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326 and tried to block the harbour of Brundisium; but Pompey effected his escape with great skill, and crossed the Adriatic with the remainder of his force on the 10th of March. Cæsar was unable from want of ships to follow up the pursuit; and he resolved to transfer the war at once to Spain, which was held with a strong army by Pompey's lieutenants, Afranius and Petreius. Pompey might have availed himself of his command of the sea to reach Spain before Cæsar, and to face him again on this new battle-ground. Cæsar seems to have thought that this would have been his adversary's best move; "as it is," he said, "I shall go to Spain to fight an army without a general, and shall return to fight a general without an army." Pompey had however no reason to expect that Afranius and Petreius, who were esteemed competent officers, would be so completely out-generaled by Cæsar; and he hoped that the war in that quarter would at least be prolonged. He judged that he would be more usefully employed in using his great influence in the East to raise and train a fresh army, which might perhaps be able to restore his power in Italy, while Cæsar was occupied in Spain, and would at the worst form a second line of defence.

Cæsar returned from Brundisium to Rome, where he arrived about the end of March, and then set out for Spain. The Spanish campaign, after some weeks of much danger and anxiety for Cæsar, ended triumphantly in the month of August by the surrender of all the Pompeian forces. The failure of his