News of Caesar's incursion into Italy reached Rome around 17 January. In response Pompey "issued an edict in which he recognized a state of civil war, ordered all the senators to follow him, and declared that he would regard as a partisan of Caesar any one who remained behind". This led his allies to leave the city along with many uncommitted senators, fearing bloody reprisals of the previous civil wars; other senators simply left Rome for their country villas, hoping to keep a low profile.