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Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was a civil war during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Gaius Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey). The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the republic on his expected return to Rome on the expiration of his governorship in Gaul.
In Renaissance Britain, too, several plays returned to the subject of "Caesar and Pompey", including George Chapman's The Wars of Pompey and Caesar (c. 1604). Another contemporary treatment by Thomas Kyd, Cornelia, or Pompey the Great, his faire Cornelia's tragedy (1594), was a translation from the French of Robert Garnier. [146]
Caesar and Pompey, the two remaining allies, maintained friendly relations for a few years. They remained allies even after Pompey's assumption of a sole consulship in 52 BC and the death of Julia (Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife). Pompey, however, moved to form alliances to counterbalance Caesar's influence after Crassus' death.
Caesar then ordered in his third line, containing his most battle-hardened veterans, to attack. This broke Pompey's left wing troops, who fled the battlefield. [43] After routing Pompey's cavalry, Caesar threw in his last line of reserves [44] – a move which at this point meant that the battle was more or less decided.
Pompey's appointment was controversial from the outset. The conservative faction in the Senate expressed suspicion regarding his intentions and feared the consolidation of his power. The optimates made numerous attempts to block his nomination. Notably, Julius Caesar was among the few senators who supported Pompey's leadership from the beginning.
That campaign—a battle between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great—lasted roughly four years and spanned half a dozen territories before culminating in southern Spain, where Caesar secured victory.
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was the elder son of Pompey the Great (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) by his third wife, Mucia Tertia. [6] [1] Both he and his younger brother Sextus Pompey grew up in the shadow of their father, one of Rome's best generals and not originally a conservative politician who drifted to the more traditional faction when Julius Caesar became a threat.
Caesar thought he would be prosecuted and politically marginalized if he entered Rome without the immunity enjoyed by a Consul or without the power of his army. Pompey accused Caesar of insubordination and treason. On 10 January 49 BC Caesar crossed the Rubicon river (the frontier boundary of Italy) with only one legion and ignited civil war.