Chapter 16 Alexandria War 41-60

41．Farnacis was proud of his victory in the battle, thinking that Caesar would suffer a crushing defeat as he hoped, so he occupied Pontus with all his troops.He is over there.Appearing as a victor, a ruthless monarch, thinking he was destined to share the same fate as his father, only better.He captured many towns, plundered the property of Roman citizens and Pontus, and even imposed more severe punishments than the death penalty on some people who were more attractive in appearance and age.Thus he seized power in Pontus without resistance, boasting that he had recovered his father's kingdom.

42．About the same time, the province of Iluricum, which had been in our hands a few months before, not only had not lost its dignity, but had even won admiration, suffered a setback.It turned out that in the summer Quintus Cornificius, Caesar's treasurer, was sent to that province as magistrate, taking with him two legions.Though the reserves of the province were by no means sufficient to support an army, and were worn out and wrecked by wars and civil strife on the frontiers, yet, through prudence and industry, and with the utmost care to avoid rash advances, Only to recover and guard.For example, there are many forts sitting on high mountains over there.Its favorable terrain enabled its inhabitants to specialize in raids and raids.He took some of these fortresses, and distributed the spoils among the soldiers, who, though insignificant in number, were glad when the province was so dilapidated, especially since they had paid for it by their valor. here.After Octavian escaped from the Battle of Pharsalus, he hid on that coast with a large fleet.Cornificius, aided by a few ships of the Adriatics, who had been so useful to the republic, captured Octavian's scattered fleet.This enabled him to add these captive ships to those of his former allies, and he thus had a fleet capable of fighting.When, in the far distance on the other side of the globe, the victorious Caesar was pursuing Gnaeus Pompey, he heard that some of his adversaries had gathered up the escaped remnants and entered Ilulicum, for the distance Macedonia was near, and he immediately wrote to Gabinius, telling him to go to Iluricum with a new legion of recruits, and join Quintus Cornificius, If any danger befalls the province, it will be ruled out, and if there is no need for many troops to keep quiet, take the legion to Macedonia. · As long as Pompey is alive, the war will resume.

43．Gabinius came to Iluricum in the middle of winter, perhaps he thought the province's reserves were abundant, perhaps he believed in the good fortune of Caesar's invincibility, perhaps he believed in his own bravery and experience, for he has had many successes in the most dangerous battles, thanks to his leadership and vigour.But he did not get much material support from the province, partly because it was exhausted, and partly because it was not sincere enough, and because of the strong winds and waves that hindered the navigation at sea, and supplies could not be brought in.Under the pressure of great difficulties, he was compelled to wage war, and his participation was more out of voluntary than out of necessity.His embarrassment obliged him to attack forts and towns in very bad weather, and he was so often defeated that even the barbarians despised him.As he was retreating towards Salona, ​​a coastal town inhabited by the most courageous and faithful Roman citizens, he was forced into a fight during the march.In this battle he lost more than two thousand soldiers, thirty-eight centurions and four legionary commanders.He chased the remnants to Salona.over there.Everything was lacking, and under heavy pressure, he fell ill and died a few months later.The misadventures of his life and his sudden death gave Octavian great hope that he could seize the province.But the god of fate, who often played a big role in wars, as well as the diligence of Cornificius and the bravery of Vatinius, did not allow him to be so lucky for a long time.

44．At this time Vathinius was in Brundisium, knowing what had happened in Iluricum, and at the same time there were letters from Cornificius urging him to help the province, and he also heard that Marcus s.Octavian has made an alliance with the barbarians, and has attacked our garrisons in some places, sometimes with the fleet himself, sometimes by the local barbarian infantry.Thus, although Vatinius was seriously ill and almost unable to do his best, he bravely overcame the obstacles of health and the difficulty of making sudden preparations for action in winter.As he had but a few warships in the docks, he sent a letter to Gaius Callenus, who was in Achaia, begging him to send a fleet to him.But he also considered that it was too slow to catch up with the danger of rescuing our army, and they were no longer able to stop Octavian's attack, so he loaded some small boats with iron mouths, although they were too small for combat, But he had many in number, and he added them to his ships, and the fleet was increased in number.He also had a large number of old soldiers drawn from all the legions, because they were sick and wounded; and those who were left in Brundisium when the army crossed the sea to Greece, he put them all in the ship. So set off for Iluricum.There are quite a few coastal towns there that have rebelled and surrendered to Octavian, and he has recovered some of them, and some of them are determined to go their own way and refuse to go back. Or prevent him from chasing Octavian at full speed as much as possible.The latter was at this time attacking by sea and land a town called Epidaurus, which was defended by a garrison of our army, and the presence of Vathinius forced him to abandon the attack, and relieved our garrison.

