Colleen McCullough - 5. Caesar

Quintus Fabius came back from Corfinium to inform Pompey that Ahenobarbus would march to join the army in Luceria four days before the Ides of February, and that he had accumulated even more troops; refugees from the debacles in Picenum kept drifting in. One of the most cheering aspects of this was Ahenobarbus's news that he had six million sesterces with him. He had intended to pay his men, but Pompey's needs were greater, so he hadn't. But on the eleventh day of February, two days before the Ides, Vibullius sent a dispatch telling Pompey that Ahenobarbus had now decided to remain in Corfinium. His scouts had reported that Caesar had left Picenum behind and was in Castrum Truentum. He had to be stopped! said Ahenobarbus. Therefore Ahenobarbus would stop him. Pompey sent an urgent directive back to Corfinium instructing Ahenobarbus to leave before Caesar arrived to blockade him; his own scouts believed that a third of Caesar's veteran legions was now approaching, and the scouts knew for a fact that Antonius and Curio were back in Caesar's fold with their cohorts. With three of his old legions and a wealth of experience in blockade, Caesar would take Corfinium and Sulmo easily. Get out, get out! said Pompey's note. Ahenobarbus ignored it and remained. Unaware of this, on the Ides of February Pompey sent his legate Decimus Laelius to Capua with orders he insisted be obeyed. One of the two consuls was to proceed to Sicily to secure the grain harvest, just beginning to come in; Ahenobarbus and twelve cohorts of his troops would also sail for Sicily as soon as possible. The men not needed to secure Sicily were to go to Brundisium at once, cross the Adriatic to Epirus, and wait in Dyrrachium. They were to include the government. Laelius inherited the job of finding a fleet to sail for Sicily; Cassius, hinted Labienus, was very busy emptying temples and towns of their money. News of what was happening at Corfinium filtered in very, very slowly. Though the distance between Corfinium and Luceria was only a matter of a hundred miles, dispatches took between two and four days to reach Pompey. Which meant that by the time he got the news, it was already too old to act upon. Even the awesome and frightening Labienus could not manage to improve the situation; the couriers dawdled all the way, popped in to say hello to an aged aunt, visited a tavern, lingered to dally with a woman. "Morale," said Pompey wearily, "doesn't exist. Hardly anyone believes in this war! Those who do, refuse to take it seriously. I'm hamstrung, Labienus." "Hang on until we get across the Adriatic" was the answer. Though Caesar arrived at Corfinium the day after the Ides, three more days elapsed before Pompey knew; by that time Caesar had the Eighth, the Twelfth and all the Thirteenth with him. Sulmo surrendered and Corfinium had been rendered helpless by blockade. Lips tight, Pompey sent word back to Ahenobarbus that it was far too late to send help, that the situation was of Ahenobarbus's own making, and that he would have to get himself out of it. But when Pompey's unsympathetic response reached Ahenobarbus six days after he had sent for assistance, the commander of Corfinium decided to flee secretly in the night, leaving his troops and his legates behind. Unfortunately his strange behavior gave him away; he was promptly taken into custody by Lentulus Spinther, who sent to Caesar for terms. With the result that on the twenty-first day of February, Ahenobarbus, his cronies and fifty other senators were handed over to Caesar, together with thirty-one cohorts of soldiers. And six million sesterces. For Caesar, a welcome bonus. He proceeded to require an oath of allegiance to himself from Ahenobarbus's men; he also paid them well into the future. They would be most useful, he had decided, to send to secure Sicily. For once the messenger to Pompey hurried. Pompey reacted by striking camp in Luceria and marching for Brundisium with the fifty cohorts he possessed. Caesar was now in hot pursuit; not five hours after accepting the surrender of Corfinium, he was on the road south in the wake of Pompey. Who reached Brundisium on the twenty-fourth day of February to discover that he had sufficient transports to ship only thirty of his fifty cohorts across the sea. The most dismaying news of all, as far as Pompey was concerned, however, was Caesar's stunning clemency at Corfinium. Instead of holding mass executions, he gave mass pardons. Ahenobarbus, Attius Varus, Lucilius Hirrus, Lentulus Spinther, Vibullius Rufus and the fifty senators were civilly commended for their valor in defending Italia, and released unharmed. All Caesar required was their word that they would cease to fight against him; did they take up arms a second time, he warned them, he might not be so merciful. Campania was now as open to Caesar as was the north. No one was left in Capua no troops, no consuls, no senators. Everything and everyone went to Brundisium, for Pompey had abandoned the idea of sending a force to Sicily. Everything and everyone was to