Chapter 424 Caesar Takes Control of Italy

In Rome, after Pompey broke with Caesar, he reached an agreement with Cato and others. Fearing that Caesar would refuse to obey the Senate's resolution and use force in anger, they also began to recruit new soldiers and form an army.

However, many people felt that Caesar would compromise after seeing the unprecedented unity and powerful strength of the Senate.

Even Pompey himself made a judgment: the main force of Caesar's army was still north of the Alps, and winter was coming soon. Even if Caesar wanted to launch a rebellion, he had to wait until the next combat season arrived. Before that, he had to carefully complete the assembly of troops.

Therefore, Pompey and the senators did not rush to prepare for war, but instead began to greedily divide the cake left by Caesar after he left office.

After many meetings, Pompey's father-in-law Metellus obtained the position of Governor of Syria, and Domitius finally got his wish and could go to the province of West France to take office next year. A senior legal officer was appointed as the governor of the province of Northern Italy...

At this time, the news that "Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River" finally came, shocking all the senators.

For a time, some senators cursed Caesar as a traitor to the Republic; some senators remembered the bloody storm when Marius and Sulla attacked the city of Rome, and their bodies began to tremble; some senators remained silent, but they were thinking about how to evacuate from Rome...

Cato made a prompt decision and urged the Senate to appoint Pompey as the supreme commander until the rebellious Caesar was defeated.

But the current and former consuls were too arrogant and refused to accept the command of others. They rejected Cato's request on the grounds that only the consuls had the right to lead troops.

While the Senate was arguing over how to deal with Caesar's rebellion and could not reach a consensus, Caesar made a brief stop in Aminum and led his army to continue advancing, successively occupying several towns and entering the Pisenum area.

This is Pompey's hometown, and his family has a deep foundation here.

Caesar encountered some resistance here.

Pompey also asked someone to bring a letter to Caesar, persuading him to return to Gaul and disband the army, and promised that the Senate would listen carefully to his request at a future meeting.

Since the war had been launched, Caesar would never compromise without a satisfactory result. Not only did he ignore Pompey's persuasion, but on the contrary he accelerated the conquest of the Pisenum area. After winning the battle, he treated the captured soldiers well, which led to these soldiers defecting and joining his army.

And the civilians in the area were not only unwilling to oppose Caesar when he was serious about the army and did not harass the local area, but sometimes provided help.

Seeing that Caesar was unmoved and that he was tied up in the Senate and could not play any role, Pompey decided to leave Rome and rush to southern Italy, where it would be more convenient to gather his army and fight Caesar.

Pompey's departure made the senators headed by Cato panic. Without the protection of the "Roman God of War", how could they face the swords and shields of Caesar's soldiers when they could only talk without the support of the army? So they followed Pompey to leave Rome, but there were also many neutral senators and nobles and a few Caesarists who stayed.

In just a few days, the originally noisy and crowded city of Rome became unusually deserted.

At this time, Caesar gathered the originally scattered 13th Legion, and the 12th Legion also rushed to him from the Gaul Province, which made him more confident.

In the process of continuing to move south, Caesar finally met a decent opponent-Domitius.

After being appointed as the governor of Gaul next year by the Senate, the former consul, who had always coveted Caesar's position as governor of Gaul, could not wait to return to his hometown to recruit soldiers and horses, so that he could quickly secure his position after taking office and smoothly receive the wealth left by Caesar in Gaul.

When he encountered Caesar's army, he had recruited more than 30 battalions, but they were all untrained recruits.

Pompey learned about this situation in the farther south and quickly wrote to Amitius, hoping that he would give up the direct confrontation with Caesar, preserve his strength, and rush to join him.

But Amitius turned around and asked Pompey to lead his army to join him.

While the two sides were arguing, the Eighth Legion and more than 20 battalions recruited by Caesar from the Gallic tribes that surrendered to him and trained and equipped according to the standards of Roman legion soldiers arrived one after another, which greatly enhanced Caesar's military strength.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Domitius hurriedly retreated to Corphenium.

Caesar led his army to arrive quickly and surrounded it.

In order to boost morale, Domitius announced to the soldiers: As long as they hold on for a while, the great Pompey will arrive with reinforcements.