45．When Xing Dawei learned that most of Vatinius's fleet was refitted from small boats.Be confident in your fleet and sail them out of Tauris.Vatinius also chased to this area, not because he knew that Xing Dawei had sailed here, but because the latter had already sailed a long way first and was determined to catch up with him.When his ship spread out and approached Tauris, the sea was very windy and choppy, and he had no doubt that there would be enemies coming.All of a sudden, he noticed a ship coming towards him, the machine already halfway down to the mast, and there were still soldiers arrayed on it.As soon as he saw it, he immediately ordered the sails to be furled and lowered, the troops were all armed, and the flag of the commander was hoisted, which was the sign of his order to fight.He gave orders to the first boat after him to do likewise.Vatinius' men thus prepared themselves for the sudden onslaught of the enemy.The ships of Octavian's subordinates had already been prepared and sailed out of the dock one by one.The battle formations of the two sides are lined up.Octavian's fleet had an advantage in formation, and Vathinimas had an advantage in the rusticity of his troops.

46．When Vathinius saw that his ships were not sufficient in size or number to meet the enemy in an encounter, he left everything to fate.So he took the lead, and with his own quinquereme he galloped towards the quadreme in which Octavian himself was aboard. The iron mouth Xia Xiang slammed into each other, and Xing Dawei's boat's mouth immediately shattered, and its wooden part was wedged firmly on the opponent's boat, unable to get away.All the other places are also fighting hard, and the fighting is especially fierce near the leaders, because everyone wants to support their own side, and a big battle is crowded in a very small sea area close to each other.The more opportunities the ships fought close together, the more superior Vatinius' men gained the upper hand, and they showed admirable valor, jumping from their own ship to the enemy's without hesitation, if the battle was evenly fought. They can all successfully end the battle by virtue of their bravery far surpassing that of the opponent.Octavian's own quadreme was sunk, and many others were captured or sunk by the iron mouth, and some of his warriors were killed on board or thrown into the sea.Octavian himself escaped in a small boat.Later, because too many people escaped onto this ship, it was unable to move. Although he was injured, he was able to swim to another small battleship of his own and was picked up.When the battle ceased with nightfall, he sailed away in the stormy sea.Many of his ships happened to escape the danger, and went with him.

47．Vatinius, on the other hand, having accomplished his task, blew the call to retreat, and all his ships entered the port from which Octavian's fleet came out to fight, intact and well-equipped. A quinquereme, two triremes, eight twinremes, and Octavian's legion of oarsmen.There he spent the next day on refitting his own and captured ships, and the next day he rushed to Isa Island, believing that Octavian had taken refuge there while fleeing.There is a town on the island, which is the most famous town in that area, and the town most closely related to Octavian.As soon as Vatinius arrived there, the townspeople begged to surrender to him.He found that Octavian, with a few small boats, had sailed with a favorable wind to the region of Greece, and from there he was going to sail to Sicily, and then to Africa.Thus, in a short time, he accomplished the splendid work of reconquering the province to Cornificius, and driving the enemy's fleet from the whole coast of that region, with all his army and fleet safe. Return to Brundisium with great victories.

