[-55-] The struggle proved a mighty one, and resembled no other conflict.  The leaders believed themselves to be the most skilled in all matters of warfare and clearly the most distinguished not only of the Romans but also of the remainder of mankind then in existence.  They had practiced those pursuits from boyhood, had constantly been connected with them, had exhibited deeds worthy of note, had been conspicuous for great valor and great good fortune, and were therefore most worthy of commanding and most worthy of victory.  As to forces, Caesar had the largest and the most genuinely Roman portion of the citizen-army and the most warlike men from the rest of Italy, from Spain, and the whole of Gaul and the islands that he had conquered:  Pompey had attracted many from the senatorial and the equestrian order and from the regular enrollment and had gathered a vast number from subject and pacified peoples and kings.  Aside from Pharnaces and Orodes,—­the latter, indeed, although an enemy because of his having killed the Crassi, he tried to win over,—­all the rest who had ever had even the smallest dealings with Pompey gave him money and either sent or led auxiliaries.  The Parthian king promised to be his ally if he should take Syria:  but as he did not get it, the prince did not help him.  While Pompey decidedly excelled in numbers, Caesar’s followers were equal to them in strength, and so, the advantage being even, they just balanced each other and were equally prepared for danger.

[-56-] In these circumstances and by the very cause and purpose of the war a most notable struggle took place.  The city of Rome and the entire dominion over it, even then great and mighty, lay before them as a prize:  it was clear to all that it would become the slave of him who conquered.  When they reflected on this fact and furthermore recalled their former deeds,—­Pompey, Africa and Sertorius and Mithridates and Tigranes and the sea:  Caesar, Gaul and Spain and the Rhine and Britain,—­they were excited to frenzy, thinking that they were facing danger for those conquests too, and each was eager to acquire the other’s glory.  For the renown of the vanquished no less than his other possessions becomes the property of the victors.  The greater and more powerful the antagonist that a man overthrows, to the greater heights is he raised. [-57-] Therefore they delivered to the soldiers also many exhortations, but very much alike on both sides, saying all that is fitting to be mentioned on such occasions with reference both to the immediate nature of the danger and to its future results.  As they both came from the same state and were talking to the same subjects and calling each other tyrants and themselves liberators from tyranny, they had nothing of different kinds to say, but stated that it would be the lot of the one party to die, of the other to be preserved, of the one party to be captives, of the other to enjoy the master’s lot, to possess everything or to