The battle opened with the cavalry charge on the Pompeian side. Cæsar’s German and Gallic horse, as they were instructed, withdrew, and as soon as the Pompeian horse followed them, the 3000 men placed previously to support them, attacked the Pompeian cavalry in the flank. This manœuver was immediately followed by a quick action on the part of Cæsar’s cavalry. They swerved about, attacked in their turn those who had just been pressing them, and forced them back in confusion. There was not time enough for Pompeius now to get together a mass of infantry to protect his cavalry. The hand-to-hand conflict immediately began, Cæsar’s whole force of infantry throwing themselves on the opposing legionaries, who now no longer had the support of their cavalry. The pressure on the front and sides was too much for the Pompeians; first the left wing gave way and then the entire army. (August 8, 48 B.C.)
The crucial feature of the whole battle was Cæsar’s skilful disposition of the 3000 men, placed, as some authorities describe it, in a kind of ambuscade. It was this that upset the whole plan of Pompeius’ massive cavalry charge. The intelligent manœuvering of the Gallic and German horse, first giving way, then returning to charge superior numbers, is an illuminating illustration of the discipline prevailing in all arms of Cæsar’s force. The close of the battle was followed by the occupation of the Pompeian camp. The commander himself fled in deep dejection from Greece, and met his death by an assassin’s hands, when landing from a boat on the coast of Egypt. As a military leader he had proved himself in this war unimaginative and sluggish. He was a master of the technique of warfare, but failed to make use of his opportunities; he seemed to have worked out his own campaign in advance, and to have followed the scheme with deliberation, but in other respects he was resourceless, both when the advantage was his own and when the enemy made mistakes.
With two very much reduced legions and a few horse, Cæsar pursued his rival to Egypt, where he was too late to take him alive. But the factional contests in Egypt as to the royal succession and perhaps, too, the desire to get his hands on the Egyptian treasury, induced the conqueror to use this opportunity of asserting Roman sovereignty over the dependent kingdom. It proved to be a rash step, for the Egyptians were fanatically attached to their autonomous position, and Cæsar’s small force was in great danger, not only from the Egyptian army, but also from the turbulent Alexandrian populace, who tried and almost succeeded in shutting him up in part of the city, and in preventing supplies and reinforcements coming to him by sea. At times the Romans were in great danger; there were furious combats in the city and in the harbor, and it was not till many months had passed that Cæsar was master of the situation. It took all the resources of his versatile genius to hold out until large enough reinforcements came from the East to bring the Alexandrians into subjection.
The whole winter after the battle of Pharsalus was spent in this way, and when the war was over in March, there was three months more delay in Alexandria, owing, it was said, to the fascination exerted over the conqueror by the famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. During the summer preparations were made for an extensive expedition throughout the Farther East with a small body of men, the design being to pacify the Oriental provinces. This proved not very difficult; most of the problems were solved by diplomacy and only one battle was fought, that of Zela, in Pontus, with Pharnaces, king of Pontus, who had taken advantage of the civil war to try to set up an independent rule over a large part of Asia Minor.
While Cæsar was absent in the East, his cause in the West had been far from successfully handled by his lieutenants. The Pompeian fleet had given great trouble on the Italian coast and in the Adriatic Sea. Affairs in Spain had been hopelessly muddled by a corrupt and tyrannous governor, who angered the provincials and got into trouble with the native tribes. In Rome the victory at Pharsalus had been followed by great activity on the part of the Senate and popular assembly in heaping additional honors on Cæsar. He was made Dictator with virtually unlimited powers. The administration, so far as any semblance of legality was concerned, seemed to have gone to pieces, while Cæsar was having his troubled experiences in Alexandria. No provision had been made for filling up the magistracies, and the conduct of affairs fell into the hands of an irresponsible agitator, Dolabella, Cicero’s son-in-law, who prepared a social program containing, as its chief items, canceling of debts and remission of rents. There were serious riots in the city, the mob becoming so powerful that even the Cæsarian Senate had to call on Marcus Antonius, Cæsar’s chief local lieutenant, to suppress the violence by the use of military power.
