THE BATTLE OF PHARSALIA.
[Sidenote: The gathering armies.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's preparations.]
[Sidenote: Caesar at Brundusium.]
The gathering of the armies of Caesar and Pompey on the opposite shores
of the Adriatic Sea was one of the grandest preparations for conflict
that history has recorded, and the whole world gazed upon the spectacle
at the time with an intense and eager interest, which was heightened by
the awe and terror which the danger inspired. During the year while
Caesar had been completing his work of subduing and arranging all the
western part of the empire, Pompey had been gathering from the eastern
division every possible contribution to swell the military force under
his command, and had been concentrating all these elements of power on
the coasts of Macedon and Greece, opposite to Brundusium, where he knew
that Caesar would attempt to cross the Adriatic Sea, His camps, his
detachments, his troops of archers and slingers, and his squadrons of
horse, filled the land, while every port was guarded, and the line of
the coast was environed by batteries and castles on the rocks, and
fleets of galleys on the water. Caesar advanced with his immense army to
Brundusium, on the opposite shore, in December, so that, in addition to
the formidable resistance prepared for him by his enemy on the coast, he
had to encounter the wild surges of the Adriatic, rolling perpetually in
the dark and gloomy commotion always raised in such wide seas by
wintery storms.
[Sidenote: His address to his army.]
Caesar had no ships, for Pompey had cleared the seas of every thing
which could aid him in his intended passage. By great efforts, however,
he succeeded at length in getting together a sufficient number of
galleys to convey over a part of his army, provided he took the men
alone, and left all his military stores and baggage behind. He gathered
his army together, therefore, and made them an address, representing
that they were now drawing toward the end of all their dangers and
toils. They were about to meet their great enemy for a final conflict.
It was not necessary to take their servants, their baggage, and their
stores across the sea, for they were sure of victory, and victory would
furnish them with ample supplies from those whom they were about
to conquer.
[Sidenote: Caesar crosses the Adriatic.]
The soldiers eagerly imbibed the spirit of confidence and courage which
Caesar himself expressed. A large detachment embarked and put to sea,
and, after being tossed all night upon the cold and stormy waters, they
approached the shore at some distance to the northward of the place
where Pompey's fleets had expected them. It was at a point where the
mountains came down near to the sea, rendering the coast rugged and
dangerous with shelving rocks and frowning promontories. Here Caesar
succeeded in effecting a landing of the first division of his troops,
and then sent back the fleet for the remainder.
[Sidenote: He subdues several towns.]
[Sidenote: Caesar's advance.]
[Sidenote: Distress of the armies.]
The news of his passage spread rapidly to all Pompey's stations along
the coast, and the ships began to gather, and the armies to march toward
the point where Caesar had effected his landing. The conflict and
struggle commenced. One of Pompey's admirals intercepted the fleet of
galleys on their return, and seized and burned a large number of them,
with all who were on board. This, of course, only renewed the determined
desperation of the remainder. Caesar advanced along the coast with the
troops which he had landed, driving Pompey's troops before him, and
subduing town after town as he advanced. The country was filled with
terror and dismay. The portion of the army which Caesar had left behind
could not now cross, partly on account of the stormy condition of the
seas, the diminished number of the ships, and the redoubled vigilance
with which Pompey's forces now guarded the shores, but mainly because
Caesar was now no longer with them to inspire them with his reckless,
though calm and quiet daring. They remained, therefore, in anxiety and
distress, on the Italian shore. As Caesar, on the other hand, advanced
along the Macedonian shore, and drove Pompey back into the interior, he
cut off the communication between Pompey's ships and the land, so that
the fleet was soon reduced to great distress for want of provisions and
water. The men kept themselves from perishing with thirst by collecting
the dew which fell upon the decks of their galleys. Caesar's army was
also in distress, for Pompey's fleets cut off all supplies by water, and
his troops hemmed them in on the side of the land; and, lastly, Pompey
himself, with the immense army that was under his command, began to be
struck with alarm at the impending danger with which they were
threatened. Pompey little realized, however, how dreadful a fate was
soon to overwhelm him.
[Sidenote: Caesar's impatience.]
