126 POMPEY.

now entered upon his consulship, would not assemble the senate ; but Cicero, who was lately returned from Cilicia, labored for a reconciliation, proposing that Caesar should leave his province of Gaul and army, reserving two le- gions only, together with the government of Illyricum, and should thus be put in nomination for a second consul- ship. Pompey disliking this motion, Caasar's friends were contented that he should surrender one of the two ; but Lentulus still opposing, and Cato crying out that Pom- pey did ill to be deceived again, the reconciliation did not take effect. In the mean time, news was brought that Caesar had occupied Ariminum, a great city in Italy, and was march- ing directly towards Koine with all his forces. But this latter was altogether false, for he had no more with him at that time than three hundred horse and five thousand foot ; and he did not mean to tarry for the body of his army, which lay beyond the Alps, choosing rather to fall in on a sudden upon his enemies, while they were in con- fusion, and did not expect him, than to give them time, and fight them after they had made preparations. For when he came to the banks of the Rubicon, a river that made the bounds of his province, there he made a halt, pausing a little, and considering, we may suppose, with himself the greatness of the enterprise which he had un- dertaken ; then, at last, like men that are throwing them- selves headlong from some precipice into a vast abyss, having shut, as it were, his mind's eyes and put away from his sight the idea of danger, he merely uttered to those near him in Greek the words, " Anerriphtho kubos," (let the die be cast,) and led his army through it. No sooner was the news arrived, but there was an uproar through- out all the city, and a consternation in the people even to

astonishment, such as never was known in Rome before ;