Civil Wars

The losses of Italians on each side -- for there was no report of the losses of auxiliaries, either because of their multitude or because they were despised -- were as follows: in Cæsar's army. thirty centurions and 200 legionaries, or, as some authorities have it, 1200; on Pompey's side ten senators, among whom was Lucius Domitius, the same who had been sent to succeed Cæsar himself in Gaul, and about forty distinguished knights. Some exaggerating writers put the loss in the remainder of his forces at 25,000, but Asinius Pollio, who was one of Cæsar's officers in this battle, records the number of dead Pompeians found as 6000.[*](Cæsar puts his own loss at thirty centurions and 200 private soldiers, and Pompey's at 15,000 killed and 24,000 prisoners. We must infer that Appian was not acquainted with Cæsar's Commentaries, for if he had been he would most probably have quoted him here instead of referring in a loose way to " exaggerating writers.") Such was the result of the famous battle of Pharsalus. Cæsar himself carries off the palm for first and second place by common consent, and with him the tenth legion. The third place is taken by the centurion Crastinus, whom Cæsar asked at the beginning of the battle what result he anticipated, and who responded proudly, "We shall conquer, O Cæsar, and you will thank me either living or dead." The whole army testifies that he darted through the ranks like one possessed and did many brilliant deeds. When sought for he was found among the dead, and Cæsar bestowed military honors on his body and buried it, and erected a special tomb for him near the common burial-place of the others.[*](The affair of Crastinus is mentioned by Cæsar, by Florus, and by Plutarch in his life of Pompey and again in his life of Cæsar. The reference here made to Asinius Pollio has led to much discussion in the learned world, touching the sources from which Appian and Plutarch drew. The words used by Crastinus are almost identical in the three passages (one of Appian and two of Plutarch), and this leads Wynne, Hulleman, and Hermann Peter to believe that both authors borrowed from Pollio's history. Vollgraff on the other hand contends that as Pollio wrote in Latin it would have been little less than miraculous if both of them had used the same Greek words in translating it. He considers it remarkable also that the only reference made to Pollio's writings by either of them should have been here, and that both of them mentioned incidentally the fact that Pollio himself took part in the engagement. All of these coincidences may be explained if we suppose that both Plutarch and Appian took the facts from a common Greek source; that is, from some author who took them from Pollio. (See Vollgraff's Greek Writers of Roman History, Leyden, 1880.))

From Larissa Pompey continued his flight to the sea where he embarked in a small boat, and meeting a ship by chance he sailed to Mitylene. There he joined his wife, Cornelia, and they embarked with four triremes which had come to him from Rhodes and Tyre. He decided not to sail for Corcyra and Africa, where he had other large military and naval forces as yet untouched, but intended to push on eastward to the king of the Parthians, expecting to receive every assistance from him. He concealed his intention until he arrived at Cilicia, where he revealed it hesitatingly to his friends; but they advised him to beware of the Parthian, against whom Crassus had lately led an expedition, and who was puffed up by his victory over the latter, and especially not to put in the power of these barbarians the beautiful Cornelia, who had formerly been the wife of Crassus.[*](The younger Crassus, who lost his life in the war against the Parthians.) Then he made a second proposal respecting Egypt and Juba.[*](King of Numidia. See Sec. 44 supra.) The latter they despised as not sufficiently distinguished, but they all agreed about going to Egypt, which was near and was a great kingdom, still prosperous and abounding in ships, provisions, and money. Its sovereigns, although children, were allied to Pompey by their father's friendship. For these reasons he sailed to Egypt.

