y d'Issolu),
whose defenders had their hands cut off. Caesar now reduced Gaul to the
form of a province, fixing the tribute at 40,000,000 sesterces (L350,000),
and dealing liberally with the conquered tribes, whose cantons were not
broken up.

In the meantime his own position was becoming critical. In 56 B.C., at the
conference of Luca (Lucca), Caesar, Pompey [Sidenote: Break-up of the
Coalition.] and Crassus had renewed their agreement, and Caesar's command
in Gaul, which would have expired on the 1st of March 54 B.C., was renewed,
probably for five years, _i.e._ to the 1st of March 49 B.C., and it was
enacted that the question of his successor should not be discussed until
the 1st of March 50 B.C., by which time the provincial commands for 49 B.C.
would have been assigned, so that Caesar would retain _imperium_, and thus
immunity from persecution, until the end of 49 B.C. He was to be elected
consul for 48 B.C., and, as the law prescribed a personal canvass, he was
by special enactment dispensed from its provisions. But in 54 B.C. Julia,
the daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died, and in 53 B.C. Crassus was
killed at Carrhae. Pompey now drifted apart from Caesar and became the
champion of the senate. In 52 B.C. he passed a fresh law _de jure
magistratuum_ which cut away the ground beneath Caesar's feet by making it
possible to provide a successor to the Gallic provinces before the close of
49 B.C., which meant that Caesar would become for some months a private
person, and thus liable to be called to account for his unconstitutional
acts. Caesar had no resource left but uncompromising obstruction, which he
sustained by enormous bribes. His representative in 50 B.C., the tribune C.
Scribonius Curio, served him well, and induced the lukewarm majority of the
senate to refrain from extreme measures, insisting that Pompey, as well as
Caesar, should resign the _imperium_. But all attempts at negotiation
failed, and in January 49 B.C., martial law having been proclaimed on the
proposal of the consuls, the tribunes Antony and Cassius fled to Caesar,
who crossed the Rubicon (the frontier of Italy) with a single legion,
exclaiming "_Alea jacta est._"

Pompey's available force consisted in two legions stationed in Campania,
and eight, commanded by his lieutenants, Afranius [Sidenote: The Civil war
] and Petreius, in Spain; both sides levied troops in Italy. Caesar was
soon joined by two legions from Gaul and marched rapidly