Battle of Thapsus — Caesar Ends the African War
Caesar destroyed the last substantial Pompeian army in Africa in April 46 BC, and his own troops attacked before he ordered it. The republican cause had regrouped in the province of Africa after Pharsalus, with Metellus Scipio commanding, Cato holding Utica, and the Numidian king Juba supplying cavalry and elephants — a force of perhaps 70,000 including allies. Caesar landed in December 47 BC with an advance force and spent months short of supplies and pinned near the coast, and reportedly tripped stepping ashore and turned it into an omen by grasping the sand and declaring that he held Africa. He besieged the town of Thapsus, which forced the enemy to fight, and drew them into a narrow neck of land between the sea and a salt lagoon where their numbers and their cavalry were useless. The battle began without him. A trumpeter on the right sounded the advance while Caesar was still riding along the line, the legions went forward on their own, and he chose to follow rather than recall them. The elephants panicked and went back through their own lines. Some 10,000 of the enemy tried to surrender and were killed by troops who had been at Pharsalus, where Caesar had spared everyone. Cato killed himself at Utica rather than accept a pardon, which made him more useful to the opposition dead than alive. Caesar returned to Rome and held four triumphs in one month. Cato's suicide is the part that outlived the campaign. He became the Stoic exemplar for the next two centuries, cited by Seneca and Lucan, and the standing reproach to everyone who accepted Caesar's clemency and lived.
- Year: 46 BCE
- Category: Military
