[-32-] Meanwhile Caesar, too, with a few men suddenly came up
unexpectedly not only to Pompey's followers, but even to his own
soldiers. He had employed such speed in the passage that he was seen
both by his adherents and by his opponents before news was brought that
he was actually in Spain. Now Caesar hoped from this very fact and his
mere presence to alarm Pompey in general, and to draw him from the
siege; that was why most of the army had been left behind on the road.

But Pompey, thinking that one man was not much superior to another and
quite confident in his own strength, was not seriously startled at the
other's arrival, but continued to besiege the city and kept making
assaults just as before. Hence Caesar stationed there a few soldiers from
among the first-comers and himself started for Corduba, partly because
he hoped to take it by treachery, but chiefly because he expected to
attract Pompey through fear for it away from Ulia. And so it turned out.
For at first Pompey left a portion of his army in position, went to
Corduba and strengthened it, and as Caesar did not withstand his troops,
put his brother Sextus in charge of it. However, he failed to accomplish
anything at Ulia: on the contrary, when a certain tower had fallen, and
that not shaken down by his own men but broken down by the crowd that
was making a defence from it, some few who rushed in did not come off
well; and Caesar approaching lent assistance secretly by night to the
citizens, and himself again made an expedition against Corduba, putting
it under siege in turn: then at last did Pompey withdraw entirely from
Ulia and hastened to the other town with his entire army,--a movement
not destitute of results. For Caesar, learning of this in advance, had
retired, as he happened to be sick. Afterward when he had recovered and
had taken charge of the additional troops who accompanied him he was
compelled to carry on warfare even in the winter. [-33-] Housed in
miserable little tents they were suffering distress and running short of
food. Caesar was at that time serving as dictator, and some time late,
near the close of the war, he was appointed consul, when Lepidus, who
was master of the horse, convoked the people for this purpose. He,
Lepidus, had become master of the horse at that time, having given
himself, while still in the consulship, that additional title contrary
to ancestral traditions.

Caesar, accordingly, compelled as I have said to carry