48．Quintus Cassius, while Caesar was besieging Pompey at Dyrrakium, victorious at Old Phasalus, and engaged in a perilous battle at Alexandria, which was exaggerated by rumors to the greater extent, Quintus Cassius Longuides was left in Spain as deputy magistrate, in charge of the Far Spanish provinces.Whether it was his usual temper, or the fact that he had been wounded by plotting while he was treasurer of the province, his hatred of the Spaniards brought him further resentment.He himself was well aware of this situation, probably because he believed in his own heart and believed that the provincials must also hate him, or he could see it from some signs and evidences from those who were not good at concealing their resentment.He was eager to offset the province's hatred for him.He tried his best to win the favor of the army.When he had just assembled his army in one place, he promised his soldiers a hundred sesterces each, and shortly afterwards in Lusitania, after the capture of the city of Medobregga and the escape of the Medobrelians Over there on Hermenemas, where he was hailed as the "Imperator," he rewarded each soldier with a hundred sesterces.In addition, he also awarded huge bonuses to many individuals.On the surface, these rewards seemed to arouse the soldiers' love for him for a while, but they gradually undermined the strict discipline of the soldiers unconsciously.

49．After having settled his regiments at the winter camp, Cassius went to Corramba to preside over the trial, and decided to impose a heavy tax on the province to pay for the burden he had borne there. debt.People who are accustomed to giving bribes will inevitably use their generosity as a beautiful excuse to further seek more sources of bribes.Wealthy men were forcibly extorted for money, which Cassius not only promised, but compelled to enter as his own debt.The poor are pitted against the wealthy class, creating discord.No matter what kind of profit and water, whether it is huge and public or small and shady, none of them can escape the commander in private or in public.Anyone who still had something to dig up was either forced to post bail or placed on the defendant list.In this way, to the sacrifice and loss of private property, there is added an anxiety that makes people constantly worry about disaster.

50．Finally, for these reasons, Cassius, the commander-in-chief, did what he had done when he was treasurer, and the provincials used the same conspiracy to kill him.Their resentment received support and encouragement from some of Cassius's subordinates, who were originally his partners in blackmail and blackmail. Although they used his name to do evil, they hated him no less. When the plunder was obtained, they took it into their own pockets, and when the plunder failed or was prevented, they attributed it to Cassius.He raised a new Fifth Legion, and the very act of conscription and the added expense of adding to it increased his hatred for him.The cavalry was increased to 3,000, and a huge sum of money was spent on equipping them, which did not allow the province to have a little respite.

