Pompey

Furthermore, during the morning watch a great light shone out above the camp of Caesar, which was perfectly quiet, and a flaming torch rose from it and darted down upon the camp of Pompey; Caesar himself says he saw this as he was visiting the watches.[*](Cf. the Caesar, xliii. 3. It is not mentioned in the Commentaries.) At break of day, Caesar was about to decamp and move to Scotussa, and his soldiers were taking down their tents and sending on ahead the beasts of burden and servants, when the scouts came in with a report that they saw many shields moving to and fro in the enemy’s camp, and that there was a noisy movement there of men coming out to battle.

After these, others came announcing that the foremost ranks were already forming in battle array. Caesar, therefore, after saying that the expected day had come, on which they would fight against men, and not against want and hunger, quickly ordered the purple tunic to be hung up in front of his tent, that being the Roman signal for battle.

His soldiers, on seeing this, left their tents with shouts of joy, and hurried to arms. And when their officers led them to the proper place, each man, as if in a chorus, not tumultuously, but with the quiet ease which training gives, fell into line.

Pompey himself, with the right wing, intended to oppose Antony; in the center he stationed Scipio, his father-in-law, over against Lucius Calvinus; his left wing was commanded by Lucius Domitius, and was supported by the main body of the cavalry.[*](Both Plutarch (not only here, but also in his Caesar, xliv. 1 f.) and Appian (Bell. Civ. ii. 76) differ in their accounts of the order of battle from that which Caesar himself gives (Bell. Civ. iii. 88. f.).)

For almost all the horsemen had crowded to this point, in order to overpower Caesar and cut to pieces the tenth legion; for this was generally said to fight better than any other, and in its ranks Caesar usually stood when he fought a battle. But Caesar, observing that the left wing of the enemy was enclosed by such a large body of horsemen, and alarmed at their brilliant array, sent for six cohorts from his reserves and stationed them behind the tenth legion, with orders to keep quiet and out of the enemy’s sight;

but whenever the cavalry charged, they were to run out through the front ranks, and were not to hurl their javelins, as the best soldiers usually did in their eagerness to draw their swords, but to strike upwards with them and wound the faces and eyes of the enemy; for these blooming and handsome war-dancers (he said) would not stand their ground for fear of having their youthful beauty marred, nor would they face the steel when it was right at their eyes. Caesar, then, was thus engaged.