Furnius accordingly directed his forces against Pompeius' front attack, but he was driven out of his camp by the force in his rear. Pompeius pursued his men and killed many as they fled over the Scamandrian plain, which was saturated with recent rains. Those who were saved withdrew for the time to a place of safety, as they were not fit for battle. While those who, impoverished by continual exactions, enlisted gladly under Pompeius especially on account of the reputation he had gained by his victory at the harbour of the Achaeans, were awaiting help from Mysia, the Propontis, and elsewhere, Pompeius, deficient in cavalry, and thus crippled in procuring supplies, learned that a troop of Italian horse
was coming to Antony, sent by Octavia, who was passing the winter in Athens. So he sent emissaries with gold to corrupt this troop.Antony's governor of Macedonia caught these men and distributed their gold to the cavalry: but Pompeius took Nicea and Nicomedia, from which he obtained large supplies of money, and his strength was augmented in all respects with a rapidity that exceeded his expectations. But Furnius, who was camping not far away from him, was reinforced, at the beginning of spring, first with seventy ships that had come from Sicily, which had been saved from those that Antony had lent to Octavian against Pompeius; for after the close of the war in Sicily Octavian had dismissed them.
Then Titius arrived from Syria with additional ships and a large army; and all these had landed at Proconnesus.So Pompeius became alarmed and burned his own ships and armed his oarsmen, believing that he could fight to better advantage with all of his forces combined on land. Cassius of Parma, Nasidius, Saturninus, Thermus, Antistius, and the other distinguished men of his party who were still with him as friends, and Fannius, who held the highest rank of all, and Pompeius' father-in‑law, Libo, when they saw that he did not desist from war against superior forces even after Titius, to whom Antony had given entire charge, had arrived, despaired of him, and, having made terms for themselves, went over to Antony.