58.7
But his fears were realized more fully than he expected; for late one evening there came a messenger from the camp who had been three days on the road, announcing that there had been a great battle at Thapsus, that their cause was utterly ruined, that Caesar was in possession of their camps,72 that Scipio and Juba had escaped with a few followers, and that the rest of the force had perished.
59.1
These things coming suddenly upon the city, the people, as was natural at night and in time of war, were almost beside themselves at such tidings, and could with difficulty keep themselves within the walls. But Cato came forth, and for the present, whenever he met people running about and shouting, would lay hold of them one by one, and with encouraging words would take away the excessive wildness and confusion of their fear, saying that perhaps the defeat was not so bad as reported, but had been magnified in the telling, and thus he allayed the tumult;
59.2
but as soon as it was day, he issued proclamation that the three hundred who made up his senate (they were Romans, and were doing business in Libya as merchants and money-lenders) should assemble in the temple of Jupiter, as well as all the senators from Rome who were present, with their children. And while they were still coming together, he advanced quietly and with a composed countenance, and as if nothing unusual had happened, with a book in his hands from which he was reading. This was a register of his military engines, arms, grain, and men-at-arms.
59.3
After they had come together, beginning with the three hundred and commending at great length their zeal and fidelity, which they had manifested by making themselves most helpful with their means and persons and advice, he exhorted them not to ruin their good prospects by trying to procure for themselves severally some separate flight or escape. For if they should hold together, he said, Caesar would despise them less as foes, and show them more mercy as suppliants.
