two men of praetorian rank, Cosconius and Galba, because he reproved
his men no further than by calling them citizens instead of soldiers,
and he gave to each of them a thousand drachmae, and allotted to them
much land in Italy. He also bore the blame of the madness of
Dolabella,[560] the covetousness of Amantius, and the drunkenness of
Antonius, and the greedy tricks of Corfinius in getting the house of
Pompeius, and his building it over again as if it were not fit for
him; for the Romans were annoyed at these things. But Caesar, in the
present state of affairs, though he was not ignorant of these things,
and did not approve of them, was compelled to employ such men in his
service.

LII. As Cato[561] and Scipio, after the battle near Pharsalus, had
fled to Libya, and there, with the assistance of King Juba, got
together a considerable force, Caesar determined to go against them;
and about the winter solstice passing over to Sicily and wishing to
cut off from the officers about him all hopes of delay and tarrying
there, he placed his own tent on the margin of the waves,[562] and as
soon as there was a wind he went on board and set sail with three
thousand foot-soldiers and a few horsemen. Having landed them
unobserved he embarked again, for he was under some apprehension about
the larger part of his force; and having fallen in with it on the sea,
he conducted all to the camp. Now there was with him in the army a man
in other respects contemptible enough and of no note, but of the
family of the Africani, and his name was Scipio Sallutio;[563] and as
Caesar heard that the enemy relied on a certain old oracular answer,
that it was always the privilege of the family of the Scipios to
conquer in Libya, either to show his contempt of Scipio as a general
by a kind of joke, or because he really wished to have the benefit of
the omen himself (it is difficult to say which), he used to place this
Sallutio in the front of the battles as if he were the leader of the
army; for Caesar was often compelled to engage with the enemy and to
seek a battle, there being neither sufficient supply of corn for the
men nor fodder for the animals, but they were compelled to take the
sea-weed after washing off the salt and mixing a little grass with it
by way of sweetening it, and so to feed their horses. For the
Numidians, by continually showing themselves in great numbers and
suddenly appearing, kept possession of the country; and on one
occasi