Cleopatra, who had previously reigned with her brother, had been lately expelled from Egypt and was collecting an army in Syria. Ptolemy, her brother, was at Mount Casius in Egypt,[*](The modern Mount El Kas. There was another Mount Casius in Syria.) lying in wait for her invasion, and, as Providence would have it, the wind carried Pompey thither. Seeing a large army on the shore he stopped his ship, judging that the king was there, which was the fact. So he sent messengers to tell of his arrival and to speak of his father's friendship. The king was then about thirteen years of age and was under the tutelage of Achillas, who commanded his army, and the eunuch Pothinus, who had charge of his treasury. These took counsel together concerning Pompey. There was present also Theodotus, a rhetorician of Samos, the boy's tutor, who offered the infamous advice that they should lay a trap for Pompey and kill him in order to curry favor with Cæsar.[*](Theodotus argued (says Plutarch) " that if they should give shelter to the fugitive they would have Cæsar for an enemy and Pompey for a master; if they should send him away he would be offended by their want of hospitality, and Cæsar would be angry with them for letting him escape. The best way would be to send for him and kill him. In that way they would gratify the one and need not fear the other. He added with a smile that dead men do not bite." (Life of Pompey, 77).) His opinion prevailed. So they sent a miserable skiff to bring him, pretending that the sea was shallow and not adapted to large ships. Some of the king's attendants came in the skiff, among them a Roman, named Sempronius,[*](Cæsar, Plutarch, Florus, and Dion Cassius, give this miscreant the name of Septimius. Cæsar says that he was a military tribune and that he had served under Pompey in the war against the pirates. Florus adds that he was a deserter from Pompey's army.) who was then serving in the king's army and had formerly served under Pompey himself. He gave his hand to Pompey in the king's name and directed him to take passage in the boat to the young man as to a friend. At the same time the whole army was marshalled along the shore as if to do honor to Pompey, and the king was plainly seen in the midst of them wearing a purple robe.

Pompey's suspicions were aroused by all that he observed -- the marshalling of the army, the meanness of the skiff, and the fact that the king himself did not come to meet him nor send any of his high dignitaries. Nevertheless, he entered the skiff, repeating to himself these lines of Sophocles, "Whoever resorts to a tyrant becomes his slave, even if he were free when he went." While rowing to the shore all were silent, and this made him still more suspicious. Finally, either recognizing Sempronius as a Roman soldier who had served under him or guessing that he was such because he alone remained standing (for, according to military discipline, a soldier does not sit in the presence of his commander), he turned to him and said, "Do I not know you, comrade? " The other nodded and, as Pompey turned away, he immediately gave him the first stab and the others followed his example. Pompey's wife and friends who saw this at a distance cried out and, lifting their hands to heaven, invoked the gods, the avengers of violated faith. Then they sailed away in all haste as from an enemy's country.

The servants of Pothinus cut off Pompey's head and kept it for Cæsar, in expectation of a large reward, but he visited condign punishment on them for their nefarious deed. The remainder of the body was buried by somebody on the shore, and a small monument was erected over it, on which somebody else wrote this inscription: --

"What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance."[*](Plutarch gives a pathetic account of Pompey's funeral, which was performed by his freedman Philippus and one old Roman who had served as a soldier under him, and who was now living in exile and poverty. " Such," says another historian, " was the departure from life of a most excellent and illustrious man, after three consulships and as many triumphs, who had ruled the whole world and had reached a position above which it was not possible to rise, in the 58th year of his age and on the day before his birthday. So greatly had fortune been at strife with herself in his case that he who had been in want of earth to conquer was now in want of enough for a grave." (Velleius, ii. 53.) Dio Cassius (lxix. 11), describing the Emperor Hadrian's tour in the East A.D. 122, says that "while he was passing from Judea to Egypt he offered a funeral sacrifice for Pompey, on which occasion the following verse escaped him: 'What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance.' He also rebuilt the tomb that had fallen into ruin." This is not inconsistent with Appian's narrative.)

In the course of time the monument was wholly covered with sand, and the bronze images that had been erected to Pompey by his partisans at a later period near Mount Casius had been degraded and removed to the secret recess of the temple, but in my time they were sought for and found by the Roman emperor Hadrian, while making a journey thither, who cleared away the rubbish from the monument and made it again conspicuous, and placed Pompey's images in their proper places. Such was the end of Pompey, who had carried on the greatest wars and had made the greatest additions to the empire of the Romans, and had acquired by that means the title of Great. He had never been defeated before,[*](This is an error. Pompey was defeated by Sertorius in Spain, and the fact is mentioned in so many words by Appian himself in the preceding book Sec. 110: o( de\ *sertw/rios e)ni/ka *pomph/i+on.) but had remained unvanquished and most fortunate from his youth till now. From his twenty-third to his fifty-eighth year he had not ceased to exercise royal power, but on account of his jealousy of Cæsar he had seemed to rule in the interest of the people.

