Compelled for safety to a decision, he chose Caesar, his personal friend; and with Caesar he went through the wars from the passage of the Rubicon to the last battle in Spain. […] Yet even so, until the legions joined battle on the plain of Pharsalus, the odds lay heavily against Caesar. […] Each had sought armed domination. 1 Had Pompeius conquered in battle, the Republic could hardly have survived. […] Herius Asinius, the first man among the Marrucini, fell in battle fighting for Italia. 9 But the family did not perish or lapse altogether into poverty or obscurity. […] Alert and resilient among the visible risks of march and battle, he had no talent for slow intrigue, no taste for postponed revenge.