Historical sources on Julius Caesar’s Civil War with Pompey

Extract A

10. “But when our country had grown great through toil and the practice of justice, when great kings had been vanquished in war, savage tribes and mighty peoples subdued by force of arms, when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s sway, had perished root and branch, and all seas and lands were open, then Fortune began to grow cruel and to bring confusion into all our affairs. Those who had found it easy to bear hardship and dangers, anxiety and adversity, found leisure and wealth, desirable under other circumstances, a burden and a curse. Hence the lust for money first, then for power, grew upon them; these were, I may say, the root of all evils. For avarice destroyed honour, integrity, and all other noble qualities; taught in their place insolence, cruelty, to neglect the gods, to set a price on everything...” 

Extract B

38. “For after the tribunician power had been restored in the consulship of Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus, various young men, whose age and disposition made them aggressive, attained that high authority; they thereupon began to excite the commons by attacks upon the senate and then to inflame their passions still more by doles and promises, thus making themselves conspicuous and influential. Against these men the greater part of the nobles strove with might and main, ostensibly in behalf of the senate but really for their own aggrandizement. For, to tell the truth in a few words, all who after that time assailed the government used specious pretexts, some maintaining that they were defending the rights of the commons, others that they were upholding the prestige of the senate; but under pretence of the public welfare each in reality was working for his own advancement. Such men showed neither self-restraint nor moderation in their strife, and both parties used their victory ruthlessly.” 

Contextual information:

Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86–34 BC) was a Roman senator and historian who supported Caesar’s faction during the civil war. He wrote The War with Catiline around 42–40 BC, shortly after Caesar’s assassination. The work uses the conspiracy of Catiline in 63 BC as a case study to explain how factional conflict between the populares and optimates had corrupted Roman political life over the preceding decades. 

Bibliographical reference:

Sallust. The war with Catiline (J. C. Rolfe, Trans., 1921). In Sallust (Loeb Classical Library No. 116, pp. 17–19, 65–69). Harvard University Press. (Original work written ca. 42–40 BC) 

Copyright: Public Domain. 

Extract A

13. “Now, since those who sued for the privilege of a triumph must remain outside the city, while those who were candidates for the consulship must be present in the city, Caesar was in a great dilemma, and because he had reached home at the very time for the consular elections, he sent a request to the senate that he might be permitted to offer himself for the consulship in absentiâ, through the agency of his friends. But since Cato began by insisting upon the law in opposition to Caesar’s request, and then, when he saw that many senators had been won over by Caesar’s attentions, staved the matter off by consuming the day in speaking, Caesar decided to give up the triumph and try for the consulship. So as soon as he entered the city he assumed a policy which deceived everyone except Cato. This policy was to reconcile Pompey and Crassus, the most influential men in the city. These men Caesar brought together in friendship after their quarrel, and by concentrating their united strength upon himself, succeeded, before men were aware of it, and by an act which could be called one of kindness, in changing the form of government. For it was not, as most men supposed, the quarrel between Caesar and Pompey that brought on the civil wars, but rather their friendship, since they worked together for the overthrow of the aristocracy in the first place, and then, when this had been accomplished, they quarrelled with one another.” 

Extract B

28. “Now, Caesar had long ago decided to put down Pompey, just as, of course, Pompey also had decided to put Caesar down. For now that Crassus, who was only waiting for the issue of their struggle to engage the victor, had perished among the Parthians, it remained for him who would be greatest to put down him who was, and for him who was greatest, if he would not be put down, to take off in time the man he feared. This fear had only recently come upon Pompey, who till then despised Caesar, feeling that it was no hard task to put down again the man whom he himself had raised on high. But Caesar had from the outset formed this design, and like an athlete had removed himself to a great distance from his antagonists, and by exercising himself in the Gallic wars had practised his troops and increased his fame, lifting himself by his achievements to a height where he could vie with the successes of Pompey.” 

Extract C

30-1. “In the senate, Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompey, introduced a motion that if by a fixed day Caesar did not lay down his arms he should be declared a public enemy. And when the consuls put the question whether Pompey should dismiss his soldiers, and again whether Caesar should, very few senators voted for the first, and all but a few for the second; but when Antony again demanded that both should give up their commands, all with one accord assented. Scipio, however, made violent opposition, and Lentulus the consul cried out that against a robber there was need of arms, not votes; whereupon the senate broke up, and the senators put on the garb of mourning in view of the dissension. Lentulus the consul, however, would not let him, but actually heaped insults upon Antony and Curio and drove them disgracefully from the senate, thus himself contriving for Caesar the most specious of his pretexts, and the one by means of which he most of all incited his soldiers, showing them men of repute and high office who had fled the city on hired carts and in the garb of slaves.” 

