In Rome, after Pompey broke with Caesar, he reached an agreement with Cato and the others. Fearing that Caesar would refuse to comply with the Senate's decisions and resort to force in anger, they began recruiting new soldiers and forming an army.

However, many people believed that Caesar, seeing the unprecedented unity of the Senate and its immense strength, would certainly compromise.

Even Pompey himself judged that Caesar's main forces were still north of the Alps, and with winter approaching, even if Caesar wanted to start a rebellion, he would have to wait for the next year's combat season and carefully complete troop consolidation before that.

Therefore, Pompey and the elders were not in a hurry to prepare for war; instead, they greedily began to divide up the spoils left by Caesar after his resignation.

After several meetings, Pompey's father-in-law, Metellus, was appointed as the governor of Syria, and Domitius finally got his wish to go to the Western Fa Province as governor before the next year. A senior legal officer was named as the governor of the Northern Italy Province...

At this moment, the news that "Caesar has led his army across the Rubicon River" finally arrived, shocking all the elders.

In an instant, some elders cursed Caesar as a traitor to the republic; some elders recalled the bloody storm when Marius and Sula invaded the city of Rome and began to tremble; others remained silent but entertained thoughts of how to withdraw from Rome...

Cato decisively urged the Senate to appoint Pompey as the Supreme Commander until Caesar's rebellion was defeated.

But the current governors and former governors were too arrogant to accept command from others, using the argument that only governors had the right to lead troops, and rejected Cato's request.

While the Senate argued incessantly over how to deal with Caesar's rebellion, unable to reach a consensus, Caesar made a brief stop in Amininum and then continued to advance with his army, rapidly occupying several towns and entering the Pisenum area.

This was Pompey's old home, where his family had deep roots.

Caesar encountered some resistance here.

Pompey also entrusted someone to deliver a letter to Caesar, persuading him to return to Gaul, disband his army, and promising that the Senate would seriously consider his demands at a future meeting.

Since he had already started a war, Caesar was never going to compromise without a satisfactory result. Not only did he ignore Pompey's persuasion, but he also accelerated his conquest of the Pisenum area. After achieving victories, he treated the captured soldiers well, causing them to defect and join his army.

And the civilians in the area, under Caesar's disciplined army and lack of local disturbances, were not willing to oppose him and sometimes even provided assistance.

Seeing that he couldn't move Caesar and that he was rendered useless in the Senate, Pompey decided to leave Rome and head to southern Italy, where he could more conveniently gather his forces to battle Caesar.

Pompey's departure left the elders led by Cato panicked. Without the protection of this "god of war of Rome," they could only talk but had no troops to support them; how could they face the sword and shield of Caesar's soldiers? Thus, they all followed Pompey in leaving Rome, but quite a few neutral and a few Caesar-supporting elders and nobles stayed behind.

In just a few days, the once bustling and crowded city of Rome became unusually quiet.

At this time, Caesar gathered the scattered 13th Legion together, and the 12th Legion also rushed from the Gaul Province to his side, which gave him more confidence.

As he continued south, Caesar finally encountered a worthy opponent—Domitius.

This former governor, who had always coveted Caesar's position as Governor of Gaul, had been eagerly recruiting soldiers at home as soon as he was appointed as next year's Governor of Gaul by the Senate. He wanted to stabilize his position quickly and smoothly receive the wealth that Caesar left in Gaul.

When he encountered Caesar's army, he had already recruited more than thirty battalions, but they were all untrained recruits.

In the far south, Pompey, upon learning of this situation, quickly wrote to Amityus, hoping he would abandon direct confrontation with Caesar, preserve his strength, and come to join him.

But Amityus instead requested that Pompey lead his army to join him.

During their bickering, the Eighth Legion and more than twenty battalions that were recruited from Caesar's loyal Gaul tribes and trained and equipped to Roman Legion Soldier standards successively arrived, greatly enhancing Caesar's military strength.

Seeing the unfavorable situation, Domitius hurriedly retreated to Corfinium for defense.

Caesar promptly led his forces to surround it.

To boost morale, Domitius announced to the soldiers that as long as they held out for a while, the great Pompey would lead reinforcements to their aid.

