Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power by Ernle Bradford

Author:Ernle Bradford [Bradford, Ernle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, History, Biography & Autobiography, Roman Empire, Julius Caesar
ISBN: 9780688039318
Publisher: Morrow
Published: 1984-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Civil War

One legion was little enough with which to invade a country and attack an empire. There must have been those in Rome who, knowing the situation, felt confident that Caesar would never dare to move—at least until he had been reinforced from Gaul, by which time Pompey would have more than adequate forces to deal with him. But Pompey had seen no active service since 62; he was now in his fifties; his life since 60 had been lived in Rome, and he had recently been seriously ill. Most important of all, although he boasted that he could call on ten legions, except for the two Caesar had sent him from Gaul, the only troops available in Italy were unseasoned recruits, and his own veterans from the Eastern wars retired to their farms and small holdings.

After crossing into Italy Caesar’s legion, divided into two columns of five cohorts each, struck southeast toward Ari-minum (Rimini) on the Adriatic coast and due south at Ar-retium (Arezzo) the heart of Etruria, the first column under Caesar and the second under Antony. There was no opposition to Caesar when he arrived at Ariminum, where he addressed the troops and explained the circumstances under which he had been compelled to invade the homeland. His rhetorical skill was not wasted upon soldiers who were in any case attached to him, and who knew of Pompey only as some general who years ago had been victorious against decadent kings and leaders in the East. Caesar successfully played upon the fact that Pompey represented the men who were most remote from ordinary soldiers—the kind of senators they had heard of but never seen near a battlefield—and that Pompey himself was “a leader enervated by a long peace.” Their indignation at the treatment that had been accorded to the tribunes by the senate in Rome (although no one had ever laid a hand upon them) and the fact that they had sought shelter with Caesar was enough to allay any qualms they may have had about invading Italy. Their general, and the sacrosanct officials, had been wronged by those insolent senators in Rome—that was quite enough for any simple soldier who probably, like most servicemen throughout history, had little time for politicians and civilians.

As soon as it was known that Caesar’s forces had occupied Ariminum, the gates of other cities, as Plutarch records, were opened wide. There was no opposition, and by mid-January Arretium had been occupied as well as Ancona, south from Ariminum on the Adriatic. Caesar’s purpose in sending a flying column down the coast was to cut off Pompey from the sea, for he knew well enough that Pompey, if he did not stand and fight, would try and escape to the east by sea. There was instant panic when the news of the fall of these two cities reached Rome within a day or two. Not since Hannibal had come storming over the Alps over a century and a half before had Rome been

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