is steps, stayed him
at the very brink. Soon he cried: 'Oh Lord of thunder, that from
the Tarpeian rock dost survey all our city, and gods that followed
the race of Iulus from Troy, and mysteries of Quirinus lost to our
sight, and Jupiter enthroned over Latium on Alba's mount, and
hearth of Vesta's fire, and thou, Rome, worshipped as divine, be
gracious to my cause. I bear against thee no frenzied arms. Lo!
here am I, Caesar, conqueror by sea and land, still everywhere thy
soldier if none forbid. On him, on him shall rest the guilt who
makes me thy enemy!' Then without delay be gave the signal for
advance and quickly led his men through the swollen stream.

Lucan, _Pharsalia_, i. 183-203.

There was no resistance. It was not Caesar's intention to use any
violence. In Rome, however, when the news came that he was moving south,
people fell into a panic. Pompeius lost his head. Although the forces at
his command were greater than Caesar's, he left the city, leaving
everything, including the State Treasury, behind him. Most of the
senators and people of consequence did the same.

Within sixty days from his crossing the Rubicon Caesar entered Rome and
made himself master of it and of all Northern Italy without bloodshed.
People who had trembled and believed that a reign of terror and
proscriptions of the kind carried out by Marius and Sulla would follow,
breathed again. Caesar showed no bitterness. There were no executions.
The property of those who had fled with Pompeius was untouched. Even to
Labienus, the one officer of his own who deserted him and joined the
other side, Caesar was generous. He sent his goods after him.

Caesar summoned those members of the Senate who had remained in Rome and
addressed them in a mild and gracious speech. He had no desire for war:
he urged them to send deputies to Pompeius. But no one would do this.
Pompeius meantime was embarking for Greece. Caesar did not follow him.
He was master in Rome: but Rome was utterly dependent for all its
supplies, the means by which it lived, on the world outside. Of that
world Pompeius seemed master. Caesar's first task was, therefore, not to
defeat Pompeius but to secure the food supply of the capital. For this
purpose he himself set out for Spain, where there was a strong Pompeian
army, leaving Marcus Antonius in charge in Italy and sending Curio to
Sicily. The Spanish campaign was severe, but after the Battle of Ilerda
the Pompe