CAESAR
proditione oppidi appareret, patefactis consiliis exclusus Capua et periculum veritus quod conventus arma ceperat atque eum hostis loco habendum existimabat consilio destitit atque eo itinere sese avertit.
22. Interim Milo dimissis circum municipia litteris <se> ea quae faceret iussu atque imperio facere Pompei, quae mandata ad se per Vibullium delata essent, quos ex aere alieno laborare arbitrabatur sollicitabat. 2Apud quos cum proficere nihil posset quibusdam solutis ergastulis Compsam in agro Hirpino oppugnare coepit. Eo cum a Q. Pedio praetore cum legione . . . lapide ictus ex muro periit.38 3Et Caelius profectus, ut dictitabat, ad Caesarem pervenit Thurios. Ubi cum quosdam eius municipi sollicitaret equitibusque Caesaris Gallis atque Hispanis, qui eo praesidi causa missi erant, pecuniam polliceretur ab his est interfectus. 4Ita magnarum initia rerum, quae occupatione magistratuum et temporum39 sollicitam Italiam habebant, celerem et facilem exitum habuerunt.
23. Libo profectus ab Orico cum classe cui praeerat navium L Brundisium venit insulamque quae contra portum Brundisinum est occupavit quod praestare arbitrabatur unum locum—qua necessarius nostris erat egressus—quam omnia litora ac portus custodia clausos tueri. 2Hic repentino adventu naves onerarias quasdam nactus incendit et unam frumento onustam abduxit magnumque nostris terrorem iniecit. Et noctu militibus ac sagittariis in
CIVIL WAR, BOOK III
laid bare, he was shut out of Capua. Fearing danger because the association of Roman citizens had taken up arms and thought him to be tantamount to a public enemy, he desisted from his plan and turned aside from the road to Capua.
22. Meanwhile Milo circulated a letter to various towns, saying that his actions were taken on Pompey’s order and authority and that the message had been brought to him by Vibullius. He tried to rouse those whom he believed to be in difficulties with debt. 2Since he was unable to make any progress with these, he opened the slave lockups and began to blockade Compsa in the territory of the Hirpini. There Milo perished, struck by a stone from the wall, after . . . by the praetor Quintus Pedius with a legion . . .37 3Caelius, having set out, as he said, for Caesar, reached Thurii. There, while trying to rouse certain men from the town and promising money to some of Caesar’s Gallic and Spanish cavalry who had been sent to garrison the place, he was killed by the cavalry. 4Thus the outbreak of major developments, which kept Italy anxious with preoccupations about public office and the times,38 had a swift and easy resolution.
23. Libo, setting out from Oricum with the fleet of fifty ships that was under his authority, came to Brundisium and occupied the island opposite Brundisium’s harbor, thinking it preferable to contain one location with a guard and watch that one—the route by which our men would necessarily leave—not the whole coastline and every harbor. 2With his sudden arrival he captured and burned some cargo vessels, towed one away laden with provisions, and inflicted great terror on our men. By night he landed some infantry and archers and drove off the island’s cavalry garrison.