[Sidenote: He attempts to cross the Adriatic.]
The winter months rolled away, and nothing effectual was done. The
forces, alternating and intermingled, as above described, kept each
other in a continued state of anxiety and suffering. Caesar became
impatient at the delay of that portion of his army that he had left on
the Italian shore. The messages of encouragement and of urgency which he
sent across to them did not bring them over, and at length, one dark and
stormy night, when he thought that the inclemency of the skies and the
heavy surging of the swell in the offing would drive his vigilant
enemies into places of shelter, and put them off their guard, he
determined to cross the sea himself and bring his hesitating army over.
He ordered a galley to be prepared, and went on board of it disguised,
and with his head muffled in his mantle, intending that not even the
officers or crew of the ship which was to convey him should know of his
design. The galley, in obedience to orders, put off from the shore. The
mariners endeavored in vain for some time to make head against the
violence of the wind and the heavy concussions of the waves, and at
length, terrified at the imminence of the danger to which so wild and
tumultuous a sea on such a night exposed them, refused to proceed, and
the commander gave them orders to return. Caesar then came forward,
threw off his mantle, and said to them, "Friends! you have nothing to
fear. You are carrying Caesar."
The men were, of course, inspirited anew by this disclosure, but all was
in vain. The obstacles to the passage proved insurmountable, and the
galley, to avoid certain destruction, was compelled to return.
[Sidenote: Caesar lands the remainder of his army.]
The army, however, on the Italian side, hearing of Caesar's attempt to
return to them, fruitless though it was, and stimulated by the renewed
urgency of the orders which he now sent to them, made arrangements at
last for an embarkation, and, after encountering great dangers on the
way, succeeded in landing in safety. Caesar, thus strengthened, began to
plan more decided operations for the coming spring.
[Sidenote: Attempts at negotiation.]
[Sidenote: Conferences.]
[Sidenote: End in violence and disorder.]
There were some attempts at negotiation. The armies were so exasperated
against each other on account of the privations and hardships which each
compelled the other to suffer, that they felt too strong a mutual
distrust to attempt any regular communication by commissioners or
ambassadors appointed for the purpose. They came to a parley, however,
in one or two instances, though the interviews led to no result. As the
missiles used in those days were such as could only be thrown to a very
short distance, hostile bodies of men could approach much nearer to each
other then than is possible now, when projectiles of the most terribly
destructive character can be thrown for miles. In one instance, some of
the ships of Pompey's fleet approached so near to the shore as to open a
conference with one or two of Caesar's lieutenants who were encamped
there. In another case, two bodies of troops from the respective armies
were separated only by a river, and the officers and soldiers came down
to the banks on either side, and held frequent conversations, calling to
each other in loud voices across the water. In this way they succeeded
in so far coming to an agreement as to fix upon a time and place for a
more formal conference, to be held by commissioners chosen on each side.
This conference was thus held, but each party came to it accompanied by
a considerable body of attendants, and these, as might have been
anticipated, came into open collision while the discussion was pending;
thus the meeting consequently ended in violence and disorder, each party
accusing the other of violating the faith which both had plighted.
[Sidenote: Undecided warfare.]
[Sidenote: Bread made of roots.]
This slow and undecided mode of warfare between the two vast armies
continued for many months without any decisive results. There were
skirmishes, struggles, sieges, blockades, and many brief and partial
conflicts, but no general and decided battle. Now the advantage seemed
on one side, and now on the other. Pompey so hemmed in Caesar's troops
at one period, and so cut off his supplies, that the men were reduced to
extreme distress for food. At length they found a kind of root which
they dug from the ground, and, after drying and pulverizing it, they
made a sort of bread of the powder, which the soldiers were willing to
eat rather than either starve or give up the contest. They told Caesar,
in fact, that they would live on the bark of trees rather than abandon
his cause. Pompey's soldiers, at one time, coming near to the walls of a
town which they occupied, taunted and jeered them on account of their
wretched destitution of food. Caesar's soldiers threw loaves of this
bread at them in return, by way of symbol that they were
abundantly supplied.
[Sidenote: Caesar hems Pompey in.]
