"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
XX.--At the same time in Rome, Marcus Caelius Rufus, one of the
praetors, having undertaken the cause of the debtors, on entering into
his office, fixed his tribunal near the bench of Caius Trebonius, the
city praetor, and promised if any person appealed to him in regard to
the valuation and payment of debts made by arbitration, as appointed by
Caesar when in Rome, that he would relieve them. But it happened, from
the justice of Trebonius's decrees and his humanity (for he thought that
in such dangerous times justice should be administered with moderation
and compassion), that not one could be found who would offer himself the
first to lodge an appeal. For to plead poverty, to complain of his own
private calamities, or the general distresses of the times, or to assert
the difficulty of setting the goods to sale, is the behaviour of a man
even of a moderate temper; but to retain their possessions entire, and
at the same time acknowledge themselves in debt, what sort of spirit,
and what impudence would it not have argued! Therefore nobody was found
so unreasonable as to make such demands. But Caelius proved more severe
to those very persons for whose advantage it had been designed; and
starting from this beginning, in order that he might not appear to have
engaged in so dishonourable an affair without effecting something, he
promulgated a law, that all debts should be discharged in six equal
payments, of six months each, without interest.
XXI.--When Servilius, the consul, and the other magistrates opposed him,
and he himself effected less than he expected, in order to raise the
passions of the people, he dropped it, and promulgated two others; one,
by which he remitted the annual rents of the houses to the tenants, the
other, an act of insolvency: upon which the mob made an assault on Caius
Trebonius, and having wounded several persons, drove him from his
tribunal. The consul Servilius informed the senate of his proceedings,
who passed a decree that Caelius should be removed from the management
of the republic. Upon this decree, the consul forbade him the senate;
and when he was attempting to harangue the people, turned him out of the
rostrum. Stung with the ignominy and with resentment, he pretended in
public that he would go to Caesar, but privately sent messengers to
Milo, who had murdered Clodius, and had been condemned for it; and
having invited him into Italy, because he had engaged the remains of the
gladiators to his interest, by making them supple presents, he joined
him, and sent him to Thurinum to tamper with the shepherds. When he
himself was on his road to Casilinum, at the same time that his military
standards and arms were seized at Capua, his slaves seen at Naples, and
the design of betraying the town discovered: his plots being revealed,
and Capua shut against him, being apprehensive of danger, because the
Roman citizens residing there had armed themselves, and thought he ought
to be treated as an enemy to the state, he abandoned his first design,
and changed his route.
XXII.--Milo in the meantime despatched letters to the free towns,
purporting that he acted as he did by the orders and commands of Pompey,
conveyed to him by Bibulus: and he endeavoured to engage in his interest
all persons whom he imagined were under difficulties by reason of their
debts. But not being able to prevail with them, he set at liberty some
slaves from the work-houses, and began to assault Cosa in the district
of Thurinum. There having received a blow of a stone thrown from the
wall of the town which was commanded by Quintus Pedius with one legion,
he died of it; and Caelius having set out, as he pretended for Caesar,
went to Thurii, where he was put to death as he was tampering with some
of the freemen of the town, and was offering money to Caesar's Gallic
and Spanish horse, which he had sent there to strengthen the garrison.
And thus these mighty beginnings, which had embroiled Italy, and kept
the magistrates employed, found a speedy and happy issue.
XXIII.--Libo having sailed from Oricum, with a fleet of fifty ships,
which he commanded, came to Brundisium, and seized an island, which lies
opposite to the harbour; judging it better to guard that place, which
was our only pass to sea, than to keep all the shores and ports blocked
up by a fleet. By his sudden arrival, he fell in with some of our
transports, and set them on fire, and carried off one laden with corn;
he struck great terror into our men, and having in the night landed a
party of soldiers and archers, he beat our guard of horse from their
station, and gained so much by the advantage of situation, that he
despatched letters to Pompey, that if he pleased he might order the rest
of the ships to be hauled upon shore and repaired; for that with his own
fleet he could prevent Caesar from receiving his auxiliaries.
XXIV.--Antonius was at this time at Brundisium, and relying on the
valour of his troops, covered about sixty of the long-boats belonging to
the men-of-war with penthouses and bulwarks of hurdles, and put on board
them select soldiers; and disposed them separately along the shore: and
under the pretext of keeping the seamen in exercise, he ordered two
three-banked galleys, which he had built at Brundisium, to row to the
mouth of the port. When Libo saw them advancing boldly towards him, he
sent five four-banked galleys against them, in hopes of intercepting
them. When these came near our ships, our veteran soldiers retreated
within the harbour. The enemy, urged by their eagerness to capture them,
pursued them unguardedly; for instantly the boats of Antonius, on a
certain signal, rowed with great violence from all parts against the
enemy; and at the first charge took one of the four-banked galleys, with
the seamen and marines, and forced the rest to flee disgracefully. In
addition to this loss, they were prevented from getting water by the
horse which Antonius had disposed along the sea-coast. Libo, vexed at
the distress and disgrace, departed from Brundisium, and abandoned the
blockade.
