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49 B.C.]

the sea and long to fly away." The climax is reached on the 20th, when a false report arrives that Cæsar has succeeded in blocking up the harbour of Brundisium, and that Pompey is cut off and surrounded. "Now I lament, now I am tormented, when some think me prudent and others think me lucky in not having gone along with him. It is just the other way; I never wished to share his victory, but would that I were the partner of his disaster."

The memory of those dreadful days served to steady Cicero's purpose, and he came to see clearly that there was no place for him in Italy; the only question now was whether he should retire to some remote spot, to Malta for instance, or whether he should join Pompey in Epirus. But to leave Italy at all was no longer easy; he would not be allowed to cross over to the east coast; and to escape by sea from a western port he must wait till the winter was over, and in the meantime must conceal his intentions.

Cæsar was strong in all the material elements of success; "all the rascals in Italy" writes Cicero, "seem to have flocked to him;" and these were useful, no doubt, in their way to a fighting chief. None the less, Cæsar seems to have felt keenly the weak