While Sosigenes was at work on the calendar, Caesar purified the Senate. Many who were guilty of extortion and corruption were expelled, and the vacancies filled with persons of merit.
Meanwhile matters in Spain were not satisfactory. After the battle of Pharsalia, Cassius Longinus, Trebonius, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus had been sent to govern the province. They could not agree. The soldiers became mutinous. To Spain flocked all who were dissatisfied with Roman affairs. The remnant of Scipio's African army rested there in its wanderings. Thus Labiénus and Pompey's two sons managed to collect an army as numerous as that which had been defeated at Thapsus. There were thirteen legions in all.
Caesar saw that he must make one more struggle. He set out for the province accompanied by his nephew OCTAVIUS (afterwards the Emperor AUGUSTUS), and by his trusted friend and officer, DECIMUS BRUTUS. The struggle in Spain was protracted for several months, but the decisive battle was fought at MUNDA, 17 March, 45, on the Guadalquivir, near Cordova. The forces were well matched. The advantage in position was on the side of the enemy. The battle was stubbornly fought, most of it hand to hand, with short swords. So equal was the struggle, so doubtful at one time the issue, that Caesar himself sprang from his horse, seized a standard, and rallied a wavering legion. Finally, Labiénus was seen to gallop across the field. It was thought he was fleeing. Panic seized his troops, they broke and ran. Thirty thousand were slain, including three thousand Roman Knights, and Labiénus himself.
Gnaeus Pompey shortly after lost his life, but Sextus lived for a number of years.
Caesar tarried in Spain, regulating affairs, until late in the autumn, when he returned to Rome and enjoyed another triumph over the Iberians (Spaniards). The triumph was followed, as usual, by games and festivals, which kept the populace in a fever of delight and admiration.
CATO.-METELLUS SCIPIO.
MARCUS PORTIUS CATO UTICENSIS (Footnote: Cato the Younger, called UTICENSIS on account of his death at Utica.) (95-46) was the great-grandson of Cato the Censor. He was the last of the Romans of the old school. Like his more famous ancestor, he was frugal and austere in his habits, upright, unselfish, and incorruptible. But he was a fanatic, who could not be persuaded to relinquish his views on any subject. As a general, he was a failure, having neither taste nor genius for military exploits. He held various offices at Rome, as Quaestor and Praetor; but when candidate for the consulship he was defeated, because he declined to win votes by bribery and other questionable methods then in vogue.
QUINTUS CAECILIUS METELLUS PIUS belonged to the illustrious family of the Scipios by birth, and to that of the Metelli by adoption. He was one of the most unjust and dishonest of the Senators that opposed Caesar. He was the father-in-law of Pompey, by whom he was made a pliant tool against the great conqueror.