[Sidenote: Anxiety of the rivals.]
After some time the tide of fortune turned Caesar contrived, by a
succession of adroit maneuvers and movements, to escape from his toils,
and to circumvent and surround Pompey's forces so as soon to make them
suffer destitution and distress in their turn. He cut off all
communication between them and the country at large, and turned away the
brooks and streams from flowing through the ground they occupied. An
army of forty or fifty thousand men, with the immense number of horses
and beasts of burden which accompany them, require very large supplies
of water, and any destitution or even scarcity of water leads
immediately to the most dreadful consequences. Pompey's troops dug
wells, but they obtained only very insufficient supplies. Great numbers
of beasts of burden died, and their decaying bodies so tainted the air
as to produce epidemic diseases, which destroyed many of the troops, and
depressed and disheartened those whom they did not destroy.
[Sidenote: Nature of the contest between Caesar and Pompey.]
[Sidenote: Both hesitate.]
During all these operations there was no decisive general battle. Each
one of the great rivals knew very well that his defeat in one general
battle would be his utter and irretrievable ruin. In a war between two
independent nations, a single victory, however complete, seldom
terminates the struggle, for the defeated party has the resources of a
whole realm to fall back upon, which are sometimes called forth with
renewed vigor after experiencing such reverses; and then defeat in such
cases, even if it be final, does not necessarily involve the ruin of the
unsuccessful commander. He may negotiate an honorable peace, and return
to his own land in safety; and, if his misfortunes are considered by his
countrymen as owing not to any dereliction from his duty as a soldier,
but to the influence of adverse circumstances which no human skill or
resolution could have controlled, he may spend the remainder of his days
in prosperity and honor. The contest, however, between Caesar and Pompey
was not of this character. One or the other of them was a traitor and a
usurper--an enemy to his country. The result of a battle would decide
which of the two was to stand in this attitude. Victory would legitimize
and confirm the authority of one, and make it supreme over the whole
civilized world. Defeat was to annihilate the power of the other, and
make him a fugitive and a vagabond, without friends, without home,
without country. It was a desperate stake; and it is not at all
surprising that both parties lingered and hesitated, and postponed the
throwing of the die.
[Sidenote: The armies enter Thessaly.]
At length Pompey, rendered desperate by the urgency of the destitution
and distress into which Caesar had shut him, made a series of rigorous
and successful attacks upon Caesar's lines, by which he broke away in
his turn from his enemy's grasp, and the two armies moved slowly back
into the interior of the country, hovering in the vicinity of each
other, like birds of prey contending in the air, each continually
striking at the other, and moving onward at the same time to gain some
position of advantage, or to circumvent the other in such a design. They
passed on in this manner over plains, and across rivers, and through
mountain passes, until at length they reached the heart of Thessaly.
Here at last the armies came to a stand and fought the final battle.
[Illustration: ROMAN STANDARD BEARERS.]
[Sidenote: The plain of Pharsalia.]
[Sidenote: Roman standard bearers.]
[Sidenote: Pompey draws up his army.]
[Sidenote: Forces on both sides.]
The place was known then as the plain of Pharsalia, and the greatness of
the contest which was decided there has immortalized its name. Pompey's
forces were far more numerous than those of Caesar, and the advantage in
all the partial contests which had taken place for some time had been on
his side; he felt, consequently, sure of victory. He drew up his men in
a line, one flank resting upon the bank of a river, which protected them
from attack on that side. From this point, the long line of legions,
drawn up in battle array, extended out upon the plain, and was
terminated at the other extremity by strong squadrons of horse, and
bodies of slingers and archers, so as to give the force of weapons and
the activity of men as great a range as possible there, in order to
prevent Caesar's being able to outflank and surround them There was,
however, apparently very little danger of this, for Caesar, according to
his own story, had but about half as strong a force as Pompey. The army
of the latter, he says, consisted of nearly fifty thousand men, while
his own number was between twenty and thirty thousand. Generals,
however, are prone to magnify the military grandeur of their exploits by
overrating the strength with which they had to contend, and
under-estimating their own. We are therefore to receive with some
distrust the statements made by Caesar and his partisans; and as for
Pompey's story, the total and irreparable ruin in which he himself and
all who adhered to him were entirely overwhelmed immediately after the
battle, prevented its being ever told.