XXV.--Several months had now elapsed, and winter was almost gone, and
Caesar's legions and shipping were not coming to him from Brundisium,
and he imagined that some opportunities had been neglected, for the
winds had at least been often favourable, and he thought that he must
trust to them at last. And the longer it was deferred, the more eager
were those who commanded Pompey's fleet to guard the coast, and were
more confident of preventing our getting assistance: they receive
frequent reproofs from Pompey by letter, that as they had not prevented
Caesar's arrival at the first, they should at least stop the remainder
of his army: and they were expecting that the season for transporting
troops would become more unfavourable every day, as the winds grew
calmer. Caesar, feeling some trouble on this account, wrote in severe
terms to his officers at Brundisium, [and gave them orders] that as soon
as they found the wind to answer, they should not let the opportunity of
setting sail pass by, if they were even to steer their course to the
shore of Apollonia: because there they might run their ships on ground.
That these parts principally were left unguarded by the enemy's fleet,
because they dare not venture too far from the harbour.
XXVI.--They [his officers], exerting boldness and courage, aided by the
instructions of Marcus Antonius, and Fufius Kalenus, and animated by the
soldiers strongly encouraging them, and declining no danger for Caesar's
safety, having got a southerly wind, weighed anchor, and the next day
were carried past Apollonia and Dyrrachium, and being seen from the
continent, Quintus Coponius, who commanded the Rhodian fleet at
Dyrrachium, put out of the port with his ships; and when they had almost
come up with us, in consequence of the breeze dying away, the south wind
sprang up afresh, and rescued us. However, he did not desist from his
attempt, but hoped by the labour and perseverance of his seamen to be
able to bear up against the violence of the storm; and although we were
carried beyond Dyrrachium, by the violence of the wind, he nevertheless
continued to chase us. Our men, taking advantage of fortune's kindness,
for they were still afraid of being attacked by the enemy's fleet, if
the wind abated, having come near a port, called Nymphaeum, about three
miles beyond Lissus, put into it (this port is protected from a
south-west wind, but is not secure against a south wind); and thought less
danger was to be apprehended from the storm than from the enemy. But as
soon as they were within the port, the south wind, which had blown for
two days, by extraordinary good luck veered round to the south-west.
XXVII.--Here one might observe the sudden turns of fortune. We who, a
moment before, were alarmed for ourselves, were safely lodged in a very
secure harbour: and they who had threatened ruin to our fleet, were
forced to be uneasy on their own account: and thus, by a change of
circumstances, the storm protected our ships, and damaged the Rhodian
fleet to such a degree, that all their decked ships, sixteen in number,
foundered, without exception, and were wrecked: and of the prodigious
number of seamen and soldiers, some lost their lives by being dashed
against the rocks, others were taken by our men: but Caesar sent them
all safe home.
XXVIII.--Two of our ships, that had not kept up with the rest, being
overtaken by the night, and not knowing what port the rest had made to,
came to an anchor opposite Lissus. Otacilius Crassus, who commanded
Pompey's fleet, detached after them several barges and small craft, and
attempted to take them. At the same time, he treated with them about
capitulating, and promised them their lives if they would surrender. One
of them carried two hundred and twenty recruits, the other was manned
with somewhat less than two hundred veterans. Here it might be seen what
security men derive from a resolute spirit. For the recruits, frightened
at the number of vessels, and fatigued with the rolling of the sea; and
with sea-sickness, surrendered to Otacilius, after having first received
his oath, that the enemy would not injure them; but as soon as they were
brought before him, contrary to the obligation of his oath, they were
inhumanly put to death in his presence. But the soldiers of the veteran
legion, who had also struggled, not only with the inclemency of the
weather, but by labouring at the pump, thought it their duty to remit
nothing of their former valour: and having protracted the beginning of
the night in settling the terms, under pretence of surrendering, they
obliged the pilot to run the ship aground: and having got a convenient
place on the shore, they spent the rest of the night there, and at
daybreak, when Otacilius had sent against them a party of the horse, who
guarded that part of the coast, to the number of four hundred, besides
some armed men, who had followed them from the garrison, they made a
brave defence, and having killed some of them, retreated in safety to
our army.
XXIX.--After this action, the Roman citizens, who resided at Lissus, a
town which Caesar had before assigned them, and had carefully fortified,
received Antony into their town, and gave him every assistance.
Otacilius, apprehensive for his own safety, escaped out of the town, and
went to Pompey. All his forces, whose number amounted to three veteran
legions, and one of recruits, and about eight hundred horse, being
landed, Antony sent most of his ships back to Italy, to transport the
remainder of the soldiers and horse. The pontons, which are a sort of
Gallic ships, he left at Lissus with this object, that if Pompey,
imagining Italy defenceless, should transport his army thither (and this