hundred and twenty thousand of former enumerations, there
were enrolled only one hundred and fifty thousand. So much desolation
had the civil wars produced and so large a proportion of the people
had been destroyed in them, not to reckon the miseries that had
befallen the rest of Italy and the provinces.

LVI. All this being completed, Caesar was made consul[573] for the
fourth time, and set out to Iberia to attack the sons of Pompeius, who
were still young, but had got together a force of amazing amount and
displayed a boldness that showed they were worthy to command, so that
they put Caesar in the greatest danger. The great battle was fought
near the city of Munda,[574] in which Caesar, seeing that his men were
being driven from their ground and making a feeble resistance, ran
through the arms and the ranks calling out, "If they had no sense of
shame, to take and deliver him up to the boys." With difficulty and
after great exertion he put the enemy to flight and slaughtered above
thirty thousand of them, but he lost a thousand of his own best
soldiers. On retiring after the battle he said to his friends, that he
had often fought for victory, but now for the first time he had fought
for existence. He gained this victory on the day of the festival of
Bacchus, on which day it is said that Pompeius Magnus also went out to
battle; the interval was four years. The younger of the sons[575] of
Pompeius escaped, but after a few days Didius[576] brought the head of
the elder. This was the last war that Caesar was engaged in; but the
triumph[577] that was celebrated for this victory vexed the Romans
more than anything else. For this was no victory over foreign leaders
nor yet over barbarian kings, but Caesar had destroyed the children of
the bravest of the Romans, who had been unfortunate, and had
completely ruined his family, and it was not seemly to celebrate a
triumph over the calamities of his country, exulting in these things,
for which the only apology both before gods and men was that they had
been done of necessity; and that too when he had never before sent
either messenger or public letters to announce a victory gained in the
civil wars, but had from motives of delicacy rejected all glory on
that account.

LVII. However, the Romans, gave way before the fortune of the man and
received the bit, and considering the monarchy to be a respite from
the civil wars and miseries they appointed him dictator[578] for life.
This