donative in his presence, but they adopted the more moderate course of demanding their discharge from the service, hoping that, since he needed soldiers for the unfinished wars, he would speak about the donative himself. But, contrary to the expectation of all, he replied without hesitation, " I discharge you." Then, to their still greater astonishment, and while the silence was most profound, he added, "And I will give you all that I have promised when I have my triumph with others." At this expression, as unexpected as it was kind to them, shame immediately took possession of all, and reflection, together with jealousy at the thought of their abandoning their commander in the midst of such great wars and of others joining in the triumph instead of themselves, and of their losing the gains of the war in Africa, which were expected to be great, and becoming enemies of Cæsar himself as well as of the opposite party. Moved by these fears they remained still more silent and embarrassed, hoping that Cæsar would yield and change his mind on account of his immediate necessity. But he remained silent also, until his friends urged him to say something more to them and not leave his old comrades of so many campaigns with a short and austere word. Then he began to speak, addressing them first as "citizens," not "fellow-soliders," which implied that they were already discharged from the army and were private individuals.

They could endure it no longer, but cried out that they repented of what they had done, and besought him to keep them in his service. But Cæsar turned away and was leaving the platform when they shouted with greater eagerness and urged him to stay and punish them for their misdeeds. He delayed a while longer, not going away and not turning back, but pretending to be undecided. At length he came back and said that he would not punish any of them, but that he was grieved that even the tenth legion, to which he had always given the first place of honor, should join in such a riot. "And this legion alone," he continued, "I will discharge from the service. Nevertheless, when I return from Africa I will give them all that I have promised. And when the wars are ended I will give lands to all, not as Sulla did by taking it from the present holders and colonizing the takers among the losers, and making them everlasting enemies to each other, but I will give the public land, and my own, and will purchase what may be needful." There was clapping of hands and joyful acclaim on all sides, but the tenth legion was plunged in grief because to them alone Cæsar appeared inexorable. They begged him to choose a portion of their number by lot and put them to death. But Cæsar, seeing that there was no need of stimulating them any further when they had repented so bitterly, became reconciled to all, and departed straightway for the war in Africa.