[Sidenote: Appearance of Pompey's camp.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's tent.]
In the rear of the plain where Pompey's lines were extended was the camp
from which the army had been drawn out to prepare for the battle. The
camp fires of the preceding night were moldering away, for it was a warm
summer morning; the intrenchments were guarded, and the tents, now
nearly empty, stood extended in long rows within the inclosure. In the
midst of them was the magnificent pavilion of the general, furnished
with every imaginable article of luxury and splendor. Attendants were
busy here and there, some rearranging what had been left in disorder by
the call to arms by which the troops had been summoned from their places
of rest, and others providing refreshments-and food for their victorious
comrades when they should return from the battle. In Pompey's tent a
magnificent entertainment was preparing. The tables were spread with
every luxury, the sideboards were loaded with plate, and the whole scene
was resplendent with utensils and decorations of silver and gold.
[Sidenote: His confidence of victory.]
Pompey and all his generals were perfectly certain of victory. In fact,
the peace and harmony of their councils in camp had been destroyed for
many days by their contentions and disputes about the disposal of the
high offices, and the places of profit and power at Rome, which were to
come into their hands when Caesar should have been subdued. The subduing
of Caesar they considered only a question of time; and, as a question of
time, it was now reduced to very narrow limits. A few days more, and
they were to be masters of the whole Roman empire, and, impatient and
greedy, they disputed in anticipation about the division of the spoils.
To make assurance doubly sure, Pompey gave orders that his troops
should not advance to meet the onset of Caesar's troops on the middle
ground between the two armies, but that they should wait calmly for the
attack, and receive the enemy at the posts where they had themselves
been arrayed.
[Sidenote: The battle of Pharsalia.]
[Sidenote: Defeat of Pompey.]
[Sidenote: Scene of horror.]
The hour at length arrived, the charge was sounded by the trumpets, and
Caesar's troops began to advance with loud shouts and great impetuosity
toward Pompey's lines. There was a long and terrible struggle, but the
forces of Pompey began finally to give way. Notwithstanding the
precautions which Pompey had taken to guard and protect the wing of his
army which was extended toward the land, Caesar succeeded in turning his
flank upon that side by driving off the cavalry and destroying the
archers and slingers, and he was thus enabled to throw a strong force
upon Pompey's rear. The flight then soon became general, and a scene of
dreadful confusion and slaughter ensued. The soldiers of Caesar's army,
maddened with the insane rage which the progress of a battle never fails
to awaken, and now excited to phrensy by the exultation of success,
pressed on after the affrighted fugitives, who trampled one upon
another, or fell pierced with the weapons of their assailants, filling
the air with their cries of agony and their shrieks of terror. The
horrors of the scene, far from allaying, only excited still more the
ferocity of their bloodthirsty foes, and they pressed steadily and
fiercely on, hour after hour, in their dreadful work of destruction. It
was one of those scenes of horror and woe such as those who have not
witnessed them can not conceive of, and those who have witnessed can
never forget.
[Sidenote: Pompey's flight to the camp.]
[Sidenote: Pompey in his tent.]
[Sidenote: His consternation and despair.]
When Pompey perceived that all was lost, he fled from the field in a
state of the wildest excitement and consternation. His troops were
flying in all directions, some toward the camp, vainly hoping to find
refuge there, and others in various other quarters, wherever they saw
the readiest hope of escape from their merciless pursuers. Pompey
himself fled instinctively toward the camp. As he passed the guards at
the gate where he entered, he commanded them, in his agitation and
terror, to defend the gate against the coming enemy, saying that he was
going to the other gates to attend to the defenses there. He then
hurried on, but a full sense of the helplessness and hopelessness of his
condition soon overwhelmed him; he gave up all thought of defense, and,
passing with a sinking heart through the scene of consternation and
confusion which reigned every where within the encampment, he sought
his own tent, and, rushing into it, sank down, amid the luxury and
splendor which had been arranged to do honor to his anticipated victory,
in a state of utter stupefaction and despair.