51．At the same time he received a letter from Caesar, enjoining him to cross the sea to Africa with an army, and drive through Mauritania to the territory of the Numidians, because Yuba had sent a large reinforcement to Gnaeus Pompey, who was said to More people will be sent.Upon receiving this letter, he felt at once a haughty delight that he had secured himself a wonderful opportunity of acquiring new provinces and rich kingdoms.He therefore went himself to Lusitania to muster the legions, call up the allies, and deputed some men to take care of provisions and a hundred ships, apportionments, and demands for money, so as not to be delayed by these matters on his return.He came back more quickly than one would expect, and Cassius was not lacking in drive or wariness, especially when he was coveting something. 52．He gathered all his troops in one place, and camped near Corduba.At one assembly he explained to the soldiers what was to be done at Caesar's orders, and he promised them a hundred sesterces each when they crossed the sea to Mauritania, and said that the Fifth Legion would remain in Spain.After the meeting, he returned to Corduba.On that afternoon, when he was entering the courtroom, a guest of Lucius Lacilius called Minuccius Silos, dressed as a soldier, was delivered to Cassius A note, pretending to make some kind of appeal to him.At this time, Lacilius was walking beside Cassius, and Ciro retreated behind Lacilius, as if asking for an answer.As soon as he had the opportunity, he quickly inserted between the two of them, grabbed Cassius from behind with his left hand, and stabbed him twice with a dagger in his right hand.At this time, with a cry, all the people involved in the plot attacked together.Munatius Flaccus stabbed to death the lieutenant who was closest to him with his sword, and after killing him, he stabbed Cassius' second-in-command Startus Cassius.Then, with equal confidence, Titus Vassius and Lucius Meklo came up to the aid of their fellow-citizen Flaccus, both Italian Canadians.Licinius Scharlus again ran to Cassius himself, but wounded him only slightly in several places, as he fell to the ground. 53．People rushed to protect Cassius from all directions, and it was customary for him to have many armed Beronis and retained veterans as guards by his side.They intercepted all the rest who followed and attempted to commit murder, among them Calpurnius Salvianus and Magnilius Tusculus.Minuccius was caught as he was fleeing through the stones piled up in the road.Cassius had been sent home by this time, and he was taken to Cassius' home.Rakilius hid in a nearby friend's house, waiting to hear for sure whether Cassius had been killed.Convinced that Cassius was dead, Lucius Laterensis rushed joyfully to the camp to congratulate the local soldiers and the men of the Second Legion, whom he knew had a special hatred for Cassius.A large group of people promoted him to the altar of generals and called him a judge.No one who was born in the province, like the soldiers of the native legion, or who, like the soldiers of the second legion, had become practically provincial by long residence, hated Cassius with the whole line. The province agrees.As for the Thirtieth and Twenty-first Legions, which Caesar had assigned to Cassius, they had been raised in Italy only a few months before, and the Fifth Legion had only recently been raised in the provinces. 54．At the same time, news reached La Terences that Cassius was still alive.The news dismayed him more than disturbed him, but he soon regained his senses, and came to see Cassius.As soon as the Thirty Legion knew the situation.Immediately set out for Corduba to aid his commander.The XXI Corps did the same, and the V Corps followed them.At this time there were only two legions left in the camp.The people of the Second Legion were afraid that they would be the only ones left behind, and they could guess their intentions based on this alone.So I did it like the legions above.The local regiments held fast to their old ideas, and nothing could frighten them or compel them to yield. 55．Cassius ordered the arrest of all those mentioned by name who had been involved in this plot of assassination.He also retained five battalions of the Thirtieth Legion, and sent the rest of the regiments back to their battalions.According to Minuccius, he knew Lucius Lachilius, Lucius Laterensis, and Annius Scarpra—a very distinguished, The powerful provincials, whom Cassius trusted as much as Latrones and Lacilius, were involved in the conspiracy.Cassius did not delay in venting his hatred, and at once ordered their execution.Minuccius was handed over to his liberators to be tortured, and likewise Calpurnius Salvianus, who gave a truthful confession and increased the number of his accomplices.Some believe it to be true, while others complain that it was forced.Lucius Meklo was likewise punished. ...Squellus called out more names.Cassius ordered that they all be put to death, except those who could afford to redeem themselves.For example, he actually publicly concluded a deal with Calpurnius for 60,000 sesterces, and Quintus Cestius for 50,000.Although the fine was due to their great crimes, the danger of life and the pain of punishment could be avoided by paying the money, which shows that Cassius's greed is not less than cruel. 56．A few days later, he received a letter from Caesar, from which he knew that Pompey had been defeated on the battlefield and fled after his entire army was wiped out.When he learned of this, he was mixed with sorrow and joy.He couldn't help being unhappy at the news of the victory, but when the war was over, he did whatever he wanted for a while.It was coming to an end, so he couldn't decide for a moment whether it was better not to worry about anything, or to have nothing to hinder him.As soon as his wounds were healed, he summoned all those to whom he owed money, and ordered them to put the money under received.Whoever, in his opinion, had extorted too little, was ordered to pay a larger sum.In addition; he is also preparing to be recruited among the Roman knights.Those who were to be drawn from all the diaspora and the colonies, who were afraid to go abroad for military service, he asked them to pay a sum of money to redeem them.That's a lot of money, but the resentment it invites is even greater.After completing these tasks, he inspected the entire army.Then he sent the legions and allies whom he was going to take to Africa to the place of embarkation.He rushed to Hispalis to inspect the fleet preparing to be there.He lingered there for some time, because he had issued a circular to the whole province, ordering all those who had been ordered to donate money and had not yet delivered it, to come to him.The summons caused great consternation in all these persons. 