[-39-] Caesar after doing this and removing all the Capitoline offerings and others hastened to Brundusium toward the close of the year and before entering upon the consulship to which he had been elected. And as he was attending to the details of his departure a kite in the Forum let fall a sprig of laurel upon one of his companions. Later, while he was sacrificing to Fortuna, the bull escaped before being wounded, rushed out of the city, and coming to a kind of pond swam across it. As a consequence he continued his preparations with greater courage and especially because the soothsayers declared that destruction should be his if he remained at home, but if he crossed the sea salvation and victory. When he had gone, the boys in the city spontaneously divided into two classes, one side calling itself Pompeiians and the other Caesarians, and they fought one another after a fashion without arms, and those conquered who used Caesar's name.
[-40-] While such was the progress of events in Rome and in Spain, Marcus Octavius and Lucius Scribonius Libo by using Pompey's fleet expelled from Dalmatia Publius Cornelius Dolabella, who was there attending to Caesar's interests. After this they shut up Gaius Antonius, who was desirous of aiding him, in a little islet and there, abandoned by the natives and oppressed by hunger, they captured him with all his force save a few; some of them had escaped in season to the mainland, and others who were sailing across on rafts and were caught made away with themselves. [-41-] Curio had meanwhile reduced Sicily without a battle; for Cato, the governor of it, being no match for him and not wishing idly to expose the cities to danger, withdrew beforehand to Pompey; afterward, however, the conqueror passed over to Africa and perished. At his approach by sea Lucius Caesar abandoned the city of Aspis in which he merely happened to be staying, and Publius Attius Varus, then in charge of the affairs of that region, was defeated by him and lost many soldiers and a few cities. Juba, however, son of Hiempsus and king over the Numidians, esteemed the interests of Pompey as those of the people and the senate, and hated Curio both for this reason and because the latter when tribune had attempted to take away his kingdom from him and confiscate the land: therefore he vigorously prosecuted the war against him. He did not wait for him to invade his home country of Numidia but assailed him with something less than his entire force at the siege of Utica, for fear that the Roman, being previously informed, might retire; and he was rather more anxious to take vengeance on him than to repulse him. Accordingly, Juba sent forward a few men who reported that the king had departed in some other direction and to a distance: he himself followed after these and did not miss the results he had hoped for. [-42-] Before this Curio with the idea that his enemy was approaching had transferred his men to the camp near the sea and had framed an intention, in case he were hard pushed, of embarking on the ships and leaving Africa altogether. But when he ascertained that only a few men were arriving and these without Juba, he took courage and started out that very night as if to a victory waiting for him, and fearing only that they should escape him. In his advance he destroyed some of the van who were sleeping on the road and became much emboldened. Next, about dawn, he encountered the rest who had started out ahead from the camp; and without any delay, in spite of the fact that his soldiers were exhausted both by the march and by loss of sleep, he at once joined battle with them. At this juncture, while matters were at a standstill and they were fighting rather evenly, Juba suddenly appeared upon the scene and by his unexpected coming as well as by his numbers overwhelmed him. Curio and most of the others he killed on the spot by means of this surprise, and the rest he pursued as far as the ditch, after which he confined them to their ships and in the midst of the confusion got possession of large amounts of money and destroyed many men. Numbers of them perished when they seemed to have escaped, some being knocked down in the mêlée while boarding the boats, and others drowned while in the ships themselves by the overloading of the vessels. During these occurrences some being afraid they might suffer the same fate went over to Varus expecting that their lives would be spared, but received no benefit from it. For Juba asserted that it was he who had conquered them and so slaughtered them all except a few. Thus Curio died after rendering most valuable assistance to Caesar upon whom he had founded many hopes. Juba found honors at the hands of Pompey and the senators who were in Macedonia and was saluted as king: but on the part of Caesar and those in the city he was censured and declared an enemy, while Bocchus and Bogud were named kings because they were hostile to him.
[B.C. 48 (a.u. 706)]
[-43-] The ensuing year the Romans had two sets of magistrates, contrary to custom, and a mighty conflict was engendered. The people of the city had chosen as consuls Caesar and Publius Servilius, together with praetors, and everything else according to law: the party in Thessalonica had made no such preparations although they had by some accounts about two hundred of the senate and the consuls and had appropriated a small piece of land for divinations to the end that their proceedings might seem to take place under a certain form of law. Wherefore they regarded the people and the entire city as present there (the reason being that the consuls had not introduced the lex curiata), and they employed those same officials as formerly, only changing their names and calling some proconsuls, others propraetors, and others pro-quaestors. For they were very careful about ancestral customs even though they had raised their arms against their country and abandoned their native shores, and were anxious to perform all necessary acts not merely with a view to temporary demands or contrary to the exact wording of the ordinances. It is quite time that nominally these officials ruled the two parties, but in reality it was Pompey and Caesar who were supreme, bearing, for the sake of good repute, the legal titles,—one that of consul and the other that of proconsul,—and doing not what the magistrates allowed but whatever they themselves pleased.
[-44-] Under these conditions, with the government divided in twain, Pompey wintered in Thessalonica and did not keep a very careful guard of the coast. He did not think that Caesar had yet arrived in Italy from Spain, and even if he were there he did not suspect that his rival, in winter, at least, would venture to cross the Ionian sea. Caesar was in Brundusium, waiting for spring, but when he ascertained that Pompey was some distance off and that Epirus just opposite was rather heedlessly guarded, he seized the opportunity of the war to attack him while in a state of relaxation. When the winter was about half gone he set out with a portion of his army,—there were not enough ships to carry them all across at once,—escaped the attention of Marcus Bibulus to whom the guarding of the sea had been committed, and crossed to the so-called Ceraunian Headlands, a point in the confines of Epirus, near the opening of the Ionian gulf. Having reached there before it became noised abroad that he would sail at all, he despatched the ships to Brundusium for the rest: but Bibulus damaged them on the return voyage and actually took some in tow, so that Caesar learned by experience that he had enjoyed a more fortunate than prudent voyage.
