tony and Kalenus had at last set sail with the fleet, nacti austrum, and were just arrived off the opposite coast of Epirus... idem auster increbuit... auster, qui per biduum flaverat, in africum se vertit h. There was a certain time in every year, at which the sea was considered to become shut; and another, equally well defined, when it was considered to become open. These two periods Vegetius, De Re Militarii, distinguishes by the setting of the Pleiads, November 11, on the one hand, and the vi Ides of March, as the earliest point of time-or the rising of the Pleiads, April 2, or May 10, or 13, or 27, on the other k. This last time in the Athenian year was in the month Munychion; which partly corresponded to March. Demosthenes : αἱ δὲ λήξεις τῶν δικῶν τοῖς ἐμπόροις ἔμμηνοί εἰσιν, ἀπὸ τοῦ βοηδρομιῶνος μέχρι τοῦ μουνυχιῶνος, ἵνα παραχρῆμα τῶν δικαίων τυχόντες ἀνάγωνται '. And again : μουνυχιώνος μηνὸς μέλλων ἐκπλεῖν τὸν ὕστερον ἔκπλουν m. But testimonies to this point will be produced abundantly elsewhere". The effect of them all is to render it almost certain, that, in the ordinary course of things, Cæsar could not expect to be joined by his fleet, before the middle of March in the tropical year. The events between this junction, and the commencement of the siege of Dyrrhachium, will bring us at least to the end of March truly; but to the middle of May, forty-five days later, nominally. The siege would consequently begin about the first of April. Jamque frumenta maturescere incipiebant P. Theophrastus : ὥραι δὲ τοῦ σπόρου τῶν πλείστων δύο. πρώτη δὲ καὶ μάλιστα ἡ περὶ πλειάδων δύσιν 9 : which in the Julian year would be about November 11. The grain so h B. C. iii. 26. i Lib. v. 9. H. N. ii. 47. 1 Oratio xxxiii. 29. to Dissertation xix. Appendix. q Historia Plantarum, viii. 1. p. 152. k Cf. Ovid, Fasti, iv. 169. v. 599. Pliny, o Lib. iii. 30-43. sown he supposes to ripen, περὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα, παρὰ τοῖς πλείστοις (κριθαὶ μὲν ἐν ὀγδόῳ (June). πυροὶ δὲ ἔτι προσEлiλaμßávovσiv, (July or August.) Pliny repeats these statements verbatim after him $. On this principle, the corn in Epirus, as we may presume, would not ordinarily be ripe before July or August, nor begin to ripen before the middle of June: and this I should consider to be the time here implied*. The same conclusion follows from the allusion to the æstus, or summer heats, as drying up the springs and from the fact that the various kinds of seeds which Pompey's troops had sown within their own entrenchments, to provide fodder for their horses, were both grown up and consumed *. Cæsar breaks up his camp before Dyrrhachium ; when the siege had lasted, according to Suetonius, per quatuor pæne menses". If it began about the commencement of April, it would be raised about the middle of July. From subsequent notes of time, we may safely infer that a week afterwards elapsed before he began his march from Apollonia to Thessaly. This then would be about the third week in July. When he was arrived at Gomphib, there is an allusion to an embassy, which the Thessalians had sent to him paucis ante mensibus. They sent it, soon after the junction of Antony with the troops from Brundisium, three or four months previously. From Gomphi he marched to Metropolis, and thence to the plains of Pharsalia: Segetis idoneum locum in agris nactus, quæ prope jam matura erat d. He would arrive about the end of July. Re frumentaria præparata ... et satis longo spatio temporis a Dyrrhachinis præliis intermisso. This spatium temporis could scarcely be less than three weeks or a month. It appears, accordingly, from Cicero, De Divinatione, compared with the other authorities in the margin, that there was thirty days' interval, or upwards, between Pompey's departure from Dyrrhachium, (where Cicero was left behind,) and the time of the battle *. It is not inconsistent with the conclusions thus established, that Plutarch tells us, at the time of the battle, ἣν μὲν ἀκμὴ θέρους καὶ καῦμα πολύ h: for this might truly be said of the first week in August. Among the other prodigies which preceded the departure of Pompey in pursuit of Cæsar, Lucan mentions the circum *Lucan indeed supposes that Cicero was present at Pharsalia the day before the battle; and ascribes to him the speech which determined Pompey to engage: vii. 62. seqq. But herein, he is certainly mistaken: for Cicero was prevented by illness from following Pompey; and was still at Dyrrhachium when news arrived of his defeat. Plutarch, Cicero, 39. d Ibid. 80, 81. e Ibid. 84. c Ibid. 34. b B. C. iii. 80. pian, Bell. Civ. ii. 64. iii. 5. Cicero, Epp. ad Att. §. 