57．At the same time, Lucius Titius, who was serving as the legion commander of the local legion, brought a letter saying that when the legion was stationed near the town of Iliba, it suddenly mutinied and had already joined forces with the vice general Quintus. The Thirtieth Legion under Cassius broke up, and, having killed some of the centurions who prevented them from breaking camp, hastened towards the Second Legion, which was now being led Run to the strait by another road.Knowing this, Cassius set out at night with five battalions drawn from the 21st Legion, and reached Naiva by dawn.He stayed there all day, trying to find out what was going on, and then rushed to Calmo.Here the four battalions of the Thirtieth Corps, the Twenty-first Corps, and the Fifth Corps, together with all his cavalry, rushed to concentrate.It was also heard that four battalions, under the oppression of the native legions, had rushed with them to the side of the second legion in Obcura, where they all united and elected a native Italian plus Tus Torius was their leader.Cassius quickly called a council of officers, and sent Marcus Uclus, treasurer, to Corduba to try to secure the city, and Quintus Cassius, his lieutenant, to Go Hispalis.A few days later, news came that Corduba's Roman émigré organization had risen to betray him, and whether Maclus had acted out of his own conscience or out of necessity—reports were divided on this point—had Allied with the Corduba, the two battalions of the Fifth Army, which were guarding Corduba, did the same.These things irritated Cassius, and he moved his camp and advanced, and the next day reached Segovia on the Rigelis.There, he called a meeting to test the minds of the soldiers.He learned that they were all extremely loyal to him, not for himself, but for Caesar who was not there, and they would not shy away from any danger in order to recover the province for Caesar. 58．At the same time Torius marched towards Corduba with his legion of veterans.In order not to make it look as if the cause of the split was due to the chaotic and capricious nature of the soldiers and himself, and at the same time seeing that Cassius was mobilizing more troops than himself in the name of Caesar, Thinking it necessary to bring up against him a man of equal fame and influence, he repeatedly declared publicly that he was recovering the province for Gnaeus Pompey.The reason why he did this may be out of his own hatred of Caesar and respect and love for Pompey. He believed that Pompey's name had great appeal among the legions led by Marcus Varro .But what is his motive for doing this is a matter of speculation, at least this is the reason that Torius himself said.His soldiers all admitted as much, and even carved the name of Gnaeus Pompey on their shields.A large number of Roman citizens came to meet the legion, not only men, but also housewives and teenagers, asking them not to enter Corduba and plunder like the enemy, saying: They also hate Cassius as much as everyone else. S, but asked not to force them against Caesar. 59．The pleas and tears of so many crowds moved the army, and they also saw that in order to overthrow Cassius, there was no need to use the name of Pompey to arouse everyone's memory of him. Cassius was among all Caesars. It was as hateful in the minds of men as in the minds of Pompey's party, and it was impossible for either the resident citizens of that place or Maclus to induce them to rise up against Caesar.They removed Pompey's name from the shield, and made Maclus, who claimed to be defending Caesar's cause, their chief, called him magistrate, and united with the diaspora of that place, at Cordu pitched camp near Ba.Two days later, Cassius also encamped on this side of the Betis, about four leagues from Corduba, on a high place, from which he could be seen from the city.He sent envoys to Bogoode, king of Mauritania, and to Marcus Lepidus, consul in near Spain, urging them to send reinforcements to him and the province as soon as possible in Caesar's interest.He himself set fire to the fields and houses of the Corduba people in exactly the same way as he had dealt with the enemy. 60．The vileness and disgrace of this kind of behavior caused the legions who had promoted Marcolus as their leader to come to him one after another, asking him to lead them out in formation so that they could be humiliated by the enemy in front of them. There was a fighting chance before the face of the Corduba plundered or destroyed with sword and fire the valuable and beloved possessions of the people of Corduba.Although Marklus thought that fighting was a very painful thing, no matter the winner or the loser, their losses would inevitably fall on Caesar in the end, but this was beyond his power, so he sent him The army led across the Batis River and set up an array.Seeing that Cassius had already set up a battle formation in front of his camp gate on the high ground, Maclus persuaded his subordinates to retreat to the camp on the grounds that the opponent refused to come down to fight on the flat ground.Then he began to retreat with his troops.Cassius, knowing that Maclus' cavalry was weaker than his own, sent them against the retreating legions, and killed many of his rear on the river bank.From this defeat, Maclus realized the mistakes and difficulties of retreating across the river, and moved his camp to the side of the Betis River.As a result, the two sides often brought out the legions and formed a formation, but in the end due to the unfavorable terrain, there was no battle.