It was now August. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Wheeling left, this combined force of infantry and cavalry struck into Pompey's left flank. Britannica Kids Holiday Bundle! Caesar chose to cross over the Pindus Mountains and into the province of Macedonia, where he found a fertile valley to feed his troops while he awaited his enemies. The Triumvirate broke down after Crassus was killed at the Battle of Carrhaeand Julia died. As the infantry engaged, his cavalry would sweep Caesar's from the field before pivoting and attacking into the enemy's flank and rear. Caesar refused to meet Pompey on this disadvantageous ground and was in the process of striking his tents to march elsewhere when he saw that Pompey had inexplicably descended onto the plain. on what historians calculate is about Aug. 9. Pompey was thoroughly stunned by his army’s destruction and fled by sea to Egypt in the hope that young Ptolemy XIII would grant him refuge. He gathered what troops he could from his forces which had weathered the siege of Alexandria and participated in the Battle of the Nile. He was loath to surrender the rest of his legions, nine of which were wintering in Gaul. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Prelude to Battle Almost two years before the two rivals met at Pharsalus, the Roman Republic, split by a half century of political unrest, had drifted into civil war. On January 10–11, 49 bce, Caesar took Legio XIII Gemina across the Rubicon River and into Italia proper. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. In the seven months after their flight to Epirus, Pompey and the loyalist senators mustered a formidable army. On Caesar’s left was Mark Antony with legions IX and VIII; because legion IX had suffered greatly at Dyrrhachium, the two legions were placed close together. Caesar, knowing of the strong Egyptian position, opened the battle by having Roman-led legions destroy a Ptolemaic fort to try to lure the Egyptians off the hill. By August 8, with his food supplies low, Caesar began debating withdrawing east. Though Pompey had been defeated and killed, the war continued on as Optimate supporters, including the general's two sons, raised new forces in Africa and Spain. Enipeus River. Caesar motivated his actions with the revenge for the v… Caesar’s legions then rushed forward again, this time engaging in combat with their swords. On the flank, Titus Labienus led Pompey's cavalry forward and made progress against their counterparts. With the war with Julius Caesar raging, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey) ordered the Roman Senate to flee to Greece while he raised an army in the region. This alarmed the Optimates, the conservative group within the Senate, who saw the power of the Senate and the aristocracy being eroded by this combination of demagoguery and popular will. His supporters were to rally and involve Caesar in strenuous fighting in Africa, Spain, and the East for three more years, but Pompey did not live…. At Caesar’s order, his first and second lines charged forward for a short distance before realizing that Pompey’s legions had not responded. An older theory holds that he set up camp southeast of the Enipeus River on the slope adjacent to the town of Pharsalus (modern Fársala), from which the conventional name of the battle is derived. In the centre were six more legions, commanded by Domitius Calvinus. Ptolemy’s advisors had Pompey killed as he was coming ashore. This saw his men execute a direct assault against the town when he had desired them to conduct a false retreat to lure Vercingetorix off a nearby hill. Labienus. He fled from his camp as the enemy stormed it and made his way to the coast. For several days the armies formed for battle each morning, however, Caesar was unwilling to attack up the slopes of the mountain. The question is, what would Pompey had to have done to win this battle (and not the war, by refusing engagement until Caesar's men were starving and forced to capitulate). In January 10, 49 BC Caesar crossed the Rubicon River with one legion. Despite being reinforced, Caesar was still outnumbered by Pompey's army, though his men were veterans and the enemy largely new recruits. This was by no means the end of the war. Then, leaving a sizeable garrison in Italia, Caesar reunited with some of his Gallic forces in southern Gaul before crossing into Hispania. Seeing Pompey move off the mountain on August 9, Caesar deployed his smaller army to meet the threat. Caesar’s victory at Pharsalus was the deciding battle of the civil war. The Battle of Dyrrachium (or Dyrrhachium) on 10 July 48 BC was a battle during Caesar's Civil War that took place near the city of Dyrrachium (in what is now Albania).It was fought between Julius Caesar and an army led by Gnaeus Pompey who had the backing of the majority of the Roman Senate.The battle was a victory for Pompey, albeit not a decisive one. Still undeterred, Caesar and his legions slinked away from their camp by night. Myles Hudson was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopædia Britannica. Although Pompey had a larger army, he knew that Caesar's troops were more experienced, and might win in a pitched battle. By March he had been reinforced with four of his Gallic legions and advanced on Brundisium, but not before Pompey and the Senate abandoned Italia to regroup in Epirus. Pompey’s army maintained its position on the high ground for several days. Shortly after arriving at Alexandria, he was murdered by the Egyptians. In the winter of 48/47, Julius Caesar crossed to Greece, where he wanted to fight against his rival Pompey. Even men who had been bitter enemies were allowed not only to return … He entered the nation during a civil war between Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII. It was a battle which Caesar won against the odds and it all but confirmed his position as ruler of Rome, a key moment in the transition from Republic to Empire. 