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C.ESAR. 301 so confident of success, that Domitius, and Spinther, and Scipio, as if they had already conquered, quarrelled which should succeed Caesar in the pontificate. And many sent to Eome to take houses fit to accommodate consuls and praetors, as being sure of entering upon those offices, as soon as the battle was over. The cavalry especially were obstinate for fighting, being splendidly armed and bravely mounted, and valuing themselves upon the fine horses they kept, and upon their own handsome persons ; as also upon the advantage of their numbers, for they were five thousand against one thou- sand of Caesar's. Nor were the numbers of the infantry less disproportionate, there being forty-five thousand of Pompey's, against twenty-two thousand of the enemy. Caesar, collecting his soldiers together, told them that Corfinius* was coming up to them with two legions, and that fifteen cohorts more under Calenus were posted at Me- gara and Athens ; he then asked them whether they would stay till these joined them, or would hazard the battle by themselves. They all cried out to him not to wait, but on the contrary to do whatever he could to bring about an engagement as soon as possible. When he sacrificed to the gods for the lustration of his army, upon the death of the first victim, the augur told him, within three days he should come to a decisive action. Caesar asked him whether he saw any thing in the entrails, which promised an happy event. " That," said the priest, " you can best answer yourself; for the gods signify a great alteration from the present posture of affairs. If, there- fore, you think yourself well off now, expect worse for- fancied he saw himself in the thea- is the imperfect explanation added tre, receiving the plaudits of the in the margin by an annotator. people." Either the text is incom- The full account is given in the plete, and the remainder of the Life of Pompey. description has been lost, or else it * CornLficius.