and
there was nothing but tumult and uproar, in which good men like Cicero
and Cato could do nothing. Clodius was killed in one of these frays, and
the mob grew so furious that the Senate chose Pompeius to be sole consul
to put them down; and this he did for a short time, but all fell into
confusion again while he was very ill of a fever at Naples, and even
when he recovered there was a feeling that Caesar was wanted. But Caesar's
friends said he must not be called upon to give up his army unless
Pompeius gave up his command of the army in Spain, and neither of them
would resign.

[Illustration: THE ARENA.]

Caesar advanced with all his forces as far as Ravenna, which was still
part of Cisalpine Gaul, and then the consul, Marcus Marcellus, begged
Pompeius to protect the commonwealth, and he took up arms. Two of Caesars
great friends, Marcus Antonius and Caius Cassius, who were tribunes,
forbade this; and when they were not heeded, they fled to Caesar's camp
asking his protection.

So he advanced. It was not lawful for an imperator, or general in
command of an army, to come within the Roman territory with his troops
except for his triumph, and the little river Rubicon was the boundary of
Cisalpine Gaul. So when Caesar crossed it, he took the first step in
breaking through old Roman rules, and thus the saying arose that one has
passed the Rubicon when one has gone so far in a matter that there is no
turning back. Though Caesar's army was but small, his fame was such that
everybody seemed struck with dismay, even Pompeius himself, and instead
of fighting, he carried off all the senators of his party to the South,
even to the extreme point of Italy at Brundusium. Caesar marched after
them thither, having met with no resistance, and having, indeed, won all
Italy in sixty days. As he advanced on Brundusium, Pompeius embarked on
board a ship in the harbor and sailed away, meaning, no doubt, to raise
an army in the provinces and return--some feared like Sulla--to take
vengeance.

Caesar was appointed Dictator, and after crushing Pompeius' friends in
Spain, he pursued him into Macedonia, where Pompeius had been collecting
all the friends of the old commonwealth. There was a great battle fought
at Pharsalia, a battle which nearly put an end to the old government of
Rome, for Caesar gained a great victory; and Pompeius fled to the coast,
where he found a vessel and sailed for Egypt. He sent a message to ask
shelter at Alexand