5 hours ago. Battle. Updates? They were naturally protected by the Enipeus. Through the summer, the two armies maneuvered against each other, with Caesar attempting to besiege Pompey at Dyrrhachium. Surging forward, it soon became clear that Pompey's army was standing their ground. Caesar made a near disastrous attack on Pompey's camp, and was forced to pull away to regroup. These efforts were hampered as Pompey's forces controlled the Republic's navy. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). He was soon swayed from this course by his generals, various senators, and other influential Romans who wished him to give battle. Caesar then ordered his third line to reinforce the fatiguing first and second lines; they had been withheld for this purpose, and they struck unease into the hearts of the loyalist legionaries. https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Pharsalus. At this point Pompey ordered Labienus on his left to charge with the cavalry against Caesar’s right wing, and the mass of horses thundered across the plain with the archers and slingers in tow. They slowed their advance and launched their javelins at the enemy, but loyalists held their positions and fired javelins of their own. Pompey was defeated at Pharsalus, and he fled to Alexandria. The Senate had only two legions in Italia—the two that Caesar had sent—and faltering support in the north complicated its ability to levy fresh troops. The Senate was certain that towns and cities along Caesar’s march south would rally to the defense of the republic, but that assumption quickly proved false. Under pressure to fight, Pompey planned to give battle the next morning. Prelude to the Battle. Julius Caesar won a major triumph over the forces of Pompey the Great at Pharsalus, in 48 B.C. Several years before the Battle of Pharsalus the Roman Republic had been controlled by three men: Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. Labienus’s horsemen were so surprised that they scrambled for safety in the hills as quickly as they had left them. The Battle of Pharsalus took place on August 9, 48 BC and was the decisive engagement of Caesar's Civil War (49-45 BC). Uniting with their own cavalry, they charged and drove Labienus' troops from the field. Name of the river Caesar crossed. He has appeared on The History Channel as a featured expert. Page 4 of 4 - About 39 essays. Pompey’s army suffered some 15,000 casualties, and 24,000 of its soldiers were taken prisoner. His plan called for the infantry to remain in place, forcing Caesar's men to charge a long distance and tiring them before contact. Finally forcing a crossing that winter, Caesar was soon joined by additional troops under Mark Antony. He left two cohorts at his camp and advanced to meet Pompey with 22,000 men drawn into three thinner lines. He is expected to graduate from the University of Chicago in 2021 with bachelor’s degrees in English language and literature and political... Julius Caesar, marble bust; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome. When the cohorts that had routed Labienus’s cavalry barreled through Pompey’s scattering missile troops and into his exposed left flank, the legions began to break. Who commanded Pompey's cavalry. Pompey urged his fellow senators to evacuate Rome and retreat with their army to Brundisium (modern Brindisi), located at the heel of the Italian Peninsula. An indecisive winter (49–48 … On 9 August 48 BC at Pharsalus in central Greece, Gaius Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great"). Unlike the mélange of loyalist troops, Caesar’s nine legions were nearly all veterans, and many of them had fought for him in Gaul. Q203681 In the Battle of Pharsalus, on 9 August 48 BCE, the Roman general Julius Caesar defeated the troops of the Roman Senate, commanded by his rival Pompey the Great. Additionally, Caesar reported capturing 24,000, including Marcus Junius Brutus, and showed great clemency in pardoning many the Optimate leaders. However, he knew that Pompey’s cavalry vastly outnumbered his own, so he drew six or eight cohorts to form a fourth line behind his cavalry. The immensely popular Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, otherwise known as Pompey the Great, had enjoyed great military successes in Sicily and Africa, he had emphatically swept the Mediterranean clear of pirates and, most impressively of all, he had defeated Mithradates VI in the east. Anchoring his left, led by Mark Antony along the river, he too formed three lines though they were not as deep as Pompey's. Each