Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/311

 CAESAR. 303 ground, and without breaking their order, receive quietly the enemy's first attack, till they came within javelin's cast. Coesar, in this respect, also, blames Pompey's gen- eralship, as if he had not been aware how the first en- counter, when made with an impetus and upon the run, gives weight and force to the strokes, and fires the men's spirits into a flame, which the general concurrence fans to full heat. He himself was just putting the troops into motion and advancing to the action, when he found one of his captains, a trusty and experienced soldier, encour- aging his men to exert their utmost. Caesar called him by his name, and said, " What hopes, Caius Crassinius, and what grounds for encouragement?" Crassinius stretched out his hand, and cried in a loud voice, " We shall conquer nobly, Caesar; and I this day will deserve your praises, either alive or dead." So he said, and was the first man to run in upon the enemy, followed by the hundred and twenty soldiers about him, and breaking through the first rank, still pressed on forwards with much slaughter of the enemy, till at last ' he was struck back by the wound of a sword, which went in at his mouth with such force that it came out at his neck be- hind. Whilst the foot was thus sharply engaged in the main battle, on the flank Pompey's horse rode up confidently, and opened their ranks very wide, that they might sur- round the right wing of Cresar. But before they engaged, Caesar's cohorts rushed out and attacked them, and did not dart their javelins at a distance, nor strike at the thighs and legs, as they usually did in close battle, but aimed at their faces. For thus Coesar had instructed them, in hopes that young gentlemen, who had not known much of battles and wounds, but came wearing their hair long, in the flower of their age and height of their beauty, would be more apprehensive of such blows,