repented in regard to this costume and without waiting for any excuse went back to their accustomed dress.  Now when the tribunes endeavored to abolish the levies and rescind the vote for the proposed campaigns, Pompey, for his part, showed no anger.  He had sent out his lieutenants without delay and he himself was glad to remain where he was on the plea that he was prevented from going abroad, especially as he ought to be in Rome on account of his duties in the care of the grain; and his plan in that case was to let his officers subdue the Hispaniae and himself manage the affairs at Rome and in the rest of Italy.  Crassus, however, since neither of these considerations operated in his case, turned to force of arms.  The tribunes, then, seeing that their boldness, being unarmed, was too weak to hinder any of his undertakings, in general kept silence.  They announced many unusual portents, however, that applied to him, as if they could avoid including the public in their curse:  at one time as he was offering on the Capitol the customary prayers for his campaign they spread a report of omens and wonders, and again when he was setting out they called down many terrible curses upon him.  Ateius even attempted to cast him into prison, but other tribunes resisted, and there was a conflict among them and a delay, in the midst of which Crassus left the pomerium.

[B.C. 56 (a.u. 698)]

[-40-] Now he, whether by chance or as a result of the curses, before long met with defeat.  As for Caesar, he, in the consulship of Marcellinus and Philippus, had made an expedition against the Veneti, who live near the ocean.  They had seized some Roman soldiers sent out for grain and afterward detained the envoys who came to see about them, to the end that in exchange they might get back their own hostages.  Caesar, instead of giving these back, sent out different bodies of troops in various directions, some to waste the possessions of those who had joined the revolt and thus to prevent the two bands from aiding each other, and others to guard the possessions of those that were under treaty for fear they too might cause some disturbance:  he himself meanwhile went straight against the Veneti.  He constructed in the interior boats, which he heard were of advantage for the reflux tide of the ocean, and conveyed them down the river Liger, but in so doing used up almost the entire season to no purpose.  Their cities, established in strong positions, were inaccessible, and the ocean surging around practically all of them rendered an infantry attack out of the question, and a naval attack equally so in the midst of the ebb and flow of the tide.  Consequently Caesar was in despair until Decimus Brutus came to him with swift ships from the Mediterranean.  And he was inclined to think he would be unable to accomplish anything with those either, but the barbarians through contempt for the smallness and weakness of the cutters incurred defeat. [-41-] For these boats,