 Caesar, seeking an endorsement by a senior senator, courted Cicero's favor, but even so Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to Dyrrachium (Epidamnos), Illyria, where Pompey's staff was situated.Cicero traveled with the Pompeian forces to Pharsalus in 48 BC, though he was quickly losing faith in the competence and righteousness of the Pompeian side.Eventually, he provoked the hostility of his fellow senator Cato, who told him that he would have been of more use to the cause of the "optimates" if he had stayed in Rome.