[-35-] The capture of that city did not fail of its influence upon the other peoples, but many themselves after sending envoys espoused Caesar’s cause, and many received him on his approach or his lieutenants.  Pompey, in consequence, at a loss which way to turn, at first made frequent changes of base, wandering about now in one and now in another part of the country:  later on he became afraid that as a result of this very behavior the rest of his adherents would also leave him in the lurch, and chose to hazard all, although Heaven beforehand indicated his defeat very clearly.  To be sure, the drops of sweat that fell from sacred statues and the confused noises of the legions, and the many animals born which proved to be perversions of the proper type, and the torches darting from sunrise to the sunset region—­(all these signs then met together in Spain at one time)—­gave no clear manifestation to which of the two combatants they were revealing the future.  But the eagles of his legions shook their wings and cast forth the golden thunderbolts which some of them held in their talons:  thus they would hurl disaster directly at Pompey before flying off to Caesar....  For a different force ...  Heaven, and he held it in slight esteem, and so into war ... settled down to battle.[97]

[-36-] Both had in addition to their citizen and mercenary troops many of the natives and many Moors.  For Bocchus[98] had sent his sons to Pompey and Bogud in person accompanied Caesar’s force.  Still, the contest turned out to be like a struggle of the Romans themselves, not of any other nations.  Caesar’s soldiers derived courage from their numbers and experience and above all from their leader’s presence and so were anxious to be done with the war and its attendant miseries.  Pompey’s men were inferior in these respects, but, strong through their despair of safety, should they fail to conquer, continued zealous.[99] Inasmuch as the majority of them had been captured with Afranius and Varro, had been spared, and delivered afterward to Longinus, from whom they had revolted, they had no hope of safety if they were beaten, and as a result of this were drawn toward desperation, feeling that they needed to be of good cheer at that particular time or else perish utterly.  So the armies came together and began the battle.  They had no longer any dread of each other, since they had been so many times opposed in arms, and for that reason required no urging. [-37-] In the course of the engagement the allied forces on both sides quickly were routed and fled; but the main bodies struggled in close combat to the utmost in their resistance of each other.  Not a man of them would yield.  They remained in position, wreaking slaughter and being slain, as if each separate man was to be responsible to all the rest as well for the outcome of victory or defeat.  Consequently they were not concerned to see how their allies were battling but set to work as if they alone were engaged.