But in reality, Pompey had already sent a message saying he did not plan to send troops to rescue Domitius. So privately, Domitius was planning to abandon the army and flee.

However, his sneaky actions quickly revealed the truth to his subordinates.

Team officers and soldier representatives quietly held a meeting. Since many of them were Marsi and not very loyal to Rome, they quickly reached an agreement to arrest Amityus and then surrender to Caesar.

After Caesar marched into the city, Amityus, realizing he had opposed Caesar in the political arena for a decade, feared for his life, expecting harsh treatment. He asked his doctor to provide poison to commit suicide.

But soon he received news that Caesar publicly announced he would not execute important prisoners, making him regret his rashness immediately.

The doctor then told him that the amount of poison he took was minimal and posed no harm.

Thus, Domitius's gloom turned to joy, and he, along with more than fifty elders and knights, surrendered to Caesar.

Caesar warmly welcomed them, even showing a smile to Domitius.

Caesar expressed to the group the unfair and illegal treatment he received from the Senate, explaining he was compelled to resort to force.

Then, he ordered the release of Domitius and the over fifty others, while the surrendering soldiers were required to swear allegiance to Caesar.

When Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, all Romans thought he would engage in a massacre like Sula or Marius, but his leniency at Corfinium quickly spread. Even his mortal enemies were released, making the Roman citizens realize he was completely different from the former two.

Caesar's kindness and restraint, as well as his army conducting operations in Italy with minimal harm to civilians, greatly improved his reputation among Roman citizens, making his army's operations smoother.

In southern Italy, seeing Caesar's army getting closer, Pompey quickly decided: he only had two experienced but unreliable legions (previously drawn from Caesar) and some ineffective recruits, making it impossible to defeat Caesar in Italy.

So, he decided to change the battlefield and move to Greece, where he would gather a large army to fight Caesar again.

The choice of Greece over his base in Spain was based on several considerations:

Politically, Greece is very close to Italy, just across the narrow Adriatic Sea, allowing him to return to Italy anytime, preventing the elders following him from feeling he was abandoning Rome;

Economically, although his main forces were in Spain, in Greece, he wasn't entirely without support. In the past, he conquered the Eastern regions and issued regulations for each province and kingdom to follow. These affluent provinces and kingdoms regarded him as their leader, ready to fund him to establish an army large enough to counter Caesar.

Militarily, Spain was too far from Italy. If he returned there, even gaining troops quickly wouldn't make the return to Italy easy. Traveling overland through Caesar-conquered Gaul was unsafe, and crossing the Alpine Pass or moving along coastal roads into Italy would be challenging if Caesar mounted full defenses.

By sea, compared to the Adriatic, the sea route from Spain to Italy was too far; transporting tens of thousands of troops wouldn't be easy, and prolonged sea voyages increased the chance of unforeseen events (like storms). Landing in Italy from the sea while Caesar was on guard was also difficult.

Pompey, after careful consideration, decided to retreat to Greece.

But he didn't tell the elders following him because he knew that these elders, led by Cato, wouldn't agree. So he quietly concentrated his forces in Brindisi, sent troops to requisition ships from coastal towns, gradually transported personnel and equipment across the Adriatic, and even built a military base on the other side of the sea...

This was quite a cumbersome task, but fortunately, it was something Pompey excelled at. He had fully showcased this skill when he was in charge of eradicating Mediterranean pirates.

By early February of the following year, Caesar's army approached Brindisi, and by then, he had six legions under his command, including the battle-hardened 13th Legion and the newly formed Fififth Legion (Skylark Legion).

However, Pompey had made adequate preparations and smoothly led the remaining troops to withdraw from Brindisi by sea.

With the situation so severe, the elders led by Cato had no choice but to follow him to Greece.

.................................

Although the outbreak of the Roman civil war was relatively late, almost exceeding "the deadline given by the Oracle of the Goddess Danu," when the news reached the Avelli Tribe, Vercingetorix danced with excitement.

He immediately sent Lurios to contact the secret Nix base in Massilia, asking when the Nix Kingdom intended to begin their attack on Rome.

The Nix post in Massilia had already received a hand-written order from Maximus.

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