XLVII.  There were many prognostics of the victory, but the most remarkable is that which is reported as having appeared at Tralles.[542] In the temple of Victory there stood a statue of Caesar, and the ground about it was naturally firm and the surface was also paved with hard stone; from this, they say, there sprung up a palm-tree by the pedestal of the statue.  In Patavium, Caius Cornelius, a man who had reputation for his skill in divination, a fellow-citizen and acquaintance of Livius the historian, happened to be sitting that day to watch the birds.  And first of all, as Livius says, he discovered the time of the battle, and he said to those who were present that the affair was now deciding and the men were going into action.  Looking again and observing the signs, he sprang up with enthusiasm and called out, “You conquer, Caesar.”  The bystanders being surprised, he took the chaplet from his head and said with an oath, that he would not put it on again till facts had confirmed his art.  Livius affirms that these things were so.

XLVIII.  Caesar after giving the Thessalians their liberty[543] in consideration of his victory, pursued Pompeius.  On reaching Asia[544] he made the Cnidians free to please Theopompus,[545] the collector of mythi, and he remitted to all the inhabitants of Asia the third of their taxes.  Arriving at Alexandria[546] after the death of Pompeius, he turned away from Theodotus who brought him the head of Pompeius, but he received his seal ring[547] and shed tears over it.  All the companions and intimate friends of Pompeius who were rambling about the country and had been taken by the King, he treated well and gained over to himself.  He wrote to his friends in Rome, that the chief and the sweetest pleasure that he derived from his victory, was to be able to pardon any of those citizens who had fought against him.  As to the war[548] there, some say that it might have been avoided and that it broke out in consequence of his passion for Kleopatra and was discreditable to him and hazardous; but others blame the King’s party and chiefly the eunuch Potheinus,who possessed the chief power, and having lately cut off Pompeius and driven out Kleopatra, was now secretly plotting against Caesar; and on this account they say that Caesar from that time passed the nights in drinking in order to protect himself.  But in his public conduct Pothinus was unbearable, for he both said and did many things to bring odium on Caesar and to insult him.  While measuring out to the soldiers the worst and oldest corn he told them they must be satisfied with it and be thankful, as they were eating what belonged to others; and at the meals he used only wooden and earthen vessels, alleging that Caesar had got all the gold and silver vessels in payment for a debt.[549] For the father of the then King owed Caesar one thousand seven hundred and fifty times ten thousand, of which Caesar had remitted the seven hundred and fifty to the King’s sons before, but he now claimed the one thousand to maintain his army with.  Upon Pothinus now bidding him take his departure and attend to his important affairs and that he should afterwards receive his money back with thanks, Caesar said, that least of all people did he want the Egyptians as advisers, and he secretly sent for Kleopatra from the country.