Cæsar in this brilliant campaign of forty days deprived his antagonists of an entire and efficient army without striking a blow. He was all the time ready to fight, and the absence of a battle was due to the fact that the commanders on the other side were completely out-generaled. The operations followed one another with the system of moves on a chess board. The losing party saw the uselessness of a fight and the victor had no desire to shed blood needlessly. Easy terms were imposed upon the vanquished; the only conditions made being that Afranius and Petreius should dismiss their troops on the way back to Italy. Varro, in southern Spain, who had none of the temperament for command, and who was waiting to see which was the winning side, soon found himself deserted by the provincials; even Gades, where he had contemplated making a resolute stand, declared for Cæsar. The most serious feature of the campaign in the West was due to the obstinate resistance of the people of Marseilles; they held out for several months and surrendered only when they were exhausted by pestilence and famine. With this siege ended, Cæsar was free to return to Italy. In general, the first stage of the war was in favor of the Cæsarians; Sicily had been abandoned by Cato, and the only dark spot on the record was the decisive defeat in Africa of Curio, who had unwisely attacked the Pompeians near Utica while they were being aided by a Numidian king. On the way to Rome Cæsar had to handle a case of mutiny in one of the legions, the ninth. The soldiers complained of the strict discipline under which they were kept, as no plundering was allowed. A signal example was made of them, for the whole legion was disbanded and the men only taken back on condition that they gave up their ringleaders. Of these one in ten were taken by lot and executed. During his residence in Rome, in the interval between the first and second stages of the war, Cæsar was returned as Consul for the coming year (48), after serving a few days in the extraordinary capacity of Dictator. Some new legislation was passed, extending the franchise to provincial populations, and an effort was made to relieve the financial situation produced by the civil war. Money was scarce, interest was high, there being, owing to the general uncertainty, a good deal of hoarding of specie; but nothing was done to encourage the wild rumors of a revolution after the Catiline model, under which there would be a general cancellation of debts. Practically the whole administration of civil affairs was in the conqueror’s hands. Only a few senators were left, most of them having fled to Pompeius’ camp in Greece, where their presence was a considerable annoyance to their leader, who found in them inveterate critics and grumblers, anxious to give advice on military matters of which they were supremely ignorant.