Extract D

32. “When he came to the river which separates Cisalpine Gaul from the rest of Italy (it is called the Rubicon), and began to reflect, now that he drew nearer to the fearful step and was agitated by the magnitude of his ventures, he checked his speed. Then, halting in his course, he communed with himself a long time in silence as his resolution wavered back and forth, and his purpose then suffered change after change. For a long time, too, he discussed his perplexities with his friends who were present, among whom was Asinius Pollio, estimating the great evils for all mankind which would follow their passage of the river, and the wide fame of it which they would leave to posterity. But finally, with a sort of passion, as if abandoning calculation and casting himself upon the future, and uttering the phrase with which men usually prelude their plunge into desperate and daring fortunes, ‘Let the die be cast,’ he hastened to cross the river; and going at full speed now for the rest of the time, before daybreak he dashed into Ariminum and took possession of it.” 

Extract E

42. “All the rest, however, reviled Pompey for trying to avoid a battle, and sought to goad him on by calling him Agamemnon and King of Kings, implying that he did not wish to lay aside his sole authority, but plumed himself on having so many commanders dependent on him and coming constantly to his tent. Those about him, however, were so confident, and so hopefully anticipated the victory, that Domitius and Spinther and Scipio disputed earnestly with one another over Caesar’s office of Pontifex Maximus, and many sent agents to Rome to hire and take possession of houses suitable for praetors and consuls, assuming that they would immediately hold these offices after the war.” 

Extract F

45. “When Pompey, on the other wing, saw his horsemen scattered in flight, he was no longer the same man, nor remembered that he was Pompey the Great, but more like one whom Heaven has robbed of his wits than anything else, he went off without a word to his tent, sat down there, and awaited what was to come, until his forces were all routed and the enemy were assailing his ramparts and fighting with their defenders. Then he came to his senses, as it were, and with this one ejaculation, as they say, ‘What, even to my quarters?’ took off his fighting and general’s dress, put on one suitable for a fugitive, and stole away.” 

Extract G

46. “But Caesar, when he reached Pompey’s ramparts and saw those of the enemy who were already lying dead there and those who were still falling, said with a groan: ‘They would have it so; they brought me to such a pass that if I, Caius Caesar, after waging successfully the greatest wars, had dismissed my forces, I should have been condemned in their courts.’” 

Contextual information:

Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. AD 46–120) was a Greek historian and philosopher who wrote Parallel Lives, a collection of paired biographies comparing famous Greeks and Romans. The Life of Caesar was written around AD 100–110, approximately 150 years after the events it describes. Plutarch drew on eyewitness accounts (including those of Asinius Pollio, who was present at the Rubicon crossing) and earlier Roman histories that are now lost. 

Bibliographical reference:

Plutarch. Life of Caesar (B. Perrin, Trans., 1919). In Plutarch’s lives (Vol. VII, Loeb Classical Library No. 99, pp. 471–567). Harvard University Press. (Original work written ca. AD 100–110) 

Copyright: Public Domain

Extract A

77. “When, accordingly, Pompey saw the fishing-boat, in which Septimius, who some time before had been one of his generals, together with Achillas and Salvius, one of the king’s officers, were rowing towards his galley, he turned to his wife and son and recited those iambics of Sophocles: ‘Who makes a journey to a tyrant’s court, His slave he is, e’en though he come there free.’ With these last words to his family, he went on board the fishing-boat. And since there was a considerable stretch of sea between the galley and the shore, and no one of those in the boat addressed any friendly word to him, he looked at Septimius and said: ‘Am I not right in recognising you as my former comrade?’ And he merely nodded his head, not saying a word and showing no friendliness. Then, since there was utter silence again, Pompey took a little roll in which he had written out an address to King Ptolemy in Greek, and began to read it.” 

Extract B

78-9. “When they drew near the shore, Cornelia, with her friends, watched anxiously from the galley to see what would happen, and began to take courage when she saw many of the king’s people gathering at the landing-place as if to give him an honourable welcome. But at this moment, just as Pompey took the hand of Philip in order to rise to his feet more easily, Septimius ran him through the body with his sword from behind, then Salvius next, and then Achillas drew their swords and stabbed him. And Pompey, drawing his toga over his face with both hands, without saying or doing anything unworthy of himself, but only groaning a little, submitted to their blows. He was in the sixtieth year of his age, and died one day after the day of his birth.” 

