Ravenna, A Study | Page 6

received as his provinces the two Spains, but he governed
them by his legates and remained in the neighbourhood of the City.
Crassus received the province of Syria, and the appalling disasters of
the Parthian war, in which he most miserably lost life and honour,
seemed to give Pompey the opportunity for which he had long been
waiting. He encouraged the growing civil discord which was tearing the

state in pieces, and with such success that the senate was compelled to
call for his assistance. In 52 B.C. he became sole consul, restored order,
and placed himself at the head of the aristocratic party which he had
deserted to become the great popular hero when he was consul with
Crassus in 70 B.C.
Now Caesar had long watched the astonishing actions of Pompey, and
had no intention of leaving the fate of the republic to him and the
aristocracy. He does not seem to have wished to break altogether with
Pompey, but only to hold him in check. At his meeting with Pompey at
Luca (Lucca) in 56 B.C. he had been promised the consulship for 48
B.C. when his governorship came to an end, and he now determined to
insure the fulfilment of this promise which would place him upon a
legal equality with his rival. For the rest he knew that he was as
superior to Pompey as a statesman as he was as a soldier, and he did
not apparently anticipate any difficulty in out-manoeuvring him in the
senate and in the forum. Caesar, then, claimed no more than an equality
with Pompey and the fulfilment of his promise; but these he determined
to have. All through the winter of 52-51 B.C. he was arming. Well
served by his friends, among whom were Mark Antony and Curio the
tribunes, in 50 B.C., "having gone the circuit for the administration of
justice," as Suetonius tells us, "he made a halt at Ravenna resolved to
have recourse to arms if the senate should proceed to extremity against
the tribunes of the people, who had espoused his cause." But first he
determined for many reasons to send ambassadors to Rome, to request
the fulfilment of the promise made to him at Luca. Pompey, who was
not yet at open enmity with him, determined, although he had made the
promise, neither to aid him by his influence nor openly to oppose him
on this occasion. But the consuls Lentulus and Marcellus, who had
always been his enemies, resolved to use all means in their power to
prevent him gaining his object.
At this juncture Caius Curio, tribune of the people, came to Caesar in
Ravenna. Curio had made many energetic struggles in behalf of the
republic and Caesar's cause; but at last, when he perceived that all his
efforts were in vain, he fled through fear of his enemies and Caesar's to
Ravenna and told Caesar all that had taken place; and, seeing that war
was openly being prepared against Caesar, advised him to bring up his
army and to rescue the republic.

Now Caesar was not ignorant of the real state of affairs, but he was
perhaps not yet ready to act, or he hoped in fact to save the ancient state;
at any rate, he gave it as his opinion that particular regard should be had
to the tranquillity of the republic, lest any one should assert that he was
the originator of civil war. Therefore he sent again to his friends,
making through them this very moderate request, that two legions and
the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum should be left him. No
one could openly quarrel with such a reasonable demand and the
patience with which it was more than once put forward; for when
Caesar could not obtain a favourable answer from the consuls, he wrote
a letter to the senate in which he briefly recounted his exploits and
public services, and entreated that he should not be deprived of the
favour of the people who had ordered that he, although absent, should
be considered a candidate for the consulship at the next election. He
stated also that he would disband his army if the senate and the Roman
people desired it, provided that Pompey would do the same. But he
stated also that, as long as Pompey retained the command of his army,
there could be no just reason why Caesar should disband his troops and
expose himself to the power of his enemies.
This was Caesar's third offer to his opponents. He entrusted the letter to
Curio, who travelled one hundred and sixty miles in three days and
reached the City early in January. He did not, however, deliver the
letter until there was a crowded meeting of the senate and the tribunes
of the