Duration of time, the remainder of the consulship of Julius Caesar (II) and Publius Servilius Isauricus, together with one additional year, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated.
C. Iulius C.F. Caesar, Dictator (II), M. Antonius M.F., Master of Horse, and the two consuls C. Fufius C.F. Calenus and P. Vatinius P.F. (B.C. 47 = a.u. 707.)
(BOOK 42, BOISSEVAIN.)
[B.C. 48 (a.u. 706)]
[-1-] The general nature of the battle has, accordingly, been described. As a result of it Pompey straightway despaired of all his undertakings and no longer made any account of his own valor or of the number of his remaining soldiers or of the fact that Fortune often restores the vanquished in the shortest space of time; yet in former times he had always possessed the greatest cheerfulness and the greatest hopefulness on all occasions of failure. The reason for this was that in the cases just mentioned he had usually been evenly matched with the foe and hence had not discounted a victory in advance; but by reflecting beforehand on the dual possibilities of the outcome of the engagement, while he was still coolheaded and before being involved in any alarm, he had not neglected to prepare for the worst. In this way he had not been compelled to yield to disasters and was able with ease to renew the conflict: but this time as he had expected to far surpass Caesar he had foreseen nothing. For instance, he had not put the camp in proper condition nor provided a refuge for himself if defeated. And whereas he might have delayed action and so have conquered without a battle,—for his army kept increasing every day and he had abundant provisions because he was in a country for the most part friendly and because he was lord of the sea,—nevertheless, whether of his own accord and thinking he would conquer in any event, or because he was forced by his associates, he brought on an engagement. Consequently as soon as he was defeated he was terribly alarmed and had no opportune plan or sure hope ready to enable him to face the danger anew Whenever any event befalls a man unexpectedly and most contrary to what seemed reasonable, it humbles his mind and drives out the faculty of calculation, so that he becomes the poorest and weakest judge of what must be done. Calculation cannot live in the midst of fears; if it occupies the ground first, it thrusts them out very effectively, but if it be a second comer, it gets the worst of the encounter.
[-2-] Hence Pompey, also, having considered none of the chances beforehand, was found naked and defenceless, whereas, had anything been foreseen, he might, perhaps, without trouble have quickly recovered all his losses. Large numbers of the combatants had survived and he had other forces that were considerable. Above all, he had gotten into his possession large amounts of money and was master of the entire sea, and the cities both there and in Asia were fond of him even in his misfortune. But, as it turned out, since he had fared so ill where he felt most encouraged, in the temporary seizure of fear he made no use of any one of these resources, but left the fortifications at once and fled with a few companions toward Larissa. He did not enter the city although the Larissaeans invited him, because he feared that by so doing he might incur some blame. Bidding them make terms with the victor, he himself took provisions, embarked on the sea, and sailed away to Lesbos on a merchantman, to his wife Cornelia and his son Sextus. After taking charge of them he did not even enter Mitylene but started for Egypt, hoping to secure an alliance with Ptolemy, the king of that country. This was the son of that Ptolemy who, through the agency of Gabinius, had received back the kingdom at his hands, and he had as an acknowledgment of that service sent a fleet to Pompey's assistance. I have heard that Pompey thought also of fleeing to the Parthians, but I cannot credit the report. For that race so hated all the Romans ever since Crassus had led his expedition against them, and Pompey especially, because related to him, that they imprisoned his envoy who came with a request for aid, though he was a senator. And Pompey would have never endured in his misfortune to become a suppliant of a most hostile nation for what he had failed to obtain while enjoying success. [-3-]However,—he proceeded to Egypt for the reasons mentioned, and after coasting along the shore as far as Cilicia went across from there to Pelusium, where Ptolemy, just then engaged in a war with his sister Cleopatra, was encamped. Bringing the ships to anchor he sent some men to remind the prince of the favor shown his father and to ask that he be permitted to land on definite and secure conditions: he did not venture to disembark before obtaining some guarantee of safety. Ptolemy made him no answer, for he was still a mere child, but some