g, he
turned to those about him, and said: "We may still retreat; but if we
pass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out in
arms."

XXXII. While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred. A
person remarkable for his noble mien and graceful aspect, appeared close
at hand, sitting and playing upon a pipe. When, not only the shepherds,
but a number of soldiers also flocked from their posts to listen to him,
and some trumpeters among them, he snatched a trumpet from one of them,
ran to the river with it, and sounding the advance with a piercing blast,
crossed to the other side. Upon this, Caesar exclaimed, "Let us go
whither the omens of the Gods and the iniquity of our enemies call us.
The die is now cast."

XXXIII. Accordingly, having marched his army over the river, he shewed
them the tribunes of the people, who, upon their being driven from the
city, had come to meet him; and, in the presence of that assembly, called
upon the troops to pledge him their fidelity, with tears in his eyes, and
his garment rent from his bosom. It has been supposed, that upon this
occasion he promised to every soldier a knight's estate; but that opinion
is founded on a mistake. For when, in his harangue to them, he
frequently held out a finger of his left hand, and declared, that to
recompense those who should support him in the defence of his honour, he
would willingly part even with his ring; the soldiers at a distance, who
could more easily see than hear him while he spoke, formed their
conception of what he said, by the eye, not by the ear; and accordingly
gave out, that he had promised to each of them the privilege (23) of
wearing the gold ring, and an estate of four hundred thousand sesterces.
[60]

XXXIV. Of his subsequent proceedings I shall give a cursory detail, in
the order in which they occurred [61]. He took possession of Picenum,
Umbria, and Etruria; and having obliged Lucius Domitius, who had been
tumultuously nominated his successor, and held Corsinium with a garrison,
to surrender, and dismissed him, he marched along the coast of the Upper
Sea, to Brundusium, to which place the consuls and Pompey were fled with
the intention of crossing the sea as soon as possible. After vain
attempts, by all the obstacles he could oppose, to prevent their leaving
the harbour, he turned his steps towards Rome, where he appealed to the
senate on the present state of public affairs; and then set