He lost both during this encounter, for even though he had many more soldiers than Caesar and was in Rome, as soon as he heard that Caesar had crossed the Rubicon, he rushed to flee without even taking the time to make sacrifices to the gods to appease this storm. Pompey was caught off-guard by the lack of support, his past misdeeds making this flight difficult for him. In this great chaos, many people lost the respect they had always shown him. It is remembered that he once claimed that by stamping his foot on the ground, he would bring forth soldiers. This tyrannical manner of speaking was thrown back in his face, and one of Rome's influential men, seeing his astonishment, told him with great audacity: "Now stamp your foot on the ground to increase your army and confront Caesar." His ambition and injustice also condemned him, and the things said about him during this flight clearly show that Pompey was the tyrant, and Caesar the defender. Indeed, as soon as he arrived in Rome, he treated all the senators with humanity, kindly pleaded with them to pacify the situation, and once more suggested very just and reasonable peace terms to be accepted by Pompey. But as they knew without any doubt that Pompey wanted all or nothing, they refused and apologized to Caesar.

  Now, Lepidus, when this noble hero was named sovereign, did he show signs that he intended to exercise tyranny? Not at all. He recalled the exiles, recognized the children of those who had been proscribed during the time of Sulla, who was an oppressor, and eleven days later voluntarily abdicated the sovereignty, being content with the consulship with Servilius Isauricus. After that, Lepidus, would you say that Caesar was a tyrant and that Pompey was the defender of liberty? But let us quickly return to his life in order to have more time to mourn his death. You undoubtedly remember all the stratagems that Pompey used to avoid fighting Caesar and to prolong the situation. These maneuvers were so blatant and his ambition so well-known that even his soldiers openly said that he was prolonging the war only in order to keep his power. In reality, he knew that whether conquering or defeated, he would either have to give up sovereign power or completely drop the mask under which he hid from some Romans. As for Caesar, who had faith in the justice of his cause and that of the gods, he sought out his enemy and was not afraid to attack and fight him. Nothing in his heart haunted him with guilt, for he knew that in avenging himself, he would be taking revenge as a Roman and by getting rid of his adversary, would free Rome from a tyrant. His hope in the gods paid off: he won the battle while Pompey lost it. This man, who had been so favoured by fate when he was innocent, was abandoned as soon as he became a criminal. He neither knew how to fight nor to win, and he didn't even know how to be defeated like a brave man.

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