Seizing Caesar's officers when they could
find them, they put them invariably to death without remorse. Cicero
protested honorably against the employment of treacherous savages, even
for so sacred a cause as the defence of the constitution;[1] but Cicero
was denounced as a traitor seeking favor with the conqueror, and the
desperate work went on. Caesar's long detention in the East gave the
confederates time. The young Pompeys were strong at sea. From Italy there
was an easy passage for adventurous disaffection. The shadow of a Pompeian
Senate sat once more, passing resolutions, at Utica; while Cato was busy
organizing an army, and had collected as many as thirteen legions out of
the miscellaneous elements which drifted in to him. Caesar had sent orders
to Cassius Longinus to pass into Africa from Spain, and break up these
combinations; but Longinus had been at war with his own provincials. He
had been driven out of the Peninsula, and had lost his own life in leaving
it. Caesar, like Cicero, had believed that the war had ended at Pharsalia.
He found that the heads of the Hydra had sprouted again, and were vomiting
the old fire and fury. Little interest could it give Caesar to match his
waning years against the blinded hatred of his countrymen. Ended the
strife must be, however, before order could be restored in Italy, and
wretched men take up again the quiet round of industry.
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