Lucius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, and the other notables who had escaped from the battle of Pharsalus, more prudent than Pompey, proceeded to Corcyra and joined Cato, who had been left there with another army and 300 triremes. The leaders apportioned the fleet among themselves, and Cassius sailed to Pharnaces in Pontus to induce him to take up arms against Cæsar. Scipio and Cato embarked for Africa, relying on Varus and his army and his ally, Juba, king of Numidia. The elder son of Pompey, together with Labienus and Scapula, each with his own part of the army, hastened to Spain and, having detached it from Cæsar, collected a new army of Spaniards, Celtiberians, and slaves, and made formidable preparations for war. So great were the forces still remaining which Pompey had prepared, and which Pompey himself over-looked and ran away from in his insanity. Cato had been chosen commander of the forces in Africa, but he declined the appointment since there were consulars present who outranked him, he having held only the prætorship in Rome. So Lucius Scipio was made the commander and he collected and drilled a large army there. Thus two armies of considerable magnitude were brought together against Cæsar, one in Africa and the other in Spain.

Cæsar remained two days at Pharsalus after the victory, offering sacrifice and giving his army a respite from fighting. Then he set free his Thessalian allies and granted pardon to the suppliant Athenians, and said to them, " How often will the glory of your ancestors save you from self-destruction?" On the third day he marched eastward, having learned that Pompey had fled thither, and for want of triremes he essayed to cross the Hellespont in skiffs. Here Cassius came upon him in mid-stream, with a part of his fleet, as he was hastening to Pharnaces. Although he might have mastered these small boats with his numerous triremes he was panic-stricken by Cæsar's astounding success, which was then heralded with consternation everywhere, and he thought that Cæsar had sailed purposely against him. So he extended his hands in entreaty from his trireme toward the skiff, begged pardon, and surrendered his fleet. So great was the power of Cæsar's prestige. I can see no other reason myself, nor can I think of any other instance where fortune was more propitious in a trying emergency than when Cassius, a most valiant man, with seventy triremes, fell in with Cæsar when he was unprepared, but did not venture to come to blows with him. And yet he who thus disgracefully surrendered to Cæsar, through fear alone, when the latter was crossing the straits, afterward murdered him in Rome when he was at the height of his power; by which fact it is evident that the panic which then seized Cassius was due to the fortune by which Cæsar was uplifted.[*](This is a dubious tale. Cæsar tells us (iii. 101) that Cassius was in Sicily with a fleet when the news of Pharsalus arrived; that when the first news of the battle came the Pompeians considered it a fiction invented by Cæsar's friends, but that when they were convinced that it was true, Cassius departed with his fleet. Then Cæsar describes his own movements, saying that he considered it necessary to drop everything else and pursue Pompey, and that he pushed on every day as far as his cavalry could go, having ordered one legion to follow by shorter marches. He must have passed the Hellespont before Cassius sailed from Sicily. Again, Cicero in his second Philippic (11), while defending himself against Antony's charge that he had advised the assassination of Cæsar, says that he is not entitled to share this glory with Brutus and Cassius. Neither of them needed his advice. " Cassius," he adds, "would have done the deed himself in Cilicia, at the mouth of the river Cydnus, without the help of his illustrious friends, if Cæsar had landed on the shore where he (Cassius) had halted, instead of the opposite one." In other words they passed each other at the mouth of the Cydnus, as Cæsar was proceeding to Egypt. Suetonius (Jul. 63) says that it was Lucius Cassius whom Cæsar met in the Hellespont.)

Being thus unexpectedly saved, Cæsar passed the Hellespont and granted pardon to the Ionians, the Æolians, and the other peoples who inhabit the great peninsula called by the common name of Lower Asia, and who sent ambassadors to him to ask it. Learning that Pompey had gone to Egypt he sailed for Rhodes. He did not wait there for his army, which was coming forward by detachments, but embarked with those whom he had on board the triremes of Cassius and the Rhodians. Letting nobody know whither he intended to go he set sail toward evening, telling the other pilots to steer by the torch of his own ship by night and by his signal in the daytime. After they had proceeded a long way from the land he ordered his pilot to steer for Alexandria. After a three days' sail he arrived there. He was received by the king's guardians, the king himself being still at Mount Casius. At first, on account of the smallness of his forces, he pretended to take his ease, receiving visitors in a friendly way, traversing the city, admiring its beauty, and listening to the lectures of the philosophers while he stood among the crowd. Thus he gained the good-will and esteem of the Alexandrians as one who had no designs against them.