When Cæsar arrived in Italy from the Orient, there was much to be done and not much time in which to do it, because all the irreconcilable partisans of Pompeius, trusting in the help of the Numidian king, Juba, had gathered in Africa, where, since the defeat of Curio, they met with no opposition in their control of the country. During Cæsar’s stay in Rome, there were various measures passed, some to relieve the financial crisis, others to provide against disturbances of public order, while political rewards had to be distributed to his followers in the way of nominations to the Senate, or by the creation of additional places among the magistracies. On account of the government’s embarrassments, there was a resort to the policy of forced loans, both from individuals and from communities. The private property of Pompeius and some of his adherents was sold at public auction, a questionable proceeding which gave rise to a good deal of unpleasant jobbery among Cæsar’s friends, who bought the property in, and then, depending on their influence with their all-powerful master, tried to evade payment. (47 B.C.)
More serious than these matters of local politics was the sullenness of Cæsar’s troops, which developed into open mutiny when they were ordered to make ready for the coming campaign in Africa. They refused to budge until the promises of money and land made them before the battle of Pharsalus were strictly carried out. Cæsar dealt successfully with the situation; he had no cash to give them, but he discharged them, calling them citizens and not soldiers, and assured them at the same time that all of their demands, with back interest, would be paid as soon as he returned from Africa to celebrate his triumph. The veterans were placed in a dilemma; they could not turn against Cæsar, for their hope of reward lay in his success. Most of them were taken back as volunteers for the African campaign. Before leaving Italy, Cæsar again arranged to become Consul for the year 46, at the same time making arrangements for the distribution of provincial charges. One assignment was especially noteworthy: a pardoned Pompeian senator, Junius Brutus, nephew of Cato, at the time in arms against Cæsar, was appointed to Cisalpine Gaul.
A year and a half had passed since Pompeius’ defeat at Pharsalus, but his cause was being energetically upheld in Africa, where his partisans were making a final stand. It was here that Scipio, Labienus, Cato, Afranius, and Petreius gathered together with the forces that remained, ten legions in all, no inconsiderable force in itself; but there were besides a large contingent of well-trained cavalry and heavy- and light-armed troops, supplied by Juba, king of Numidia, who was implacably hostile to Cæsar’s cause, and who meant to use the divisions of the Romans for the purpose of carving out for himself an independent kingdom. The only danger point, apart from an attack from Italy, lay further west, where the two Mauretanian kings, Bocchus and Bogud, acted together as a check to the power of the Numidians. They were able to carry out their policy intelligently, because they had the help of a Roman adventurer, Publius Sittius, suspected of being an accomplice of Catiline, and for this reason an enemy of the remnant of the senatorial party in Africa.
Cæsar landed in Africa in December with only a small force, and for a time he had to maintain himself in an intrenched camp on the coast. His six legions were made up of raw material, and it was impossible for him to take the offensive, until his veterans, who had been sent for, arrived. The situation was saved by Sittius, who made a diversion in the West, and so drew off Juba to the defense of his own kingdom. Among the provincials, the Cæsarian cause began to be popular, for they saw in it a protection against the nationalist schemes of Juba. Moreover, the Roman aristocratic commanders had treated the population of the province with scant consideration, so there were many desertions to Cæsar’s side. Owing to the incompetent strategy of his opponents, who do not seem to have known how to handle their fleet, communications with Italy were kept open. It was Cæsar’s purpose, after the veteran legions arrived, to compel Scipio to give battle. This he refused to do, until his hands were forced. When Cæsar began the siege of the important seaport town of Thapsus, Scipio was obliged to come to the rescue, and a pitched battle was fought early in April, in which the Pompeian force was completely routed. Cæsar’s troops occupied the enemy’s camp, and despite the entreaties of their commander, a wholesale butchery by the legionaries followed the fight.
The campaign was soon completed. Utica, where Cato commanded the garrison, surrendered, after their leader, seeing the ruin of his cause, had committed suicide. Scipio perished at sea, Varus and Labienus succeeded in making their escape to Spain. Even Juba was ruined by the misfortunes of his allies, for his own subjects rejected him on his return, and he and Petreius met deaths by suicide. After setting the affairs of Africa in order, and annexing the kingdom of Numidia as a province, Cæsar returned to Rome after an absence from the capital of 180 days. (46 B.C.)