sail for Dyrrachium in western Macedonia, some distance north of Epirus. The Treasury had not been emptied. But was Lentulus Crus sorry? Did he apologize for his stupidity? No, not at all! He was too indignant still over Pompey's rejection of that gladiator legion. Brundisium was all for Caesar, which made Pompey's situation there uncomfortable. Forced to barricade and mine the port city's streets, he was also forced to expend a great deal of effort on making sure Brundisium did not betray him. But between the second and the fourth days of March he managed to send off thirty cohorts in his fleet of transports plus one consul, many other governing magistrates, and the senators. At least they were out of his hair! The only men he retained were men he could bear to talk to. Caesar arrived outside Brundisium before the empty transports had returned, and sent his Gallic legate Caninius Rebilus into the city to see young Gnaeus Pompey's father-in-law, Scribonius Libo. Rebilus's mission was to persuade Libo to let him see Pompey, who agreed to parley, then failed to agree to anything else. "In the absence of the consuls, Rebilus," said Pompey, "I do not have the power to negotiate anything." "I beg your pardon, Gnaeus Pompeius," said Rebilus firmly, "that is not true. There is a Senatus Consultum Ultimum in effect and you are the commander-in-chief under its provisions. You are at full liberty to make terms in the absence of the consuls." "I refuse even to think of reconciliation with Caesar!" snapped Pompey. "To be reconciled with Caesar is tantamount to lying down at his feet like a cringing dog!" "Are you sure, Magnus?" asked Libo after Rebilus had gone. "Rebilus is right, you can make terms." "I will not make terms!" snarled Pompey, whose ordeals with the consuls and his senatorial watchdogs had passed for the moment; he was feeling much stronger, and he was growing harder. "Send for Metellus Scipio, Gaius Cassius, my son and Vibullius Rufus." While Libo pattered off, Labienus looked at Pompey reflectively. "You're steeling rapidly, Magnus," he said. "I am that," said Pompey between his teeth. "Was there ever a worse trick of Fortuna for the Republic than Lentulus Crus as the dominant consul in the year of the Republic's greatest crisis? Marcellus Minor may as well not have existed he was useless." "I think Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor doesn't share the devotion to the boni cause his brother and cousin have in such abundance," said Labienus. "Otherwise, why has he been sick since he took office?" "True. I ought not to have been surprised when he baulked and refused to sail. Still, his defection made me determined to ship the rest of them off in the first fleet. Ever since word of Caesar's clemency at Corfinium reached them, they've vacillated." "Caesar won't proscribe," said Labienus positively. "It's not in his best interests. He'll continue to be clement." "So I think. Though he's wrong, Labienus, he's wrong! If I win this war when I win this war! I'm going to proscribe." "As long as you don't proscribe me, Magnus, proscribe away." The summoned men arrived, and settled to listen. "Scipio," said Pompey to his father-in-law, "I've decided to send you directly to your province, Syria. There you'll squeeze as much money as you can out of the place, after which you'll take the best twenty cohorts there, form them into two legions, and bring them to me in Macedonia or wherever I am." "Yes, Magnus," said Metellus Scipio obediently. "Gnaeus, my son, you'll come with me for the present, but later I'll ask you to raise fleets for me, I'm not sure where. I suspect my best strategy against Caesar will be naval. On land he'll always be dangerous, but if we can control the seas he'll suffer. The East knows me well, but it doesn't know Caesar at all. The East likes me, I'll get fleets." Pompey looked at Cassius, who had managed to raise a thousand talents in coin and another thousand talents in treasure from the Campanian temples and town treasuries. "Gaius Cassius, you'll come with me for the moment too." "Yes, Gnaeus Pompeius," said Cassius, not sure if he was pleased at this news. "Vibullius, you're going west," said the commander-in-chief. "I want you to see Afranius and Petreius in Spain. Varro is on his way already, but at this time of year you can sail. Tell Afranius and Petreius that they are not, repeat, not to march my legions eastward. They are to wait in Spain for Caesar, who I suspect will attempt to crush Spain before he follows me east. My Spanish army will have no trouble beating Caesar. They're hardened veterans, unlike the sorry lot I'm taking to Dyrrachium." Good, thought Labienus, satisfied. He took my word for it that Caesar will go to Spain first. Now all I have to do is to make sure the last two legions and this disappointing Magnus escape from Brundisium intact. Which they did on the seventeenth day of March, with the loss of a mere two transports. The Senate and its executives, together with the commander-in-chief of the Republic's forces, had abandoned Italia to Caesar.