13. Plutarch, Cicero, 38. h Brutus, 4. stance of a swarm of bees settling on the standards of his army. Necnon innumero cooperta examine signa. vii. 161. In which he is historically correct; as the same things are enumerated by Valerius Maximus i, who wrote in the reign of Tiberius. And this too is a circumstance which might happen in the month of July or August. Nor must we omit to notice the sarcastic remark, attributed to Favonius: εἰ μηδὲ τῆτες ἔσται τῶν περὶ Τουσκλάνον ἀπολαῦσαι συκῶν κ. We may learn from Horace, that figs would not be ripe in Italy before the first week in September: Dum ficus prima, calorque Designatorem decorat lictoribus atris'. Epistolarum i. vii. 5. See line 2. It appears also that the Comitia Consularia and Prætoria were at hand when Pompey arrived at Pharsaliam: the time of which, though now very irregularly observed, was commonly August, September, or October*. The battle was begun in the morning, and over by noon so that Pompey had time sufficient to escape to Larissa the same night, and thence to the sea. Upon this point authorities are unanimous P. Cæsar himself followed to Larissa the next day. *Lucan, who is as much an historian as a poet, speaks of the corn's being scarcely ripe even when Pompey was come into Thessaly. Ad præmaturas segetum jejuna rapinas | Agmina compulimus. Lib. vii. 98. And on the very day of the battle, he says; Illo forte die Cæsar statione relicta, | Ad segetum raptus moturus signa. Ibid. 235. i Lib. i. vi. 12. * Plutarch, ii. vi. 19. Epistolæ, i. xvi. 16. χίν. 12. o B. C. iii. 95, 96. -723: Appian, B. C. ii. 81. And so Cæsar states himself, lib. iii. 85. It appears from Cicero ", that he himself returned to Italy after the battle with no delay and was arrived at Brundisium before pridie nonas Novembres. And this too would be an argument that the date of the battle could not have been earlier than the latter end of September. Cæsar, 41. Pompeius, 67. 1 Cf. Sermonum, m B. C. iii. 82. n Ad Fam. vii. 3. xv. 15. p Valerius Maximus, iv. v. 5: Lucan, vii. 712 q B. C. iii. 98. In one or two days after the battle Pompey appears to have arrived at Amphipolis; and that in the evening. He remained there ad ancoram una nocte, and then sailed paucis diebus to Mitylene ". These pauci dies may be referred to the date of the departure from Larissa, and might reach from the night of September 22 exclusive, to September 25 or 26. Biduum, he is said to have stayed at Mitylene: and from thence he sailed first to Cilicia, and afterwards to Paphus in Cyprus $. The account, however, of his motions which is given by Lucan is something different from this. He specifies his coming to Larissa, but he supposes him to escape thence, without delay, to the mouth of the Peneus, and sail directly to Mitylene . From Lesbus he supposes him to depart, without staying a single night; exactly at sunset ". Before the next morning he had already passed Chius: after which, pursuing the usual route, he is taken without intermission by Samos, Cos, Gnidos, and Rhodes, to Phaselis in Lycia, and thence to Selinus in Cilicia, or rather to Synedra or Syedra, its seaport : Quo portu mittitque rates recipitque Selinus x. Here that deliberation is supposed to take place which was followed by his departure to Egypt. Yet Lucan also makes him touch at Paphus. Tunc Cilicum liquere solum, Cyproque citatas Immisere rates, nullas cui prætulit aras Undæ Diva memor Paphiæy. From Lesbus to Pelusium in Egypt, we need not reckon it more than five or six days' and nights' sail, r B. C. iii. 102. s Cf. Cicero, Philippica, ii. 15: Valerius Maximus, i. v. 6. t Lib. viii. 1-5. 33-40. x Ibid. 244-251-260. u Ibid. 109. 113. 146. 159. y Ibid. 456. v viii. 195. 202. |