was considered as so much delay to their return into Italy: and whenever
Pompey acted with slowness and caution, they used to exclaim, that it
was the business only of a single day, but that he had a passion for
power, and was delighted in having persons of consular and praetorian
rank in the number of his slaves. And they now began to dispute openly
about rewards and priesthoods, and disposed of the consulate for several
years to come. Others put in their claims for the houses and properties
of all who were in Caesar's camp, and in that council there was a warm
debate, whether Lucius Hirrus, who had been sent by Pompey against the
Parthians, should be admitted a candidate for the praetorship in his
absence at the next election; his friends imploring Pompey's honour to
fulfil the engagements which he had made to him at his departure, that
he might not seem deceived through his authority: whilst others,
embarked in equal labour and danger, pleaded that no individual ought to
have a preference before all the rest.

LXXXIII.--Already Domitius, Scipio, and Lentulus Spinthur, in their
daily quarrels about Caesar's priesthood, openly abused each other in
the most scurrilous language. Lentulus urging the respect due to his
age, Domitius boasting his interest in the city and his dignity, and
Scipio presuming on his alliance with Pompey. Attius Rufus charged
Lucius Afranius before Pompey with betraying the army in the action that
happened in Spain, and Lucius Domitius declared in the council that it
was his wish that, when the war should be ended, three billets should be
given to all the senators who had taken part with them in the war, and
that they should pass sentence on every single person who had stayed
behind at Rome, or who had been within Pompey's garrisons and had not
contributed their assistance in the military operations; that by the
first billet they should-have power to acquit, by the second to pass
sentence of death, and by the third to impose a pecuniary fine. In
short, Pompey's whole army talked of nothing but the honours or sums of
money which were to be their rewards, or of vengeance on their enemies;
and never considered how they were to defeat their enemies, but in what
manner they should use their victory.

LXXXIV.--Corn being provided, and his soldiers refreshed, and a
sufficient time having elapsed since the engagement at Dyrrachium, when
Caesar thought he had sufficiently sounded the disposition of his