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[42] Having prevailed so far as to make Italy inaccessible to Pompey, Cæsar went to Spain, where he encountered Petreius and Afranius, Pompey's lieutenants, and was worsted by them at first and afterward had an indecisive engagement with them near the town of Ilerda.1 He pitched his camp on some high ground and obtained his supplies by means of a bridge across the river Sicoris.2 Suddenly a freshet of melting snow carried away his bridge and cut off a great number of his men on the opposite side. These were destroyed by the forces of Petreius. Cæsar himself, with the rest of his army, suffered very severely from the difficulty of the place, from hunger, from the weather, and from the enemy, his situation being in no wise different from that of a siege. Finally, on the approach of summer, Afranius and Petreius withdrew to the interior of Spain to recruit more soldiers, but Cæsar continually anticipated them, blocked their passage, and prevented their advance. He also surrounded one of their divisions that had been sent forward to capture his camp. They raised their shields over their heads in token of surrender, but Cæsar neither captured nor slaughtered them, but allowed them to go back to Afranius unharmed, after his usual manner of winning the favor of his enemies. Whence it came to pass that there was continual intercourse between the camps and talk of reconciliation among the rank and file.

1 The modern Lerida.

2 The modern Segre.

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