Rome must fall.

Chapter 426: Confrontation Across the Sea
Caesar also took away a special fund that had been kept for centuries to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that had occurred when the Gauls sacked Rome in 390 BC.

He plausibly declared that Rome no longer needed the special funds because he had permanently resolved the Gaul danger.

After solving the funding problem, Caesar hurriedly led his army to invade Spain, leaving only Mark Antony in charge of Italy.

Although he knew that Mark Antony was not an ideal candidate to control Rome, he did not have a candidate with strong political ability and trust. However, now that the whole of Italy was under his control, those nobles and tycoons who were dissatisfied with him did not dare to act recklessly for the time being, so it was enough to let the loyal dog, Tribune Antony, help him keep an eye on Rome.

When Vercingetorix learned that Caesar was leading his army northward and heading straight for Gaul, he suddenly became nervous, thinking that his secrets had been leaked.

But he soon received news: Caesar came this time to deal with Pompey's army in Spain.

The person who passed the message to Vercingetorix was a subordinate of Onomabaitis, the commercial officer of the Kingdom of Nix. In recent years, Onomabaitis not only spent money to buy Gallic slaves in Italy, but also planted spies in many important towns in Italy, and even expanded the secret base to the port of Ostia, which is very close to Rome, so as to obtain intelligence about Rome for the kingdom.

Vercingetorix felt relieved, but soon he became nervous again.

It turned out that Caesar led his army out of the province of Westphalia and arrived in Massilia.

Massilia was a Greek colony and had long been an ally of Rome. During Caesar's tenure as governor of Gaul, he always respected and favored this city-state.

However, Malaga had a close relationship with Pompey and closed the city gates, not allowing Caesar to enter.

The Massilians also declared to Caesar that they did not understand the complexities of Roman politics, so they decided to remain neutral.

But in fact they allowed Domitius's army to enter the port of Massilia by ship.

Well, Amitius, who had just been released two months ago, had the audacity to come against Caesar again, and the Massilians immediately asked him to command the city defense and made preparations for defense.

Caesar was outraged by the Massilians' deception, and as an important port, Massilia, if captured, could provide strong logistical support for the army fighting in Spain.

However, the city of Massinia had high walls and a large number of soldiers, so it would be difficult to capture it in a short period of time, and time was of the essence for Caesar.

So Caesar left only a small force under the command of legion commander Trebonius to besiege Massilia, while he led the main force to bypass the city and rush to Spain.

At the same time, he issued an order requiring the tribes in southern Gaul to send troops to participate in the siege of Massilia and accept the unified command of Trebonius. In the order, he especially emphasized that the leader of the Arverni tribe, Vercingetorix, must lead the troops personally.

Obviously, Caesar was still a little worried about Vercingetorix and wanted to test his loyalty.

Having compromised for so long, how could he let everything fall through when the dawn was about to come... Not only did Vercingetorix lead his troops to Massilia as quickly as possible, but he also obeyed Trebonius's orders, causing the commander to say a lot of good things about Vercingetorix in his letter to Caesar.

Caesar rushed to Spain and joined forces with the vanguard troops that controlled the Pyrenees Pass. At that time, he had six legions and some auxiliary troops, less than 5 people.

Pompey's army not only had an advantage in numbers, but was also a local tyrant.

However, Pompey's army in Spain was commanded by three legion commanders. One of them was Marcus Terentius Varro, a widely respected scholar with many works (Note: he wrote a book called "On Agriculture", which was published in China), but he was not good at fighting. The army was mainly commanded by Petreus and Alfranius. Alfranius was good at dancing and mediocre in military affairs. Only Petreus was an experienced veteran, but because of his humble background, he had never independently commanded a large army.

How could these three men of Pompey be a match for Caesar? It took him only two months to completely defeat them. The remaining troops surrendered to him, and the whole of Spain was brought under Caesar's control.

Massilia also gave up resistance after hearing the news. Domitius did not want to surrender to Caesar again, so he fled by ship.

Petreus and Avolanius were released because of Caesar's leniency, but their hatred for Caesar did not diminish in the slightest.

Caesar won the Spanish War, but he did not feel relaxed because his rival Pompey was recruiting troops in Greece and his military strength was growing stronger day by day.

Caesar then left Quintus Cassius Longinus in Spain to help him control the newly conquered province.

Like Antony, Longinus was also a tribune and had joined Caesar early on. He had served in Spain when he was a quaestor and was relatively familiar with the situation in Spain. However, Caesar was somewhat helpless in promoting a middle-level Roman bureaucrat to a high position like a provincial governor, because he had no more suitable candidates.

