Time went on, however, and Caesar did not appear. Rumor said at one
time that he was destroyed at Alexandria. The defeat of Calvinus by
Pharnaces was an ascertained fact. Spain was in confusion. The legions in
Italy were disorganized, and society, or the wealthy part of society,
threatened by the enemies of property, began to call for some one to save
it. All was not lost. Pompey's best generals were still living. His sons,
Sextus and Cnaeus, were brave and able. The fleet was devoted to them and
to their father's cause, and Caesar's officers had failed, in his absence,
to raise a naval force which could show upon the sea. Africa was a
convenient rallying point. Since Curio's defeat, King Juba had found no
one to dispute his supremacy, and between Juba and the aristocracy who
were bent on persisting in the war, an alliance was easily formed. While
Caesar was perilling his own interest to remain in Asia to crush
Pharnaces, Metellus Scipio was offering a barbarian chief the whole of
Roman Africa, as the price of his assistance, in a last effort to reverse
the fortune of Pharsalia. Under these scandalous conditions, Scipio,
Labienus, Cato, Afranius, Petreius, Faustus Sylla, the son of the
Dictator, Lucius Caesar, and the rest of the irreconcilables, made Africa
their new centre of operations. Here they gathered to themselves the
inheritors of the Syllan traditions, and made raids on the Italian coasts
and into Sicily and Sardinia.
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