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7Accordingly their removal was equally tumultuous and confused in all other respects. For the departing citizens, practically all of whom were the foremost men of the senate and of the knights, to say nothing of the populace, 2while nominally setting out for war, were in reality undergoing the experiences of captives. For they were compelled to abandon their country and their pursuits there, and to consider foreign walls more friendly than their own, and consequently they were terribly distressed. 3Such as were removing with their entire households said farewell to the temples and to their homes and to the soil of their ancestors, with the feeling that these would straightway become the property of their opponents; and as for themselves, not being ignorant of Pompey’s purpose, they had the intention, if they really survived, of establishing themselves in Macedonia and Thrace. 4Those who were leaving behind on the spot their children and wives and all their other dearest treasures gave the impression, indeed, of having some little hope of their country, but in reality were in a much worse plight than the others, since they were being separated from all that was dearest to them and were exposing themselves to a double and most contradictory fate. 5For in delivering their nearest interests to the power of their bitterest foes they were destined, in case they played the coward, to be in danger themselves, and in case they showed zeal, to be deprived of those left behind; moreover, they would find a friend in neither rival, but an enemy in both—in Caesar because they themselves had not remained behind, and in Pompey because they had not taken everything with them. 6Hence they were divided in their minds, in their prayers, and in their hopes; in body they were being sundered from those nearest to them, and their souls were cleft in twain.
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