Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/375

55 B.C.] himself to Rome to sue personally for the consulship; Pompey was to retire to his Spanish province. The only condition attached was that the Republicans should dismiss their levies. The terms were accepted by Pompey and the consuls with the sole proviso that Cæsar should likewise withdraw from the posts he had occupied in Italy. But Cæsar, like Napoleon, made it his practice to push on his military operations all the more vigorously when he had begun to negotiate. He was advancing day by day; and when Lucius arrived at his camp, he rejected the condition that he should withdraw his garrisons. His offer certainly had not been sincere. It is probable, indeed, that at this time neither party trusted the other, and that each suspected that the adversary would take advantage of the preliminaries of peace only to strengthen his military position. Cicero, however, seems to have had no suspicion of this, and so late as the 3d of February he evidently believes that Cæsar will stand to his offer; "he is a lost man else." Cicero's intention during these days was to go with Pompey to Spain, that he might have no part in the coming iniquities of Cæsar as consul. Even when this negotiation had fallen through, Cæsar continued to amuse Cicero with hopes that a peace might still be arranged, and that he himself might act as mediator. Balbus and Oppius, Cæsar's