In 53 he was chosen augur in succession to the younger Crassus (Plut. _Cic._ 36), and two years later was appointed proconsul of Cilicia, under the new arrangement providing for an interval of five years between office in Rome and the government of a province. There he carried on a petty warfare with the mountaineers, and captured the fort of Pindenissus (a success for which the Senate decreed a _supplicatio_), occupying the winter with judicial business in the towns. His absence from the centre of affairs, though it lasted only a year, was most distasteful to him; cf. _ad Att._ v. 11, 1, 'Ne provincia nobis prorogetur, per fortunas! dum ades, quidquid provideri potest, provide: non dici potest quam flagrem desiderio urbis, quam vix harum rerum insulsitatem feram.' For his just dealing with the provincials, cf. _ad Att._ v. 21, 5. In November, 50, Cicero returned to Italy, to find a crisis imminent, and finally cast in his lot with the senatorial party. He left Rome with the consuls and the leading _optimates_, and for some time had charge of the district of Capua (_ad Fam._ xvi. 11, 3, 'nos Capuam sumpsimus'). On 7th June, B.C. 49, he embarked to join Pompey in Epirus, though far from enthusiastic for his leadership (_ad Fam._ vii. 3, 2, 'mei facti poenituit... Nihil boni praeter causam.') The chiefs of the party looked upon him with suspicion, and he was not present at the battle of Pharsalus. After Pompey's overthrow he returned to Brundisium, and in 47 was allowed by Caesar to return to Rome (_ad Fam._ xiv. 23). His mode of life at this time he thus describes (_ad Fam._ ix. 20, 3), 'Ubi salutatio defluxit, litteris me involvo, aut scribo aut lego. Veniunt etiam qui me audiant quasi doctum hominem, quia paullo sum quam ipsi doctior.'