At last an exciting debate was broken up in the Senate by one of the consuls rising to depart, saying that he would hear the subject discussed no longer.
The time had arrived for action, and he should send a commander, with an armed force, to defend the country from Caesar's threatened invasion.
Caesar's leading friends, two tribunes of the people, disguised themselves as slaves, and fled to the north to join their master.

The country was filled with commotion and panic.

The Commonwealth had obviously more fear of Caesar than confidence in Pompey.

The country was full of rumors in respect to Caesar's power, and the threatening attitude which he was assuming, while they who had insisted on resistance seemed, after all, to have provided very inadequate means with which to resist.

A thousand plans were formed, and clamorously insisted upon by their respective advocates, for averting the danger.
This only added to the confusion, and the city became at length pervaded with a universal terror.
[Sidenote: Caesar at Ravenna.] While this was the state of things at Rome, Caesar was quietly established at Ravenna; thirty or forty miles from the frontier.