I sent you on the 26th of March a copy of Balbus' letter to me and of Caesar's letter to him. Then that very day from Capua I got a letter from Q. Pedius saying that Caesar had written to him on the 14th in the following terms:
"Pompey confines himself to the town. My camp is at the gates. I am attempting a big job which will take many days on account of the depth of the sea: yet I have no better course. From both wings of the harbour I am building a mole, so that I may either compel him to transship the forces he has here as soon as possible, or prevent him from getting out at all."
Where is the peace about which Balbus wrote that he was tormenting himself? Could anything be more bitter, more cruel? Moreover some one told me with authority that Caesar said in conversation he was the avenger of Cn. Carbo, M. Brutus,[109] and all those on whom Sulla with Pompey to help him wreaked his cruelty: Curio under his leadership was doing nothing but what Pompey had done under Sulla's leadership: what he wanted was the restoration of those not punished with exile under the earlier laws, while Pompey had restored those who had
[109] Carbo was put to death by Pompey in 82 or 81 B.C.; he was consul for the third time with C. Marius the younger. Brutus, the father of Caesar's murderer, was killed by Pompey in 77 or 76 B.C., and another M. Brutus committed suicide sooner than fall into his hands.
exsilio reductos esse; queri de Milone per vim expulso; neminem tamen se violaturam, nisi qui arma contra. Haec Baebius quidam a Curione III Id. profectus, homo non infans, sed qui de suo illa[110] non dicat. Plane nescio, quid agam. Illim equidem Gnaeum profectum puto. Quicquid est, biduo sciemus. A te nihil ne Anteros quidem litterarum; nec mirum. Quid enim est, quod scribamus? Ego tamen nullum diem praetermitto.
[110] qui de suo illa Tyrrell: quis ulli MSS.
Scripta epistula litterae mihi ante lucem a Lepta Capua redditae sunt Idib. Mart. Pompeium a Brundisio conscendisse, at Caesarem a. d, VII Kal. Apriles Capuae fore.