Pharsalus, 48 BC

The battle, stage by stage

1. 48 BC, 9 August by the Roman calendar of the day (June in Julian terms), morning

   Deployment

   After his failure at Dyrrachium, Caesar has marched into Thessaly, where Pompey, joined by Metellus Scipio's army from Syria, follows him. For several days Pompey keeps his line at the foot of the hill below his camp and Caesar will not attack uphill. On this morning, as Caesar is breaking camp to march away, Pompey's line comes farther out from the hill than usual, and Caesar turns to fight (Caesar, Civil War 3.85). Pompey puts the First and Third legions on his left, where he commands in person, Scipio with the Syrian legions in the center, and the Cilician legion with the Spanish cohorts brought by Afranius on his right, which rests on a stream with steep banks. Almost all his cavalry, with his archers and slingers, stand on the open left under Labienus, ready to turn Caesar's right. Caesar puts the Tenth on his right under Publius Sulla, the Ninth and Eighth on his left under Mark Antony and Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus in the center, and takes six cohorts from his third line to form a hidden fourth line behind his right, facing the enemy cavalry (3.88–89). Caesar gives Pompey 110 cohorts (about 45,000 men) and 7,000 horse against his own 80 under-strength cohorts (22,000) and 1,000 horse; modern estimates put Pompey's legionaries lower, at roughly 36,000–38,000 (Greenhalgh; Brunt). Where this was fought is disputed. This map follows J. D. Morgan's 1983 reconstruction north of the Enipeus, with Pompey's camp on a hill west of the village of Krini, which Morgan took for Palaepharsalus; others put the field south of the river near Farsala, below the Krindir heights. All positions are conjectural.

2. Morning

   Labienus' cavalry attack

   On the signal, Crastinus, a veteran former chief centurion of the Tenth, runs forward with about 120 volunteers. Pompey has ordered his men to stand still and receive the charge, hoping Caesar's men will tire running across twice the usual distance; Caesar thought this a mistake. His veterans halt on their own about halfway to catch their breath, then charge again, throw their pila and draw swords; the Pompeian line holds (3.92–93). At the same moment Labienus' massed cavalry, with the archers and slingers behind, attack on the open flank, drive back Caesar's outnumbered horse and begin to spread out in squadrons to get round his right wing and rear. The line of the cavalry attack is drawn schematically.

3. Morning

   The fourth line routs the cavalry

   Caesar signals his fourth line. The six cohorts charge the cavalry so fiercely that no horseman stands, and the whole mass turns and flees headlong for the highest hills (3.93). Plutarch's later account says Caesar had told them not to throw their pila but to thrust them at the riders' faces. Left without cover, the archers and slingers are cut down where they stand. Pompey's plan for winning the battle has failed within minutes. The hills to which the cavalry fled are not named; the direction shown is conjectural.

4. Late morning

   The general advance

   Without stopping, the fourth line swings round against the left of the Pompeian line, which is still fighting hard, and attacks it from the rear. Caesar now orders forward his third line, which until then has been held back, and the fresh cohorts relieve the tired front ranks. Attacked in front and rear, the Pompeians give way and run (3.93–94). Pompey, seeing his cavalry routed, has already ridden back to his camp, telling the centurions at the main gate to guard it, and sits in his tent to await the outcome.

5. Midday

   Collapse and the storming of the camp

   Caesar does not let his men stop for plunder and leads them against Pompey's camp. The cohorts left to guard it defend the rampart, and the Thracians and other auxiliaries hardest of all, but the fugitives from the field, exhausted, throw away their arms and standards and make for the high ground beyond the camp (3.95). As Caesar's men break in, Pompey takes off his general's insignia, rides out of the rear gate and makes for Larissa and the sea. Inside, Caesar's men find arbors built over the tents, tables laid with silver plate and turf floors, signs of how sure of victory Pompey's officers had been (3.96).

6. Afternoon to the next morning

   Pursuit to the hills

   The Pompeians gather on a hill without water; Caesar starts to wall it in, and they slip away along the ridges toward Larissa. Caesar follows with four legions by an easier route and, after about six Roman miles, cuts them off on a hill whose foot is washed by a river, digging a line to keep them from the water. At dawn they come down, pile their arms and beg for mercy; Caesar spares them and forbids plunder (3.97–98). Caesar says he lost about 200 men and 30 centurions and killed about 15,000, taking 24,000 prisoners, 180 standards and nine eagles (3.99); Asinius Pollio, who fought for Caesar, counted no more than 6,000 Pompeian soldiers dead (Plutarch, Caesar 46; Appian 2.82). Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus is killed in the flight. Pompey escapes by sea and is murdered in Egypt weeks later. The hill of the surrender and both routes are drawn by conjecture.