The machinery of legislation, important and sound as it was, was not entirely depended upon to reveal the whole policy of the ruler. Cæsar is said to have explained in his public speeches that his ideal was not a despotism, but the paternal rule of a father over his children. He tried to live up to this standard, making a noteworthy display of doing so by his generous treatment of his adversaries during the period of the civil war. Some of his most truculent enemies were pardoned by an act of grace, a treatment which induced Cicero to try his hand again at the kind of decorative oratory he had displayed in his early panegyric on Pompeius. Popular as this clemency was, it did not shelter Cæsar from severe criticism when he renewed his amour with Cleopatra, now summoned to Rome, it was said on his invitation, and it was supposed that he was about to marry her, a foreign queen, as the first step to the attainment, by regular process, of regal power for himself. Invincible as Cæsar was in war, and conciliatory as he was to those who had served against him, there was still a body of Pompeian partisans in Spain, Labienus and Cnæus Pompeius among them, who felt that there was reason for resistance and a chance of success. Cæsar’s governors in the peninsula had proved incompetent either to hold the loyalty of the provincials, or to prevent the mutiny of the troops when the Pompeian leaders appeared on Spanish ground. All they could do was to clamor for their leader’s presence. He left Rome hurriedly in December, 46. This, his last campaign, was conducted with an army inferior in numbers to that of his opponents. It was an arduous struggle, characterized by conspicuous barbarity on both sides, for neither depended on Roman legionaries alone. The Pompeians had native allies and liberated slaves, and both sides were helped by auxiliary troops from the wild tribesmen of Mauretania. After winning and taking the town of Cordova, Cæsar forced the eldest son of Pompeius to fight a pitched battle at Munda. (March 17, 45 B.C.)