Battle of Pharsalus — Caesar Defeats Pompey
Caesar and Pompey fought the decisive campaign of the civil war in Greece in 48 BC, and Caesar nearly lost it twice. Pompey had abandoned Italy the previous year rather than fight for it, on the strategy that he could raise the eastern provinces, control the sea, and starve Caesar out — which was sound and was the strategy of a man who did not want to fight a battle. Caesar crossed the Adriatic in January with half his army, in winter, through a fleet that should have stopped him, and spent months at Dyrrhachium with the other half unable to sail. He then attempted to blockade a larger army that had command of the sea, building a line of fortifications some twenty-five kilometres long around Pompey's camp; Pompey broke through it in July and Caesar lost about a thousand men and withdrew inland. Pompey's own officers then insisted on a battle, and he agreed against his judgement. Pharsalus was fought in August with perhaps 45,000 Pompeians against 22,000. Caesar's answer to the enemy's superior cavalry was a fourth line of cohorts hidden behind his right, ordered to use their javelins as thrusting spears at the faces of young noblemen who cared about their looks; the cavalry broke and the line was rolled up from the flank. Pompey left the field before it ended, sailed to Egypt, and was stabbed in a small boat within sight of the shore on the orders of a boy king's advisers. Caesar wept over the head. Caesar's own account of the campaign is the only detailed one, and it is careful to present Dyrrhachium as a setback rather than a defeat. His remark after Pharsalus, that they had brought it on themselves and that he would have been condemned had he disbanded his army, is recorded by a witness rather than by him.
- Year: 48 BCE
- Category: Military
