Caesar, de B. C. i. 32.
Context. After his passage of the Rubicon, Caesar quickly made himself master of Italy. Town after town opened its gates to him. Corfinium (held in force by Domitius for Pompeius) surrendered, and the captured troops enlisted in his ranks. An attempt to blockade Pompeius in Brundisium was skilfully foiled. On the last day of March Caesar arrived at Rome. The Senate was legally summoned by the tribunes Antonius and Cassius, and was invited to unite with him in carrying on the government.
2 municipia, i.e. Brundisium, Tarentum, Hydruntum (Otranto).
10 ut sui . . . haberetur, i.e. allowing him to stand for the consulship in his absence.
15 iacturam dignitatis = sacrifice of prestige.—Long.
19 eripiendis legionibus, i.e. in 50 B.C. Caesar was required to send home a legion he had borrowed of Pompeius, and contribute another himself, ostensibly for the Parthian War; but the legions were detained by Pompeius in Italy, and the Parthian War was quietly dropped.
Caesar in Rome. All Caesar’s acts after the crossing of the Rubicon were entirely unconstitutional. But when he told the senators that he was prepared to take the government on himself, he was justified to himself by the past, and to posterity by the result.—W. F.