When intelligence, therefore, was received, that the interposition of the
					tribunes in his favour had been utterly rejected, and that they themselves had
					fled from the city, he immediately sent forward some cohorts, but privately, to
					prevent any suspicion of his design; and, to keep up appearances, attended at a
					public spectacle, examined the model of a fencing-school which he proposed to
					build, and, as usual, sat down to table with a numerous party of his friends.
					But after sun-set, mules being put to his carriage from a neighbouring mill, he
					set forward on his journey with all possible privacy, and a small retinue. The
					lights going out, he lost his way, and wandered a long time, until at length, by
					the help of a guide, whom he found towards day-break, he proceeded on foot
					through some narrow paths, and again reached the road. Coming up with his troops
					on the banks of the Rubicon, which was the boundary of his province, Now the Pisatello; near Rimini . There was a very ancient law of the republic,
						forbidding any general, returning from the wars, to cross the Rubicon with
						his troops under arms. he halted for a while, and, revolving in his
					mind the importance of the step he was on the point of taking, he turned to
					those about him, and said: "We may still retreat: but if we pass this little
					bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out in arms." While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred. A person
					remarkable for his noble mien and graceful aspect, appeared close at hand,
					sitting and playing upon a pipe. When, not only the shepherds, but a number of
					soldiers also flocked from their posts to listen to him, and some trumpeters
					among them, he snatched a trumpet from one of them, ran to the river with it,
					and sounding the advance with a piercing blast, crossed to the other side. Upon
					this, Caesar exclaimed, " Let us go where the omens of the Gods and the iniquity
					of our enemies call us. The die is now cast." Accordingly, having marched his army over the river, he shewed them the tribunes
					of the people, who, upon their being driven from the city, had come to meet him;
					and, in the presence of that assembly, called upon the troops to pledge him
					their fidelity, with tears in his eyes, and his garment rent from his bosom. It
					has been supposed, that upon this occasion he promised to every soldier a
					knight's estate; but that opinion is founded on a mistake. For when, in his
					harangue to them, he frequently held out a finger of his left hand, The ring was worn on the finger next to the little finger of
						the left hand. and declared, that to recompense those who should
					support him in the defence of his honor, he would willingly part even with his
					ring; the soldiers at a distance, who could more easily see than hear him while
					he spoke, formed their conception of what he said, by the eye, not by the ear;
					and accordingly gave out, that he had promised to each of them the privilege of
					wearing the gold ring, and an estate of four hundred thousand sesterces. Suetonius here accounts for the mistake of the soldiers with
						great probability. The class to which they imagined they were to be
						promoted, was that of the equites, or knights, who wore a gold ring, and
						were possessed of property to the amount stated in the text. Great as was
						the liberality of Caesar to his legions, the performance of this imaginary
						promise was beyond all reasonable expectation. Of his subsequent proceedings I shall give a cursory detail, in the order in
					which they occurred. A.U.C. 70 He took possession
					of Picenum, Umbria , and Etruria; and
					having obliged Lucius Domitius, who had been tumultuously nominated his
					successor, and held Corsinium with a garrison, to surrender, and dismissed him,
					he marched along the coast of the Upper Sea, to Brundusium , to which place the consuls
					and Pompey were fled with the intention of crossing the sea as soon as possible.
					After vain attempts, by all the obstacles he could oppose, to prevent their
					leaving the harbour, he turned his steps towards Rome , where he appealed to the senate on the present state of
					public affairs; and then set out for Spain , in which province Pompey had a numerous army, under the
					command of three lieutenants, Marcus Petreius, Lucius Afranius, and Marcus
					Varro; declaring amongst his friends, before he set forward, "That he was going
					against an army without a general, and should return thence against ra general
					without an army." Though his progress was retarded both by the siege of
						 Marseilles , which shut her agates
					against him, and a very great scarcity of corn, yet in a short time he bore down
					all before him. Thence he returned to Rome , and
					crossing the sea to Macedonia , blocked
					up Pompey during almost four months, within a line of ramparts of prodigious
					extent; and at last defeated him in the battle of Pharsalia. Pursuing him in his
					flight to Alexandria , where he
					was tinformed of his murder, he presently found himself also engaged, under all
					the disadvantages of time and place, in a very dangerous war, with king Ptolemy,
					who, he saw, had treacherous designs upon his life. It was winter, and he,
					within the walls of a well-provided and subtle enemy, was destitute of every
					thing, and wholly unprepared for such a conflict. He succeeded, however, in his
					enterprise, and put the kingdom of Egypt into the hands of Cleopatra and her younger brother;
					being afraid to make it a province, lest, under an aspiring prefect, it might
					become the centre of revolt. From Alexandria he went into Syria , and thence to Pontus , induced by intelligence which he had received
					respecting Pharnaces. This prince, who was son of the great Mithridates, had
					seized the opportunity which the distraction of the times offered for making war
					upon his neighbours, and his insolence and fierceness had grown with his
					success. Caesar, however, within five days after entering his country, and four
					hours after coming in sight of him, overthrew him in one decisive battle. Upon
					which, he frequently remarked to those about him the good fortune of Pompey, who
					had obtained his military reputation, chiefly, by victory over so feeble an
					enemy. He afterwards defeated Scipio and Juba, who were rallying the remains of
					the party in Africa , and Pompey's sons
					in Spain .