y where in honor of the event. And when Pompey returned
from Naples to Rome, the towns on the way could not afford room for the
crowds that came forth to meet him. The high roads, the villages, the
ports, says Plutarch, were filled with sacrifices and entertainments.
Many received him with garlands on their heads and torches in their
hands, and, as they conducted him along, strewed the way with flowers.

[Sidenote: Pompey's estimate of Caesar's power.]

In fact, Pompey considered himself as standing far above Caesar in fame
and power, and this general burst of enthusiasm and applause, educed by
his recovery from sickness, confirmed him in this idea. He felt no
solicitude, he said, in respect to Caesar. He should take no special
precautions against any hostile designs which he might entertain on his
return from Gaul. It was he himself, he said, that had raised Caesar up
to whatever of elevation he had attained, and he could put him down even
more easily than he had exalted him.

[Sidenote: Plans of the latter.]

In the mean time, the period was drawing near in which Caesar's command
in the provinces was to expire; and, anticipating the struggle with
Pompey which was about to ensue, he conducted several of his legions
through the passes of the Alps, and advanced gradually, as he had a
right to do, across the country of the Po toward the Rubicon, revolving
in his capacious mind, as he came, the various plans by which he might
hope to gain the ascendency over the power of his mighty rival, and make
himself supreme.

[Sidenote: Caesar arrives at Ravenna.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's demands.]

He concluded that it would be his wisest policy not to a'tempt to
intimidate Pompey by great and open preparations for war, which might
tend to arouse him to vigorous measures of resistance, but rather to
cover and conceal his designs, and thus throw his enemy off his guard.
He advanced, therefore, toward the Rubicon with a small force. He
established his headquarters at Ravenna, a city not far from the river,
and employed himself in objects of local interest there, in order to
avert as much as possible the minds of the people from imagining that he
was contemplating any great design. Pompey sent to him to demand the
return of a certain legion which he had lent him from his own army at a
time when they were friends. Caesar complied with this demand without
any hesitation, and sent the legion home. He sent with this legion,
also, some ot