XLII. When the two armies had entered the plain of Pharsalus and
pitched their camps, Pompeius again fell back into his former opinion,
and there were also unlucky appearances and a vision in his
sleep.[537] He dreamed that he saw himself in the theatre, applauded
by the Romans. But those about him were so confident, and so fully
anticipated a victory, that Domitius and Scipio and Spinther were
disputing and bestirring themselves against one another about the
priesthood of Caesar, and many persons sent to Rome to hire and get
possession of houses that were suitable for consuls and praetors,
expecting to be elected to magistracies immediately after the war. But
the cavalry showed most impatience for the battle, being sumptuously
equipped with splendid armour, and priding themselves on their
well-fed horses and fine persons, and on their numbers also, for they
were seven thousand against Caesar's thousand. The number of the
infantry also was unequal, there being forty-five thousand matched
against twenty-two thousand.
XLIII. Caesar, calling his soldiers together and telling them that
Corfinius[538] was close at hand with two legions, and that other
cohorts to the number of fifteen under Calenus were encamped near
Megara and Athens, asked if they would wait for them or hazard a
battle by themselves. The soldiers cried out aloud that they did not
wish him to wait, but rather to contrive and so manage his operations
that they might soonest come to a battle with their enemies.
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