morning Caesar would edge his legions closer to the hill, and Pompey would respond by moving his men a little farther down the slope. Moving down into the valley, Pompey anchored his right flank on the Enipeus River and deployed his men in the traditional formation of three lines, each ten men deep. With which element were Caesars men able to push back Pompey's cavalry. A more recent theory with growing support finds that he camped north of the river on a slope next to Palaepharsalus (“old Pharsalus,” possibly modern Kríni), in which case the battle would be properly termed the Battle of Palaepharsalus. Caesar pardoned all his surviving enemies. Pompey’s flight to Egypt and subsequent murder handed the ultimate victory to Caesar. Having recently conquered and pacified the Gallic tribes, he was stationed in Cisalpine Gaul when he received orders from the Senate to relinquish command of his 10 veteran legions. Battle of Pharsalus, (48 bce), the decisive engagement in the Roman civil war (49–45 bce) between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. Who won the battle of Pharsalus? Caesar’s p… Caesar had crossed the Rubicon in January 49 B.C., returning home from military assignment without permission. When hostilities finally abated in 45 bce, Caesar returned to Rome as the undisputed victor of the civil war and dictator of the Roman Republic. This setback did not hinder Caesar, though. On the right was Lucius Afranius with his seasoned Cilician legion and Spanish cohorts. With the whole of the Italian Peninsula now in his grasp, Caesar observed that while Pompey’s small army was across the Adriatic Sea, seven loyalist legions were still stationed in Hispania, albeit without a general. He had already sent two legions to Rome in 51 bce at the Senate’s request, presumably for a Parthian campaign in which they were never used. River Rubicon. …in Pompey’s decisive defeat at Pharsalus (48). For the next few years, Caesar conducted various campaigns to eliminate this resistance. By 49 bce Caesar’s relationship with the Roman Senate had dangerously deteriorated. Although Caesar was greatly outnumbered, his veteran legions successfully routed Pompey’s diverse but undisciplined levies. Consider how Caesar won that battle, and why the United States of America could never win such a battle today, under this administration. According to Suetonius (Roman historian who wrote The Life of the Caesars), Caesar uttered the phrase alea iacta est (“the die has been cast”). After wintering at Dyrrhachium, Pompey intended to invade Italy and save the republic from despotism, as his mentor Sulla had done over 30 years earlier. Pursuing his enemy to Egypt, Caesar was horrified when Ptolemy presented him with Pompey's severed head. The Battle of Colmar (58 BCE): one of the first battles of the Gallic War, in which Caesar defeated an army led by the Germanic leader Ariovistus.. Pompey had even married Caesar’s daughter Julia to help cement the alliance between them. Battle of Pharsalus. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated by a man hoping thus to curry Caesar’s favour. Leaving behind seven cohorts at his camp, Pompey drew up his legions in three lines perpendicular to the Enipeus. He would bear that honour until his own assassination a year later. Here he also placed his missile troops and cavalry, the latter of which was led by Titus Labienus and numbered nearly 7,000 men. Ptolemy, advised by his regent, the eunuch Pothinus, and his rhetoric tutor Theodotus of Chios, had failed to take into account that Caesar was granting amnesty to a great number of those of the senatorialfaction in their defeat. The two met in battle at Pharsalus in Greece in 48 B.C., and though Caesar’s armies won… Labienus began to divide his horsemen into smaller divisions in preparation for a coordinated flanking maneuver. Pharsalus wasn’t the end of the war, but it was the decisive battle. The Battle of Pharsalus cost Caesar between 200 and 1,200 casualties while Pompey suffered between 6,000 and 15,000. Almost at once Caesar was nearly trapped at Alexandria, where he had intervened in a succession…, …winning a decisive victory at Pharsalus on August 9, 48, …defeat on the plain of Pharsalus (48). The battle of Pharsalus (9 August 48 BC) was the decisive battle of the Great Roman Civil War, and saw Caesar defeat Pompey and the Senate’s main army.Although the war continued for another three years, Pharsalus ended any realistic chance that Caesar could be defeated, and the war would have ended soon if Caesar hadn’t become entangled in Egyptian affairs. At his disposal were 47,000 legionaries overall, many of whom were recent recruits. He crushed the loyalists at Ilerda in August and forced the surrender of two legions in Córdoba the following month. Caesar gave them the signal to attack. However, neither Pompey nor Labienus saw the eight cohorts that Caesar had planted behind his cavalry. All three were wealthy and powerful politicians, sharing power in a system known as the Triumvirate. Caesar’s own cavalry was quickly overwhelmed and retreated a little. Ptolemy XIII sent Pompey's head to Caesar in an effort to win his favor, but instead secured him as a furious enemy. 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