'On the third day.' Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 10) says 'triduo proximo," and the correction of Moses du Soul, ἡμέρα ῥητῆ, is therefore unnecessary. Pompeius had moved westward from Thessalonica at the time when Rufus was sent to him, and was in Candavia on his road to Apollonia and Dyrrachium (Cæsar, Civil War, iii. 11).
[360] Pompeius returned to Dyrrachium, which it had been the object of Cæsar to seize. As he had not accomplished this, Cæsar posted himself on the River Apsus between Apollonia and Dyrrachium. The fights in the neighbourhood of Dyrrachium are described by Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 34, &c.).
[361] The Athamanes were on the borders of Epirus and Thessalia. In place of the Athamanes the MSS. of Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 78) have Acarnania, which, as Drumann says, must be a mistake in the text of Cæsar.
[362] Q. Metellus Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius, who had been appointed to the government of Syria by the Senate. Scipio had now come to Thesaalia (Cæsar, Civil War, iii. 33, and 80).
[363] Cato was left with fifteen cohorts in Dyrrachium. See the Life of Cato, c. 55; Dion Cassius (12. c. 10).
[364] Or Tusculanum, as Plutarch calls it, now Frascati, about 12 miles S.E. of Rome, where Cicero had a villa.
[365] Lentulus Spinther, consul of B.C. 57, and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul B.C. 54. This affair is mentioned by Cæsar himself (Civil War, iii. 83, &c.). We have the best evidence of the bloody use that the party of Pompeius would have made of their victory is the letters of Cicero himself (Ad Atticum, xi. 6). There was to be a general proscription, and Rome was to see the times of Sulla revived. But the courage and wisdom of one man defeated the designs of these senseless nobles. Cæsar (c. 83) mentions their schemes with a contemptuous brevity.
[366] The town of Pharsalus was situated near the Enipeus, in one of the great plains of Thessalia, called Pharsalia. Cæsar (iii. 88) does not mention the place where the battle was fought. See Appianus, Civil Wars, ii. 75.
[367] Pompeius had dedicated a temple at Rome to Venus Victrix. The Julia (Iulia) Gens, to which Cæsar belonged, traced their deecent from Venus through Iulus, the son of Æneas. (See the Life of Cæsar, c. 42.)
[368] Cæsar does not mention this meteor in his Civil War. See Life of Cæsar, c. 43, and Dion Cassius, 41. c. 61.