For a time matters went on so:  but when a few of the men sent in advance from Rome had reached there, and Caesar’s arrival was looked for, Pompey became frightened; and thinking that he was not strong enough to gain the mastery of all Spain, he did not wait for a reverse before changing his mind, but immediately, before testing the temper of his adversaries, retired into Baetica.  The sea, moreover, straightway became hostile to him, and Varus was beaten in a naval battle near Carteia by Didius:  indeed, had he not escaped to the land and sunk anchors side by side at the mouth of the harbor, upon which the foremost pursuers struck as on a reef, the whole fleet would have perished.  All the country at that point except the city Ulia was an ally of Pompey’s:  this town, which had refused to submit to him, he proceeded to besiege.

[-32-] Meanwhile Caesar, too, with a few men suddenly came up unexpectedly not only to Pompey’s followers, but even to his own soldiers.  He had employed such speed in the passage that he was seen both by his adherents and by his opponents before news was brought that he was actually in Spain.  Now Caesar hoped from this very fact and his mere presence to alarm Pompey in general, and to draw him from the siege; that was why most of the army had been left behind on the road.

But Pompey, thinking that one man was not much superior to another and quite confident in his own strength, was not seriously startled at the other’s arrival, but continued to besiege the city and kept making assaults just as before.  Hence Caesar stationed there a few soldiers from among the first-comers and himself started for Corduba, partly because he hoped to take it by treachery, but chiefly because he expected to attract Pompey through fear for it away from Ulia.  And so it turned out.  For at first Pompey left a portion of his army in position, went to Corduba and strengthened it, and as Caesar did not withstand his troops, put his brother Sextus in charge of it.  However, he failed to accomplish anything at Ulia:  on the contrary, when a certain tower had fallen, and that not shaken down by his own men but broken down by the crowd that was making a defence from it, some few who rushed in did not come off well; and Caesar approaching lent assistance secretly by night to the citizens, and himself again made an expedition against Corduba, putting it under siege in turn:  then at last did Pompey withdraw entirely from Ulia and hastened to the other town with his entire army,—­a movement not destitute of results.  For Caesar, learning of this in advance, had retired, as he happened to be sick.  Afterward when he had recovered and had taken charge of the additional troops who accompanied him he was compelled to carry on warfare even in the winter. [-33-] Housed in miserable little tents they were suffering distress and running short of food.  Caesar was at that time serving as dictator, and some time late, near the close of the war, he was appointed consul, when Lepidus, who was master of the horse, convoked the people for this purpose.  He, Lepidus, had become master of the horse at that time, having given himself, while still in the consulship, that additional title contrary to ancestral traditions.