Andare a scuola a Roma
28 Dicembre 2019
Capitoli nono e decimo dei Promessi Sposi
28 Dicembre 2019
The civil war between Caesar and Pompey represents one of the most pivotal conflicts in Roman history, marking the final collapse of the Roman Republic and paving the way for the imperial system.
The Breakdown of the First Triumvirate
The alliance between Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus had effectively controlled Roman politics since 60 BC. This unofficial coalition, known as the First Triumvirate, began to fracture with the death of Julia, Caesar’s daughter and Pompey’s wife, in 54 BC. Her death severed the personal bond that had helped maintain the partnership between the two most powerful members of the triumvirate.
The final blow came with Crassus’s death at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC against the Parthians. Without the mediating influence of Crassus and the family connection through Julia, Caesar and Pompey found themselves as the sole contenders for supreme power in Rome.
The Political Crisis
Pompey had remained in Rome during Caesar’s Gallic campaigns (58-50 BC), gradually building his influence through traditional political channels. He had been granted extraordinary commands, including the governance of Spain through legates while remaining in the vicinity of Rome. Meanwhile, Caesar was accumulating unprecedented wealth and military glory through his conquest of Gaul, making him a potential threat to the established order.
The Senate, led by conservatives like Cato the Younger and Marcus Bibulus, increasingly saw Caesar as a dangerous populist who threatened the traditional Republican system. They began to court Pompey as a counterweight, despite their previous suspicions of his ambitions.
The crisis intensified over the question of Caesar’s return to Rome. Caesar wanted to transition directly from his Gallic command to a second consulship, which would have granted him immunity from prosecution by his political enemies. The Senate, however, demanded that he disband his armies and return as a private citizen, leaving him vulnerable to legal attacks.
The Point of No Return
In January 49 BC, the Senate passed the senatus consultum ultimum, effectively declaring martial law and ordering Caesar to disband his armies. When the tribunes Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius Longinus, who supported Caesar, were threatened and fled Rome, Caesar used this violation of tribunician sacrosanctity as justification for his actions.
On January 10, 49 BC, Caesar made his fateful decision at the Rubicon River, the boundary between Gaul and Italy. According to Suetonius, he declared “Alea iacta est” (the die is cast) before crossing with his XIII Legion. This act constituted an invasion of Italy and made civil war inevitable.
The Military Campaign
Caesar’s swift advance caught his opponents off guard. His veteran legions, hardened by years of Gallic warfare, moved rapidly down the Italian peninsula. Many cities opened their gates without resistance, and Caesar’s policy of clemency (clementia) toward captured enemies helped win over potential opponents.
Pompey, despite his military reputation, found himself at a strategic disadvantage. His legions were scattered across the empire, and he lacked the immediate military resources to match Caesar’s battle-tested army. Following a strategy reminiscent of ancient tactics, he withdrew from Italy to gather forces in the East, declaring that “Sulla did it before.”
The conflict quickly became a Mediterranean-wide war. Caesar secured his position in Italy, then moved to eliminate Pompey’s supporters in Spain, famously declaring he would “defeat an army without a general” before turning to face “a general without an army.”
The Eastern Campaign
The decisive phase began when Caesar crossed into Greece in pursuit of Pompey. The campaign of Dyrrhachium initially favored Pompey, who managed to break Caesar’s siege and inflict significant casualties on his rival’s forces. This victory could have been decisive, but Pompey failed to press his advantage, later prompting Caesar to remark that Pompey “did not know how to win.”
The climactic battle occurred at Pharsalus on August 9, 48 BC. Despite being outnumbered nearly two to one, Caesar’s tactical genius and the superiority of his veterans prevailed. Pompey’s coalition army, composed of various senatorial forces and foreign allies, could not match the cohesion and experience of Caesar’s legions.
The Death of Pompey
Following his defeat at Pharsalus, Pompey fled to Egypt, hoping to find refuge with Ptolemy XIII, whom he had previously supported. However, the young pharaoh’s advisors, calculating that Caesar would emerge victorious, decided to eliminate Pompey to curry favor with the winner.
On September 28, 48 BC, Pompey was assassinated as he stepped ashore near Pelusium. The manner of his death – killed by former subordinates on a foreign shore – was seen as particularly ignoble for one who had been called “the Great” and had celebrated three triumphs.
Caesar’s Victory and Its Consequences
Caesar’s pursuit of Pompey to Egypt led to his famous affair with Cleopatra VII and involvement in the Alexandrian War. He subsequently eliminated remaining Pompeian resistance in Africa at the Battle of Thapsus (46 BC) and in Spain at the Battle of Munda (45 BC).
The civil war’s conclusion marked the effective end of the Roman Republic. Caesar’s unprecedented accumulation of powers – dictator perpetuo, consul, pontifex maximus, and various other magistracies – created a monarchical system in all but name. His clemency toward former enemies was politically astute but could not fully heal the divisions created by the civil war.
The Broader Impact
The conflict between Caesar and Pompey represented more than a personal rivalry; it embodied fundamental tensions within the Roman system. The traditional Republican institutions had proven inadequate to govern a Mediterranean empire, leading to the concentration of power in the hands of individual commanders with personal armies.
The war also highlighted the transformation of Roman society. The old citizen-soldier had been replaced by professional legions loyal to their commanders rather than the state. Wealth from conquests had created vast inequalities, while the traditional Roman virtues gave way to personal ambition and factional politics.
Caesar’s victory resolved the immediate crisis but created new problems. His assassination in 44 BC triggered another round of civil wars, ultimately leading to the rise of Augustus and the establishment of the principate. The Republic died not in a single moment but through a series of conflicts, of which the Caesar-Pompey war was perhaps the most decisive.
The civil war between Caesar and Pompey thus stands as a turning point in Western civilization, marking the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire and demonstrating how personal ambitions and systemic contradictions can destroy even the most enduring political institutions.
