Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Fourteen

Pompey had hoped to starve Caesar and his legions. He still had everthing that mattered on his side-money, food and the support of the local population. Once the war of attrition got under way Caesar's legions dug up roots and baked them into loaves. In an even greater show of defiance, these loaves were subsequently thrown over the Pompey's barricades every now and then. Pompey's men must have been terrified by the almost superhuman strength and endurance of Caesar and his men. In RVBICON, Dr Holland has a quote from Plutarch's Caesar to give an ancient voice in the matter if how Pompey's men were "terrified of the ferocity and toughness of their enemy, who seemed more like a species of wild animal than men." (Plutarch, Caesar, 39.). Pompey remained secure in the fact that Caesar's legions could not "live on bread alone" forever. Cato's attitude was still bereavement for the loss of any citizen's lives on either side and was waiting and hoping for Caesar's army to crumble. Here is where another fascinating "what if " turns in our story occurs. Indeed for a bit it seemed the strategy of of waiting Caesar out was working. In July of 48 BC Caesar was stung by a change of fortunes in the "no-man's land" between the two armies. He then abandoned his position and marched east.

Another "what if " question happens here and a look into what Pompey's heart and soul really desired, in that if Pompey had been the tyrant Cicero and others had been afraid of; Pompey could haved sailed for Italy completely unopposed and retaken Rome. However, Pompey, appears to not have wanted the Italians and his fellow Roman citizens to bear witness to the terrors of an invasion. Had the "teenage butcher" changed in some very important ways since the days of Sulla? So instead of going back to Italy, Pompey chose to chase Caesar. The two armies finally met, after a series of dodges, near a place called Pharsalus. Pharsalus was a city in northern Greece that was surrounded by flat, open land-perfect territory to stage a battle. Here Caesar would try to engage Pompey, and for a time Pompey refused to do so. Most likely this was because Pompey knew that time was on his side-and he still had more of the material things that should have tilted the balance greatly in his favor. However, the tempers of the men in Pompey's camp began to wear thin. Why was their general not fighting and putting an end to Julius Caesar once and for all? Pompey finally agreed that the time had come and orders for battle were given for the following day. The mood in Pompey's camp must have been high spirited, with his fellow senators ordering victory feasts, adorning their tents with laurel, and perhaps arguing over who should inherit Julius Caesar's high priesthood-the pontifex maximus.

The night before the battle though, Pompey had a dream. He dreamt that he was in his magnificent theater on the Campus Martius, climbing the steps that led to the temple of Venus. As his dream progressed he was dedicating the spoils of his many triumphs to the goddess to the thunderous cheers of the Roman people. A great dream for Pompey right? Not so, in fact it must have been greatly disturbing to him because it was Julius Caesar and his ancestors who claimed to be direct descendents of Venus. Taken at face value the dream could easily be interpreted to mean that all of Pompey's glory and honors would go to his rival. And so it was. I want to again go to Tom Holland's RVBICON for a description of the battle at Pharsalus: "The next morning, despite being outnumbering the enemy more than two to one, it was Pompey's army that was shattered and rolled back. Their opponents had been ordered not to throw their javelins, but to keep them as spears, aiming and stabbing them at the faces of the enemy cavalry, who were noblemen after all, and vain of their good looks. Caesar, once the dandy nonpareil himself, had formulated the perfect tactic. Pompey's cavalry turned and fled. Next, his loosely armed slingers and archers were cut down. Domitius, leading the left wing, was killed and his legions buckled. Caesar's men, outflanking Pompey's line of battle, then attacked from the rear. By mid-day the battle was over. That evening it was Caesar who sat down in Pompey's tent and ate the victory meal prepared by Pompey's chef, off Pompey's silver plate."

Caesar once again displayed his clemency to the survivors of the remnants of Pompey's army. He was particularly delighted when Marcus Brutus-the son of Servilia, who was the love of his life, accepted the pardon. This was a good thing for Caesar not only for reasons of affection, but also a decision that Caesar hoped would convince some of his staunchest adversaries to join his side, as Marcus Brutus was a very respectable man. Cicero was one who decided that the republican cause was over. He had not been at Pharsalus, being instead with Cato on the Adriatic coast. Cato had saved Cicero's life by intervening when some of Pompey's me wanted to put him to death for his faithlessness. Cato, of course, would not hear of anything having to do with Caesar's clemency or surrender and joined with Metellus Scipio and escaped to the province of Africa to continue the fight from Utica in north Africa. Pompey was able to flee and met up with his wife Cornelia, and son Sextus Pompeius at Mytilene, which was the capital of the Greek island of Lesbos. Pompey realized that the smartest strategic move available to him at the time was to go to Egypt. In this wealthiest of all kingdoms, Pompey hoped to exploit the fight between Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra VII ("our" Cleopatra). Theoretically this brother and sister who were married were supposed to be co-rulers of Egypt. In practice Cleopatra wanted rule of Egypt all to herself. Pompey's ship moored off the Egyptian coast about a month after the battle of Pharsalus. Pompey sent emissaries to the court of the boy-king who would have been around twelve or thirteen years of age. Finally on 28 September 48 BC, a small ship was seen heading towards Pompey's vessel. Pompey got on this and began heading towards land. The historical reports differ slightly about what happened when Pompey reached land on the shore, where Ptolemy XIII and his counselors would have been waiting, but the most major thing is certain. Pompey had been betrayed by the court of Ptolemy XIII, who apparently had decided Pompey would eventually lose to Julius Caesar. Almost right after landfall, Pompey was beheaded in full view of his wife and son who were horrified to be able to see what was happening to their husband and father from the boat. Pompey's family and crew were able to escape. There are some slight differences in what Caesar is said to have done when presented with the head of his rival. Many have it that obviously Caesar was relieved to see his enemy finally vanquished for good, but was so disgusted by the manner in which it was done that he had the murderers of Pompey put to death.

Thanks again to anyone following or commenting on this blog! It may be more than a few days now before anything new is here-I definitely do not want to go any longer than a week if at all possible and hopefully a lot sooner. I am at the point again where I need to look over a bunch of information and decide what parts of it to post. The order of the next posts should be roughly finishing up with Julius Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra-all the way up to the battle at Actium-with much less wordage than previously-hopefully:-). Then getting to a list of "what if " questions. After this I would like to begin an in-depth look at the life of Rome's first emperor-Octavian or Augustus Caesar later using a wonderful book as a guide that someone very close to me bought. I think this book will help in answering a lot of questions I had thought of -especially as far as the administration of an enormous empire goes-and still keep the "personality" of the people involved and the times in sight. Then after this I would like to do a brief look at the emperors after him (the twelve Caesars) using another book as a guide that also has a lot of interesting practical and "personality" type information in it. Then I would like to do some posts about the time of the "Five Good Emperors" when Rome was at its height. In between all of this I hope to be doing short posts about daily life both practical, administrative and "fun" and interesting information about the Roman Empire during the whole course of the times I have been talking about. Then-assuming its not the year 2013-I hope to go on to other historical eras and empires. In all seriousness, after the "Augustus" series is over I would like to move much faster in time and look at a whole host of different subjects involving the main purpose of this blog. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!