[-45-]During this delay, therefore, he acquired Oricum and Apollonia and other points there which had been abandoned by Pompey's garrisons. This "Corinthian Apollonia" is well situated as regards the land and as regards the sea, and excellently in respect to rivers. What I have remarked, however, above all else is that a huge fire issues from the ground near the Aöus river and neither spreads to any extent over the surrounding land nor sets on fire that very place where it is located nor even makes the ground dry and brittle, but leaves the grass and trees flourishing very near it. In pouring rains it increases and rises high. For this reason it is called Nymphaeum[71] and affords a kind of oracle. You take a grain of incense and after making whatever prayer you wish throw it carrying the prayer. At this the fire, if your wish is to be fulfilled, receives it very readily and in case the grain falls somewhere outside, darts forward, snatches it up and consumes it. But if the wish is not to be fulfilled, the fire does not go to it, and if it is carried into the flame, the latter recedes and flees before it. These two actions it performs in this way in all matters save those of death and marriage: about these two it is not granted any one to learn anything whatever from it.
[-46-] Such is the nature of this marvel. Now as Antony, to whom had been assigned the duty of conveying those that remained at Brundusium, proved slow, and no message came about them on account of the winter and of Bibulus, Caesar suspected that they had adopted a neutral attitude and were watching the course of events, as often happens in political disputes. Wishing therefore, to sail himself to Italy, and alone, he embarked on a small boat as some one else, saying that he had been sent by Caesar; and he forced the captain, although there was a wind, to set sail. When, however, they were away from land, the gale came sweeping violently down upon them and the billows rocked them terribly, so that the captain not even under compulsion dared any longer sail on, but undertook to return even without his passenger's consent. Then the latter revealed himself, as if by this act he should stop the storm, and said, "Be of good cheer: you carry Caesar." Such a disposition and such a hope he had, either accidentally or as the result of some oracle, that he felt a secure trust in safety even contrary to the appearance of things. Nevertheless, he did not get across, but after struggling for a long time in vain sailed back.
[-47-]After this he encamped opposite Pompey, near Apsus. The latter as soon as he had heard of his rival's advent had made no delay, but hoping to quell him easily before he secured the presence of the rest who were with Antony, he marched in haste and in some force toward Apollonia. Caesar advanced to meet him as far as the river, thinking that even as he was he would prove a match for the troops then approaching: but when he learned that he was actually far inferior in numbers, he halted. In order that this action should not seem due to fear, and he not be thought to be opening the war, he submitted some conciliatory proposals to the opposing body and continued his abode in that place. Pompey, knowing this, wished to try conclusions with him as soon as possible and for this reason undertook to cross the river. But the bridge on receiving the weight broke down and some of the advance guard being isolated, perished. Then he desisted in dejection that he had failed in his first recourse to hostile action. Meanwhile Antony had arrived, and Pompey in fear retired to Dyrrachium. [-48-] While Bibulus lived, Caesar's lieutenant had not dared even to set out from Brundusium, so close was the guard kept over it. But when that officer, worn out by hard work, had died and Libo succeeded him as admiral, Antony despised him and set sail with the evident intention of forcing the passage. Driven back to land he repelled the other's vigorous attack upon him and later, when Libo was anxious to disembark somewhere, he allowed him to find anchorage nowhere near that part of the mainland. The admiral being in need of anchorage and water, since the little island in front of the harbor, which was the only place he could approach, is destitute of water and harbor alike, sailed off to some distant point where he was likely to find both in abundance. In this way Antony was enabled to set sail, and later when the foe attempted to assail them on the high seas he suffered no damage at his hands: a violent storm came up which prevented the attack, but caused injuries to both sides.
[-49-] When the soldiers had come safely across, Pompey, as I have said, retired to Dyrrachium, and Caesar followed him, encouraged by the fact that he had survived his previous experiences with the number of followers he now had. Dyrrachium is situated in the land formerly belonging to the tribe of Illyrians called Parthini, but now and even at that time regarded as a part of Macedonia; and it is very favorably placed, whether it be the Epidamnus of the Corcyraeans or some other. Those who record this fact also refer its founding and its name to a hero Dyrrachus. The other authorities have declared that the place was renamed by the Romans with reference to the difficulties of the rocky shore, because the term Epidamnus has in the Latin tongue the meaning "loss," and so seemed to be very ill-omened for their crossing over to it.
[-50-] Pompey after taking refuge in this Dyrrachium built a camp outside the city and surrounded it with deep ditches and stout palisades. Caesar encamped over against it and made assaults, in the hope of shortly capturing the palisades by the number of his soldiers: when, however, he was repulsed, he attempted to wall it off. While he was at that work, Pompey fortified some points by stakes, cut off others by a wall, and fortified still others with a ditch, establishing towers and guards on the high places, so as to render the circuit of the encompassing wall necessarily infinite and to render an approach impossible to the foe, even if they conquered. There were meanwhile many battles between them, but brief ones, in which now one party, now the other, was victorious or beaten, so that a few were killed on both sides alike. Upon Dyrrachium itself Caesar made an attempt by night, between the marshes and the sea, in the expectation that it would be betrayed by its defenders. He passed inside the narrows, but at that point was attacked by many in front and many behind, who were conveyed along the shore in boats and suddenly fell upon him; thus he lost numerous men and very nearly perished himself. After this occurrence Pompey took courage and concerted a plan for a night assault upon the circumvallation; as he was unexpected he captured a portion of it by storm and caused a great slaughter among the men encamped near it.