d cut off the tenth legion, which was accounted the
bravest in his army, and in which he used to fight in person. Caesar,
seeing the enemy's left wing so well guarded with horse, and fearing the
excellence of their armor, sent for a detachment of six cohorts from
the body of the reserve, and placed them behind the tenth legion, with
orders not to stir before the attack, lest they should be discovered by
the enemy; but when the enemy's cavalry had charged, to make up through
the foremost ranks, and then not to discharge their javelins at a
distance, as brave men generally do in their eagerness to come to sword
in hand, but to reserve them till they came to close fighting, and to
push them forward into the eyes and faces of the enemy. "For those fair
young dancers," said he, "will never stand the steel aimed at their
eyes, but will fly to save their handsome faces."

While Caesar was thus employed, Pompey took a view on horseback of the
order of both armies; and finding that they enemy kept their ranks with
the utmost exactness, and quietly waited for the signal of battle, while
his own men, for want of experience, were fluctuating and unsteady,
he was afraid they would be broken up on the first onset. He therefore
commanded the vanguard to stand firm in their ranks, and in that close
order to receive the enemy's charge. Caesar condemned this measure,
as not only tending to lessen the vigor of the blows, which is always
greatest in the assailants, but also to damp the fire and spirit of the
men; whereas those who advance with impetuosity, and animate each other
with shouts, are filled with an enthusiastic valor and superior ardor.

Caesar's army consisted of twenty-two thousand men, and Pompey's was
something more than twice that number. When the signal was given on both
sides, and the trumpets sounded a charge, each common man attended only
to his own concern. But some of the principal Romans and Greeks, who
only stood and looked on, when the dreadful moment of action approached,
could not help considering to what the avarice and ambition of two men
had brought the Roman Empire. The same arms on both sides, the troops
marshalled in the same manner, the same standards; in short, the
strength and flower of one and the same city turned upon itself! What
could be a stronger proof of the blindness and infatuation of human
nature, when carried away by its passions? Had they been willing to
enjoy the fruits of their labors in p