At Pharnaces impulsus sive loci felicitate sive auspiciis et religionibus inductus, quibus obtemperasse eum postea audiebamus, sive paucitate nostrorum qui in armis erant comperta, cum more operis cotidiani magnam illam servorum multitudinem quae aggerem portabat militum esse credidisset, sive etiam fiducia veterani exercitus sui,quem bis et vicies in acie conflixisse et vicisse legati eius gloriabantur, simul contemptu exercitus nostri, quem pulsum a se Domitio duce sciebat, inito consilio dimicandi descendere praerupta valle coepit.
Pharnaces, however, took it into his head to engage. Whether it was the lucky associations of the spot that drove him to take this course, or whether it was his scrupulous observance of omens, to which, as we afterwards heard, he gave careful heed, that so prompted him; or maybe it was the small number of our troops which, according to his information, were standing to arms (for he had supposed that that vast gang of slaves which transported the material for the rampart, as though it was their daily employment, was in fact composed of troops); or maybe even it was his confidence in that veteran army of his, which, as his envoys boasted, had fought and conquered upon two and twenty battle-fields, coupled with a contempt for our army, which he knew had been routed by himself when Domitius led it: anyway, having decided to engage, he began the descent down the steep ravine.
final_alignments\Caesar_Alexandrian.json