On his way back to Italy, he received bad news: Curio the Younger was killed in the battle!
This noble young man who had cheered for Caesar in Rome was ordered to lead his army to Sicily, where he easily defeated Cato, who had no intention of fighting, and took control of the entire Sicily. He then led his army to North Africa, which was loyal to Pompey, and first defeated Pompey's army, but then was ambushed by the King of Numidia because he underestimated the enemy, and almost his entire army was wiped out, and he himself died on the battlefield.

In addition, the army appointed by Caesar to garrison the province of Illyria, led by Antony's brother Lucius, was attacked by Pompey's army and was forced to surrender due to the fact that the enemy was superior in number and we were inferior in number.

These news made Caesar determined to fight a decisive battle with Pompey's main force as soon as possible. Only victory could stabilize the entire situation.

So he hastily met with the generals of the Gallic tribal armies that participated in the siege of Massilia, thanked them for their help, generously gave them valuable gifts, and allowed them to return.

Vercingetorix finally breathed a sigh of relief, but appeared to be filled with gratitude.

After Pompey arrived in Greece, he used his connections in the region to mobilize manpower and resources in the eastern Mediterranean, provided his soldiers with pay, food, and equipment, and recruited allies and auxiliary forces to strengthen his military strength. In just over half a year, he had nine legions and some new troops recruited from Greece and Asia, and even acquired a large cavalry.

His father-in-law Metellus, who had already rushed to the province of Syria, was even prepared to bring the two legions stationed in the province to help him.

When Pompey's letters of persuasion failed, he had to carry out a series of diplomatic activities to ensure that the Parthians would not send troops to threaten the Syrian province.

Pompey spent a lot of time training the newly formed army and even practiced with the soldiers personally. Although he had not fought in a war for thirteen years, everyone was in awe of his abundant energy, and the army gradually took shape under his strict requirements.

During Caesar's expedition to Spain, some senators who remained in Rome decided to end their neutrality and join Pompey's army.

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This included Cicero. He was unwilling to continue to stay idle, and unwilling to participate in the political activities of the Senate controlled by Caesar. In addition, he always loved Pompey in his heart, so he finally decided to go to Greece.

Caesar returned to Italy and first went to Rome to participate in the election for consul next year.

According to Roman political tradition, the current consul was responsible for presiding over the election, but this year's two consuls both went to Greece, so Caesar asked the legal officer Lepidus to appoint himself as dictator to preside over the entire election because there was a precedent.

Caesar was naturally successfully elected as consul for the next year.

At the same time, he used his power as dictator to pass a series of laws, such as recalling those who were exiled by Pompey's special court two years ago, except Milo. He also restored the full political rights of the children of the victims of Sulla's persecution of political enemies. In addition, he reduced the high debts of debtors.

This series of measures won him some support among the people.

However, Caesar soon resigned from his position as dictator and rushed to Brindisi.

His army had already assembled there, with a total of twelve legions, and most of the legions were fully staffed. The number of troops that could be mobilized was as many as 60,000 to 70,000, which was twice as many as in his previous life. Thanks to the fact that Vercingetorix did not launch a major rebellion in Gaul, his army did not suffer major losses.

However, the difficulties he faced now were still the same as in his previous life. There was a lack of enough transport ships, and he was unable to transport this huge army to Greece across the sea at one time.

Pompey also assembled a powerful fleet of about 500 warships, as well as numerous small boats for reconnaissance, and stationed them on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, ready to intercept ships carrying Caesar's army at sea at any time.

The commander of this fleet was Bibulus, a senator who had served as aedile and consul with Caesar, had feces and urine thrown on him by Caesar's supporters at a public meeting, causing him to dare not appear in public in Rome afterwards. He had countless resentments towards Caesar. He supervised the fleet extremely strictly, patrolled the Adriatic Sea day and night, and vowed to teach Caesar a lesson.

Caesar had only a dozen warships and was completely unable to fight Pompey's fleet at sea.

Faced with such a serious situation, Caesar seemed helpless.

For several months he remained in Brindisi without taking any action.

Time came to the new year (48 BC, the th year after the establishment of the Nix tribe). January was winter and the weather was relatively cold. According to Roman military tradition, troops were generally suspended in winter. As there had been no movement in Brindisi for several months, Bibulus' fleet also relaxed its vigilance.

(End of this chapter)