Contextual information:

This passage is drawn from Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, the companion biography to his Life of Caesar. It describes events from September 28, 48 BC, when Pompey arrived at the Egyptian coast seeking refuge after his defeat at Pharsalus. The young king Ptolemy XIII’s advisors had decided to kill Pompey to curry favour with Caesar, and they used Septimius, a former officer who had once served under Pompey, to carry out the deed. 

Bibliographical reference:

Plutarch. Life of Pompey (B. Perrin, Trans., 1917). In Plutarch’s lives (Vol. V, Loeb Classical Library No. 87, pp. 307–313). Harvard University Press. (Original work written ca. AD 100–110) 

Copyright: Public Domain

Extract A

II.9. “In the meantime Pompey, who had acquired great glory and power by his Mithridatic war, was asking the Senate to ratify numerous concessions that he had granted to kings, princes, and cities. Most Senators, however, moved by envy, made opposition, and especially Lucullus, who had held the command against Mithridates before Pompey, and who considered that the victory was his, since he had left the king for Pompey in a state of extreme weakness. Crassus co-operated with Lucullus in this matter. Pompey was indignant and made friends with Caesar and promised under oath to support him for the consulship. The latter thereupon brought Crassus into friendly relations with Pompey. So these three most powerful men pooled their interests.” 

Extract B

II.35. “When his course brought him to the river Rubicon, which forms the boundary line of Italy, he stopped and, while gazing at the stream, revolved in his mind the evils that would result, should he cross the river in arms. Recovering himself, he said to those who were present, ‘My friends, to leave this stream uncrossed will breed manifold distress for me; to cross it, for all mankind.’ Thereupon, he crossed with a rush like one inspired, uttering the familiar phrase, ‘The die is cast: so let it be!’” 

Extract C

I.4. “Then he returned to Rome. Having overpowered by war his principal rival, who had been surnamed the Great on account of his brilliant military exploits, he now ruled without disguise, nobody daring any longer to dispute with him about anything, and was chosen, next after Sulla, dictator for life. Again all civil dissensions ceased until Brutus and Cassius, envious of his great power and desiring to restore the government of their fathers, slew in the Senate-house one who had proved himself truly popular, and most experienced in the art of government. The people certainly mourned for him greatly. They scoured the city in pursuit of his murderers, buried him in the middle of the forum, built a temple on the site of his funeral pyre, and offer sacrifice to him as a god.” 

Contextual information:

Appian of Alexandria (c. AD 95–165) was a Greek historian who wrote a history of Rome organised by region and conflict rather than by chronology. His Civil Wars covers the period of internal Roman conflict from the Gracchi to the fall of the Republic. Writing under the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, Appian had access to earlier Roman sources, including lost works by Asinius Pollio and other eyewitness historians. 

Bibliographical reference:

Appian. The civil wars (H. White, Trans., 1913). In Appian’s Roman history (Vols. III–IV, Loeb Classical Library Nos. 4–5, Vol. III, pp. 9–15, 113–117; Vol. IV, pp. 253–257). Harvard University Press. (Original work written ca. AD 150–160) 

Copyright: Public Domain

Extract A

III.89. “Pompey had in his battle-line eighty cohorts, making a total of forty-five thousand men; and he had about two thousand reserves who had come to him from the beneficiaries of former campaigns. These he had distributed through the whole force. The remaining cohorts, seven in number, he had placed in charge of the camp and the forts close by. His right wing was protected by a stream with steep banks, and for this reason he had placed all his cavalry and archers and slingers on the left wing.” 

Extract B

III.99. “Pompey, when the cavalry were routed and knowing that the part of his forces in which he had placed most confidence was thrown into panic, distrusting the rest also, left the field and straightway rode to the camp. To the centurions whom he had placed on guard at the praetorian gate he exclaimed, in a voice loud enough for the troops to hear: ‘Guard the camp and defend it diligently if any reverse should occur. I am going round the other gates and encouraging the garrison.’ Having said this, he retired to his general’s headquarters, despairing of success yet waiting for the issue.” 

Contextual information:

Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) wrote his account of the civil war, known as De Bello Civili, during or shortly after the campaign itself, between approximately 49 and 48 BC. The text is a first-person military report, written from Caesar’s own perspective as commander. It covers events from the political crisis that triggered the war through to his pursuit of Pompey into Egypt. As an account by the victor and one of the two principal participants, it is a primary source of considerable importance, though its political purpose as self-justification must be kept in mind. 

Bibliographical reference:

Caesar. The civil wars (A. G. Peskett, Trans., 1914). In Caesar: Civil wars (Loeb Classical Library No. 39, pp. 293–309). Harvard University Press. (Original work written ca. 49–48 BC) 

Copyright: Public Domain.