How Caesar conquered Scipio and Juba (chapters 1-8). How the Romans got possession of Numidia (chapter 9). How Cato slew himself (chapters 10-13). How Caesar returned to Rome and celebrated his triumph and settled what business remained (chapters 14-21). How the Forum of Caesar and the Temple of Venus were consecrated (chapters 22-25). How Caesar arranged the year in its present fashion (chapters 26, 27). How Caesar conquered in Spain Gnaeus Pompey the son of Pompey (chapters 28-45). How for the first time consuls were appointed for not an entire year (chapters 46-48). How Carthage and Corinth received colonies (chapters 49, 50). How the Aediles Cereales were appointed (chapter 51).
Duration of time, three years, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated.
C. Iulius C.F. Caesar, Dictator (III), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of
Horse, and Consul (III) with Aemilius Lepidus Cos. (B.C. 46—a.u. 708.)
C. Iulius Caesar, Dictator (IV), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse; also Consul (IV) alone. (B.C. 45—a.u. 709.)
C. Iulius Caesar, Dictator (V), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse, and Consul (V) with M. Antonius Cos. (B.C. 44—a.u. 710.)
(BOOK 43, BOISSEVAIN.)
[B.C. 46 (a.u. 708)]
[-1-] Such were his adventures at this time. The following year he became both dictator and consul at the same time (it was the third occasion on which he had filled each of the two offices), and Lepidus became his colleague in both instances. When he had been named dictator by Lepidus the first time, he had sent him immediately after the praetorship into Hither Spain; and when he returned he had honored him with triumphal celebrations though Lepidus had conquered no foes nor so much as fought with any,—the excuse being that he had been at the scene of the exploits of Longinus and of Marcellus. Yet he sent home nothing (if you want the facts) except what money he had plundered from the allies. Caesar besides exalting Lepidus with these honors chose him subsequently as his colleague in both the positions mentioned.
[-2-] Now while they were still in office, the populace of Rome became excited by prodigies. There was a wolf seen in the city, and a pig that save for its feet resembled an elephant was brought forth. In Africa, too, Petreius and Labienus who had observed that Caesar had gone out to villages after grain, by means of the Nomads drove his cavalry, that had not yet thoroughly recovered strength from its sea-voyage, in upon the infantry; and while as a result the force was in utter confusion, they killed many of the soldiers at close quarters. They would have cut down all the rest besides, who had crowded together on a bit of high ground, had they not been severely wounded. Even as it was, by this deed they alarmed Caesar considerably. When he stopped to consider how he had been tripped by a few, while expecting, too, that Scipio and Juba would arrive directly with all their powers, as they had been reported, he was decidedly in a dilemma, and did not know what course to adopt. He was not yet able to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion; he saw, furthermore, that to stay in the same place was difficult because of the lack of subsistence even if the foe should keep away from his troops, and that to retire was impossible, with the enemy pressing upon him both by land and by sea. Consequently he was in a state of dejection.
[-3-] He was still in this situation when one Publius Sittius (if we ought to call it him, and not the Divine Power) brought at one stroke salvation and victory. This man had been exiled from Italy, and had taken along some fellow-exiles: after crossing over into Mauritania he collected a band and was general under Bocchus. Though he had no benefit from Caesar to start with, and although in general he was not known to him, he undertook to share in the war and to help him to overcome the existing difficulty. Accordingly he bore no direct aid to Caesar himself, for he heard that the latter was at a distance and thought that his own assistance (for he had no large body of troops) would prove of small value to him. It was Juba whom he watched start out on his expedition, and then he invaded Numidia, which along with Gaetulia (likewise a part of Juba's dominion) he harried so completely that the king gave up the project before him and turned back in the midst of his journey with most of his army; some of it he had sent off to Scipio. This fact made it as evident as one could wish that if Juba had also come up, Caesar would never have withstood the two. He did not so much as venture to join issue with Scipio alone at once, because he stood in terrible dread of the elephants (among other things), partly on account of their fighting abilities, but still more because they were forever throwing his cavalry into confusion. [-4-] Therefore, while keeping as strict a watch over the camp as he could, Caesar sent to Italy for soldiers and elephants. He did not count on the latter for any considerable military achievement (since there were not many of them) but intended that the horses, by becoming accustomed to the sight and sound of them, should learn for the future not to fear at all those belonging to the enemy.