of the Egyptians and Lucius Septimius, a Roman who had made campaigns with Pompey but was a relative of Gabinius and had been left behind by him to keep guard over Ptolemy, came in the guise of friends: for all that they impiously plotted against him and by their act brought guilt upon themselves and all Egypt. They themselves perished not long after and the Egyptians for their part were first delivered to be slaves of Cleopatra (this they particularly disliked) and later were enrolled among the Roman subjects. [-4-] Now at this time Septimius and Achillas, the commander-in-chief, and others who were with them declared they would readily receive Pompey,—to the end, of course, that he might be the more easily deceived and ensnared. Some of them sent on his messengers ahead, bidding them be of good cheer, and the natives themselves next embarked on some small boats and sailed out to him. After many friendly greetings they begged him to come over to their vessels, saying that by reason of its size and the shallow water a trireme could not closely approach their land and that they were very eager to see Pompey himself more quickly. He thereupon changed ships, although all his fellow voyagers urged him not to do it, trusting in his hosts and saying merely:
"Whoever to a tyrant wends his way, His slave is he, e'en though his steps be free." [72]
Now when they drew near the land, fearing that if he even met Ptolemy he might be saved, by the king himself or by the Romans who dwelt with him or by the Egyptians, who regarded him with great affection, they killed him before sailing into harbor. He said not a word and uttered no complaint, but as soon as he perceived their plot and recognized that he would not be able to ward them off nor escape, he veiled his face.
[-5-] Such was the end of the famous Pompey the Great, wherein once more the weakness and the strange fortune of the human race are proved. He was no whit deficient in foresight, but was deceived by having been always absolutely secure against any force of harmful potency. He had won many unexpected victories in Africa, and many in Asia and Europe, both by land and by sea ever since boyhood; and was now in the fifty-eighth year of his age defeated without good reason. He who had subdued the entire Roman sea perished on it: and whereas he had once, as the story goes, been master of a thousand ships, he was destroyed in a tiny boat near Egypt and really by that same Ptolemy whose father he had once restored from exile to that land and to his kingdom. The man whom at that time Roman soldiers were still guarding, soldiers left behind by Gabinius as a favor to Pompey and on account of the hatred felt by the Egyptians for the young prince's father, seemed now to have put him to death by the hands of those Romans and those Egyptians. Pompey, who was previously considered the dominant figure among the Romans so that he even had the nickname of Agamemnon, was now slain like any of the lowest of the Egyptians themselves, near Mount Casius and on the anniversary of the day on which he had celebrated a triumph over Mithridates and the pirates. Even in this point, therefore, there was nothing similar in the two parts of his career. Of yore on that day he had experienced the most brilliant success, whereas he now suffered the most grievous fate: again, following a certain oracle he had been suspicious of all the citizens named Cassius, but instead of being the object of a plot by any man called Cassius he died and was buried beside the mountain that had this name. Of his fellow voyagers some were captured at once, while others fled, among them his wife and child. The former under a safe conduct came later safely to Rome: the latter, Sextus, proceeded to Africa to his brother Gnaeus; these are the names by which they are distinguished, since they both bore the appellation Pompey.
[-6-] Caesar, when he had attended to pressing demands after the battle and had assigned to certain others Greece and the remainder of that region to win over and administer, himself pursued after Pompey. He hurried forward as far as Asia in quest of news about him, and there waited for a time since no one knew which way he had sailed. Everything turned out favorably for him: for instance, while crossing the Hellespont in a kind of ferryboat, he met Pompey's fleet sailing with Lucius Cassius in command, but so far from suffering any harm at their hands he terrified them and won them to his side. Next, meeting with no resistance any longer he took possession of the rest of that district and regulated its affairs, levying a money contribution, as I said, but otherwise doing no one any harm and even conferring benefits on all, so far as was visible. He did away with the taxgatherers, who abused the people most cruelly, and he converted the product of the taxes into a payment of tribute.