More serious than these matters of local politics was the sullenness of Cæsar’s troops, which developed into open mutiny when they were ordered to make ready for the coming campaign in Africa. They refused to budge until the promises of money and land made them before the battle of Pharsalus were strictly carried out. Cæsar dealt successfully with the situation; he had no cash to give them, but he discharged them, calling them citizens and not soldiers, and assured them at the same time that all of their demands, with back interest, would be paid as soon as he returned from Africa to celebrate his triumph. The veterans were placed in a dilemma; they could not turn against Cæsar, for their hope of reward lay in his success. Most of them were taken back as volunteers for the African campaign. Before leaving Italy, Cæsar again arranged to become Consul for the year 46, at the same time making arrangements for the distribution of provincial charges. One assignment was especially noteworthy: a pardoned Pompeian senator, Junius Brutus, nephew of Cato, at the time in arms against Cæsar, was appointed to Cisalpine Gaul. A year and a half had passed since Pompeius’ defeat at Pharsalus, but his cause was being energetically upheld in Africa, where his partisans were making a final stand. It was here that Scipio, Labienus, Cato, Afranius, and Petreius gathered together with the forces that remained, ten legions in all, no inconsiderable force in itself; but there were besides a large contingent of well-trained cavalry and heavy- and light-armed troops, supplied by Juba, king of Numidia, who was implacably hostile to Cæsar’s cause, and who meant to use the divisions of the Romans for the purpose of carving out for himself an independent kingdom. The only danger point, apart from an attack from Italy, lay further west, where the two Mauretanian kings, Bocchus and Bogud, acted together as a check to the power of the Numidians. They were able to carry out their policy intelligently, because they had the help of a Roman adventurer, Publius Sittius, suspected of being an accomplice of Catiline, and for this reason an enemy of the remnant of the senatorial party in Africa.