The ditches are full of witches

In which I get my act together and rewind a few scenes in the Pharsalia to introduce the witches of Thessaly, who will fuck you up. In seeking out one to tell his future, however, it could be argued that Sextus Pompeius is acting no more suicidally than the rest of his perishing republic, whose civil war is just a society-wide form of falling on your sword (see proem: populumque potentem / in sua uictrici conuersum uiscera dextra). After which we will get the introduction of Erictho, who is even scarier than your average Thessalian, and the necromancy itself, as originally promised, and then either I'll just backtrack and finish Book 6 or skip to something completely different, like Julius Caesar's utterly meaningless tourist-walk around the ruins of Troy. Usual rights reserved to delete, rewrite, or despair of the entire thing.

( I drew her down on me, I drew her with a smile. )