+50 B.C. Caesar’s overtures for peace.+ Caesar let it be known to the Senate through Curio that +he was willing to resign his army and provinces if Pompeius would simultaneously do the same+: and the Senate voted a resolution in this sense by a majority of 370 to 22. The presiding Consul, Gaius Marcellus, broke up the meeting in anger, and with the two Consuls elected for 49 (Claudius Marcellus and Lentulus Crus) requested Pompeius to put himself at the head of the two legions stationed at Capua and to call the Italian militia to arms. +Caesar had completely attained the object of devolving the initiative of Civil War on his opponents.+ He had, while himself keeping on legal ground, compelled Pompeius to declare war, and to declare it not as the representative of the legitimate authority, but as general of a revolutionary minority of the Senate, which overawed the majority. --_Adapted from Long, Mommsen, and Warde Fowler._ B50 CIVIL WAR, 49-45 B.C. (1) _Caesar crosses the Rubicon, 49 B.C._ Fonte cadit modico parvisque impellitur undis Puniceus Rubicon cum fervida canduit aestas, Perque imas serpit valles et Gallica certus 215 Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva colonis. Tunc vires praebebat hiemps atque auxerat undas Tertia iam gravido pluvialis Cynthia cornu Et madidis Euri resolutae flatibus Alpes. Primus in obliquum sonipes opponitur amnem 220 Excepturus aquas; molli tum cetera rumpit Turba vado faciles iam fracti fluminis undas. Caesar, ut adversam superato gurgite ripam Attigit Hesperiae vetitis et constitit arvis, ‘Hic’ ait ‘hic pacem temerataque iura relinquo; 225 Te, Fortuna, sequor; procul hinc iam foedora sunto, Credidimus fatis, utendum est iudice bello.’ Sic fatus noctis tenebris rapit agmina ductor Impiger; it torto Balearis verbere fundae Ocior et missa Parthi post terga sagitta 230 Vicinumque minax invadit Ariminum, et ignes Solis lucifero fugiebant astra relicto. Iamque dies primos belli visura tumultus Exoritur; seu sponte deum, seu turbidus Auster Impulerat, maestam tenuerunt nubila lucem. 235 LUCAN, _Pharsalia_, i. 213-235. +Context.+ On Lentulus Crus and Claudius Marcellus, the Consuls for 49 B.C., must rest the immediate blame of the Civil War. On Jan. 1st Caesar’s tribune Curio once more presented proposals from Caesar, which startle us by their marvellous moderation (cf. Suet. _Caesar_, 29, 30), but Lentulus would not allow them to be considered. On Jan. 7th the _Senatus consultum ultimum_ was decreed, and a state of war declared. Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the narrow brook which separated his province from Italy, to pass which at the head of an army was high treason to the State. --W. F.