But in fact, Pompey had already written a letter saying that "he did not intend to send troops to rescue Domitius", so Domitius was privately planning to abandon the army and escape.

However, his sneaky actions soon let his subordinates know the truth.

The officers and soldiers' representatives secretly held a meeting. Since many of them were Marsi people and were not very loyal to Rome, they quickly reached an agreement to arrest Amitius and then surrender to Caesar.

After Caesar led his army into the city, Amitius felt that he had been against Caesar in politics for ten years. This time he fell into his hands and was afraid that he would not escape the doom, so he asked his doctor to provide poison to prepare for suicide.

But soon he got the news that Caesar publicly announced that "no important prisoners would be executed", and he immediately regretted his recklessness.

The doctor then told him that the dose of poison he had taken was very small and would not cause much harm to his body.

So Domitius turned his worries into joy, and then he surrendered to Caesar with more than 50 senators and knights.

Caesar received them with a pleasant face, even when facing Domitius, he was smiling.

Caesar told everyone about the unfair and illegal treatment given to him by the Senate, and the difficulties he had in being forced to resort to force.

Then, he ordered the release of the more than 50 people headed by Domitius, and the surrendered soldiers were required to swear allegiance to Caesar.

When Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River, all Romans thought he would kill like Sulla or Marius, but his magnanimity in Corfenium quickly spread, and even his mortal enemies were released, which made the Roman people realize that he was completely different from the former two.

Caesar's gentleness and moderation, as well as the fact that his army rarely hurt civilians in fighting in Italy, greatly reversed his reputation among Roman citizens and made the army fight more smoothly.

Pompey, who was in southern Italy, saw that Caesar's army was getting closer and closer to him, so he quickly made a decision: he only had two experienced but unreliable legions (these two legions were previously transferred from Caesar) and some new soldiers with no combat effectiveness, and it was impossible to defeat Caesar in Italy.

So he decided to change the battlefield and go to Greece, where he would gather a large army and fight Caesar again.

The reason why he chose Greece instead of Spain, where his army was based, was based on the following considerations:

First, politically, Greece was very close to Italy, separated by a narrow Adriatic Sea, and he could turn back to Italy at any time, which would not make the senators who followed him think that he was going to abandon Rome;

Second, economically, although the main force of his army was in Spain, he was not alone in Greece. He conquered the East and established laws for the provinces and kingdoms in the East. These wealthy provinces and kingdoms followed his lead and could support him at any time to form an army capable of fighting against Caesar;

Finally, militarily, Spain was too far away from Italy. If he returned there, although he could quickly get troops, it would not be easy to return to Italy. Going by land would require passing through the Gaul region conquered by Caesar, which was very unsafe. Crossing the Alps or taking the seaside road to enter Italy would not be an easy task once Caesar defended with all his strength.

Compared with the Adriatic Sea, the sea route from Spain to mainland Italy is too far away. It is not easy to transport tens of thousands of troops, and a long sailing time on the sea will easily increase the probability of accidents (such as encountering storms). It is not easy to land in Italy from the sea when Caesar is prepared.

After careful consideration, Pompey made the decision to turn to Greece.

But he did not tell the elders who followed him, because he knew that these elders headed by Cato would not agree, so he quietly concentrated his army to Brindisi, and at the same time sent troops to collect ships from coastal towns, and then gradually transported personnel and equipment across the Adriatic Sea, and built a military base on the other side of the sea...

This is a rather tedious task, but it happens to be what Pompey is best at. When he was responsible for suppressing Mediterranean pirates, he fully demonstrated this skill.

In early February of the following year, Caesar's army approached Brindisi. At this time, he already had six legions under his command, including not only the battle-hardened Thirteenth Legion, but also the newly formed Fifth Legion (Skylark Legion).

However, Pompey was well prepared and successfully led the remaining troops to evacuate Brindesi from the sea.

In such a severe war situation, the senators headed by Cato had to follow him to Greece.

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Although the Roman civil war broke out relatively late, almost exceeding the "deadline given by the oracle of the goddess Danu", when the news reached the Arverni tribe, Vercingetorix was so excited that he danced with joy.

He immediately asked Lurios to contact the secret station of the Nix in Massinia and ask when the Kingdom of the Nix would attack Rome.

The Nix station in Massinia had received a handwritten order from Maximus himself.