Complures interim ex fuga Uticam perveniunt. Quos omnes Cato convocatos una cum trecentis, qui pecuniam Scipioni ad bellum faciendum contulerant, hortatur, ut servitia manumitterent, oppidumque defenderent. Quorum cum partem assentire, partem { 5} animum mentemque perterritam atque in fugam destinatam habere intellexisset, amplius de ea re agere destitit, navesque eis attribuit, ut in quas quisque partes vellet proficisceretur. Ipse, omnibus rebus diligentissime constitutis, liberis suis L. Caesari, { 10} qui tum ei pro quaestore fuerat, commendatis et sine suspicione, vultu atque sermone, quo superiore tempore usus fuerat, cum dormitum isset, ferrum intro clam in cubiculum tulit, atque ita se traiecit. Qui cum anima nondum exspirata concidisset, et, { 15} impetu facto in cubiculum ex suspicione, medicus familiaresque continere atque vulnus obligare coepissent, ipse suis manibus vulnus crudelissime divellit, atque animo praesenti se interemit.
+Context.+ After Pharsalus and the flight of Pompeius, we finally part company with Caesar as an author. The _Bellum Alexandrinum_ (Caesar’s perils in Egypt and his settlement of the East 48-47 B.C.), the _B. Africum_ (Thapsus 46 B.C.), the _B. Hispaniense_ (Munda 45 B.C.), are the work of eyewitnesses and officers of his army. After a delay of fifteen precious months Caesar landed in Africa (Jan. 46), and by investing Thapsus tempted Scipio (Pompeius’ father-in-law) to try to save the city by a battle. His troops were quickly arranged as at Pharsalus, and by a single impetuous charge won a complete victory. The slaughter was terrible: the survivors fled to Utica, where Cato in vain tried to organise a defence and to restore order, and then in despair died by his own sword.
[Linenotes: 1. +Uticam:+ second in importance to Carthage. 19. +animo praesenti+ = _deliberately_.]
+After Thapsus.+ ‘Caesar left Africa in June 46 B.C., and celebrated a magnificent triumph, not over Roman citizens, but over Gauls and Egyptians, Pharnaces and Juba. As Dictator he remained in Rome several months, in which more permanently valuable work was done than was ever achieved in the same space of time, unless it were by Cromwell in 1653-4. The senseless outbreak of the Pompeian party in Spain under Labienus and the two sons of Pompeius took him away from Rome: but the victory of Munda (45 B.C.) closed the civil strife. Caesar returned to Rome in September, and six months more of life was all that was left to him.’ --W. F.