Book 1
34
On his arrival there he learns that Vibullius Rufus, whom he had captured at Corfinium and dismissed a few days before, had been dispatched by Pompeius; also that Domitius had gone to seize Massilia with seven merchant-vessels which he had requisitioned and had manned with his own slaves, freedmen, and tenants; and also that some Massilian envoys had been previously sent home, youths of noble birth, whom Pompeius when quitting the city had exhorted not to let Caesar’s fresh services drive from their minds the memory of his own earlier kindnesses. Receiving these instructions, the people of Massilia had closed their gates against Caesar, and had called to their aid the Albici, a barbarian tribe, who owed allegiance to them from olden times, and inhabited the hills above Massilia; they had collected and brought into their town corn from the neighbouring districts and from all the strongholds; they had set up manufactories of arms in the town, and were engaged in repairing their walls, gates, and fleet.
