Pharsalus, the battle fought on this day in 48 BC was the defining moment in the careers of both Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. Pompey was the great man in Rome for as long as most people could remember. He came to attenion serving under his father at the age of 16 in the Social war. A hayseed from Picenum his father Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo was a “new man”, what we would today call “new money”. Not proper Roman stock. But he was rich and could afford to put a legion behind his son.
By 83 BC Pompey was able to support Sulla in the Civil War against the Marian faction. Marius was married to Julia, Caesar’s aunt. Sulla famously said he saw many a Marius in Caesar. So Pompey and Caesar began their careers on opposite sides.
Pompey styled himself “Magnus” with youthful bravado aged only 24, but he had the chutzpah to do it. He bypassed the cursus honorum and was elected consul three times. He also celebrated three triumphs. He brought the messy and drawn out Sertorian rebellion to a conclusion, earning wealthy Spanish clients along the way. He famously cleared the Mediterranean of pirates, securing an unprecedented pro-consular authority to the coastlines of every maritime province to succeed. More clients fell into his lap.
He then went to the wealthy East, defeated Mithridates, and – you guessed it – more clients. He was fabulously wealthy. Almost as wealthy as Marcus Crassus. The first man in Rome. But his settlement of clients in the East relied on some treaties he had agreed with local rulers. On his return to Rome he found himself opposed by the conservative faction of the Senate.
From stage left stepped an unlikely ally; Julius Caesar. You will have your treaties if I can have my Consulship! And to seal the deal Caesar offered his daughters hand. The old man was smitten by the beatiful Julia and fell madly in love. With Crassus the three formed the first Triumvirate.
It was the death of Julia that led to the division between Caesar and Pompey. The Optimates of the Senate, those who originally opposed his treaties in the East, leaped on the chance to bring Pompey to their camp. They found him a new wife and a gang of new friends and gave him an army to oppose Caesar who had just crossed the Rubicon at the head of his veteran legions.
Pompey found himself in command of an army larger than Caesars, but they were green men. So he moved south and shipped them to Greece for training. Caesar, lacking a navy, could not follow. Instead he reversed course and eliminated the Pompeian forces in Hispania province, securing his back in the kind of clever strategy he might have learned from Pompey himself.
In January 48 BC Caesar at last managed to ship seven legions to modern day Albania. Pompey rapidly moved to besiege him in an attempt to starve him into submission. The arrival of Mark Anthony with four legions of reinforcements in March forced Pompey to withdraw. So it was not until August that the armies met.
Pompey held the high ground. He had one flank anchored on a river. He commanded over 40,000 men and 6,000 cavalry. Caesar was at the bottom of a hill in marshy land with his 22,000 men and 1,000 cavalry. But Caesar had hard fought battle trained veterans, and that is often the difference.
Pompey’s plan was simple, he positioned his infantry on the top of the hill in deep lines and all they had to do was hold on against an inferior infantry force. Hold the line, while with his massive superiority in cavalry he would sweep around Caesars right flank and roll up his line, driving Caesars men into the river.
Caesar saw what Pompey’s plan was and thinned his left flank, bringing as many men as he could to support his favourite legion the Legio X under his command on the right flank.
On his right Pompey ordered his men to hold the hilltop and not advance against the caesarian legions led by Mark Anthony. Poorly trained troops fall apart when they march, so it was safer to hold them steady. This allowed Anthony to climb the hill, and then order his men to rest and regroup before advancing further. If Pompey had experienced men they would have smashed the thinned out left wing of Caesar’s army at this point.
When Pompey’s cavalry charged Caesars right wing he drove off the caesarian cavalry as expected. But now Caesar unleashed his surprised weapon. The troops he had thinned from his left flank had been formed up secretly behind his three files on the right wing. They were now instructed to charge into the Pompeian cavalry and use their javelins as spears to unseat the horsemen. The result was chaos. Pompey’s cavalry lost all their impetus and were driven into a confused mess.
Caesar’s cavalry, who had withdrawn in good order, now wheeled about, reformed and charged into Pompey’s cavalry, driving them off the field of battle.
Now Pompey’s left wing was completely exposed to the mighty Legio X and the reinforcements from the rest of the field. They fell like a hammer on the inexperienced Pompeian right wing.
The day was over and Pompey knew it. He fled the field, south to find a ship to take him to Egypt, where he met a grizly end. Beheaded by a Roman Officer serving with the Egyptians who thought the head of Caesar’s old friend would please the victor. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Caesar wept.
Pharsalia (excerpt) ; by Lucan
No single death deserves its own lament,
no time to mourn the individual.
Pharsalus was unlike the former battles’
catastrophes. There Rome fell with men’s fates,
here with entire peoples’. Soldiers died there
but here whole nations perished. Here blood streamed
from Greek, Assyrian and Pontic veins,
which might have congealed on the field in one
cross-ethnic scab, but for a huge deluge
of Roman gore.
In that unholy battle
upon the stinking plains of Thessaly,
the peoples all sustained a deeper wound
than their own era could endure. Much more
than life and safety were lost there. We were
made prostrate for eternity. Every age
that suffers slavery fell to those swords.
But what did grandsons and great-grandsons do
to deserve birth in an autocracy?
Were ours the blades that fell with fear? Did we
snivel behind our shields and hide our throats?
The penalty of others’ cowardice
is hung around our necks today.
O Fortune,
since then you’ve only given us more tyrants!
Why not at least give us a chance to fight?
-=o0o=-
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