XXXIV.[522] Accordingly the consuls fled without even making the
sacrifices which it was usual to make before quitting the city; and
most of the senators also took to flight, in a manner as if they were
robbing, each snatching of his own what first came to hand as if it
belonged to another. There were some also who, though they had
hitherto vehemently supported the party of Caesar, through alarm at
that time lost their presence of mind, and without any necessity for
it were carried along with the current of that great movement. A most
piteous sight was the city, when so great a storm was coming on, left
like a ship whose helmsman had given her up, to be carried along and
dashed against anything that lay in her way. But though this desertion
of the city was so piteous a thing, men for the sake of Pompeius
considered the flight to be their country, and they were quitting Rome
as if it were the camp of Caesar; for even Labienus,[523] one of
Caesar's greatest friends, who had been his legatus and had fought with
him most gallantly in all the Gallic wars, then fled away from Caesar
and came to Pompeius. But Caesar sent to Labienus both his property and
his baggage; and advancing he pitched his camp close by Domitius, who
with thirty cohorts held Corfinium.[524] Domitius despairing of
himself asked his physician, who was a slave, for poison, and taking
what was given, he drank it, intending to die.
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