It was unlooked for,
and the importance of it exaggerated. Caesar was supposed to be flying
with the wreck of an army completely disorganized and disheartened. So
sure were the Pompeians that it could never rally again that they regarded
the war as over; they made no efforts to follow up a success which, if
improved, might have been really decisive; and they gave Caesar the one
thing which he needed, time to recover from its effects. After he had
placed his sick and wounded in security at Apollonia, his first object was
to rejoin Calvinus, who had been sent to watch Scipio, and might now be
cut off. Fortune was here favorable. Calvinus, by mere accident, learnt
his danger, divined where Caesar would be, and came to meet him. The next
thing was to see what Pompey would do. He might embark for Italy. In this
case Caesar would have to follow him by Illyria and the head of the
Adriatic. Cisalpine Gaul was true to him, and could be relied on to refill
his ranks. Or Pompey might pursue him in the hope to make an end of the
war in Greece, and an opportunity might offer itself for an engagement
under fairer terms. On the whole he considered the second alternative the
more likely one, and with this expectation he led his troops into the rich
plains of Thessaly for the better feeding which they so much needed.
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