History of Julius Caesar by Jacob Abbott
J >>
Jacob Abbott >> History of Julius Caesar
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 | 8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13
[Sidenote: Caesar hems Pompey in.]
[Sidenote: Anxiety of the rivals.]
After some time the tide of fortune turned Caesar contrived, by a
succession of adroit maneuvers and movements, to escape from his toils,
and to circumvent and surround Pompey's forces so as soon to make them
suffer destitution and distress in their turn. He cut off all
communication between them and the country at large, and turned away the
brooks and streams from flowing through the ground they occupied. An
army of forty or fifty thousand men, with the immense number of horses
and beasts of burden which accompany them, require very large supplies
of water, and any destitution or even scarcity of water leads
immediately to the most dreadful consequences. Pompey's troops dug
wells, but they obtained only very insufficient supplies. Great numbers
of beasts of burden died, and their decaying bodies so tainted the air
as to produce epidemic diseases, which destroyed many of the troops, and
depressed and disheartened those whom they did not destroy.
[Sidenote: Nature of the contest between Caesar and Pompey.]
[Sidenote: Both hesitate.]
During all these operations there was no decisive general battle. Each
one of the great rivals knew very well that his defeat in one general
battle would be his utter and irretrievable ruin. In a war between two
independent nations, a single victory, however complete, seldom
terminates the struggle, for the defeated party has the resources of a
whole realm to fall back upon, which are sometimes called forth with
renewed vigor after experiencing such reverses; and then defeat in such
cases, even if it be final, does not necessarily involve the ruin of the
unsuccessful commander. He may negotiate an honorable peace, and return
to his own land in safety; and, if his misfortunes are considered by his
countrymen as owing not to any dereliction from his duty as a soldier,
but to the influence of adverse circumstances which no human skill or
resolution could have controlled, he may spend the remainder of his days
in prosperity and honor. The contest, however, between Caesar and Pompey
was not of this character. One or the other of them was a traitor and a
usurper--an enemy to his country. The result of a battle would decide
which of the two was to stand in this attitude. Victory would legitimize
and confirm the authority of one, and make it supreme over the whole
civilized world. Defeat was to annihilate the power of the other, and
make him a fugitive and a vagabond, without friends, without home,
without country. It was a desperate stake; and it is not at all
surprising that both parties lingered and hesitated, and postponed the
throwing of the die.
[Sidenote: The armies enter Thessaly.]
At length Pompey, rendered desperate by the urgency of the destitution
and distress into which Caesar had shut him, made a series of rigorous
and successful attacks upon Caesar's lines, by which he broke away in
his turn from his enemy's grasp, and the two armies moved slowly back
into the interior of the country, hovering in the vicinity of each
other, like birds of prey contending in the air, each continually
striking at the other, and moving onward at the same time to gain some
position of advantage, or to circumvent the other in such a design. They
passed on in this manner over plains, and across rivers, and through
mountain passes, until at length they reached the heart of Thessaly.
Here at last the armies came to a stand and fought the final battle.
[Illustration: ROMAN STANDARD BEARERS.]
[Sidenote: The plain of Pharsalia.]
[Sidenote: Roman standard bearers.]
[Sidenote: Pompey draws up his army.]
[Sidenote: Forces on both sides.]
The place was known then as the plain of Pharsalia, and the greatness of
the contest which was decided there has immortalized its name. Pompey's
forces were far more numerous than those of Caesar, and the advantage in
all the partial contests which had taken place for some time had been on
his side; he felt, consequently, sure of victory. He drew up his men in
a line, one flank resting upon the bank of a river, which protected them
from attack on that side. From this point, the long line of legions,
drawn up in battle array, extended out upon the plain, and was
terminated at the other extremity by strong squadrons of horse, and
bodies of slingers and archers, so as to give the force of weapons and
the activity of men as great a range as possible there, in order to
prevent Caesar's being able to outflank and surround them There was,
however, apparently very little danger of this, for Caesar, according to
his own story, had but about half as strong a force as Pompey. The army
of the latter, he says, consisted of nearly fifty thousand men, while
his own number was between twenty and thirty thousand. Generals,
however, are prone to magnify the military grandeur of their exploits by
overrating the strength with which they had to contend, and
under-estimating their own. We are therefore to receive with some
distrust the statements made by Caesar and his partisans; and as for
Pompey's story, the total and irreparable ruin in which he himself and
all who adhered to him were entirely overwhelmed immediately after the
battle, prevented its being ever told.
[Sidenote: Appearance of Pompey's camp.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's tent.]
In the rear of the plain where Pompey's lines were extended was the camp
from which the army had been drawn out to prepare for the battle. The
camp fires of the preceding night were moldering away, for it was a warm
summer morning; the intrenchments were guarded, and the tents, now
nearly empty, stood extended in long rows within the inclosure. In the
midst of them was the magnificent pavilion of the general, furnished
with every imaginable article of luxury and splendor. Attendants were
busy here and there, some rearranging what had been left in disorder by
the call to arms by which the troops had been summoned from their places
of rest, and others providing refreshments-and food for their victorious
comrades when they should return from the battle. In Pompey's tent a
magnificent entertainment was preparing. The tables were spread with
every luxury, the sideboards were loaded with plate, and the whole scene
was resplendent with utensils and decorations of silver and gold.
[Sidenote: His confidence of victory.]
Pompey and all his generals were perfectly certain of victory. In fact,
the peace and harmony of their councils in camp had been destroyed for
many days by their contentions and disputes about the disposal of the
high offices, and the places of profit and power at Rome, which were to
come into their hands when Caesar should have been subdued. The subduing
of Caesar they considered only a question of time; and, as a question of
time, it was now reduced to very narrow limits. A few days more, and
they were to be masters of the whole Roman empire, and, impatient and
greedy, they disputed in anticipation about the division of the spoils.
To make assurance doubly sure, Pompey gave orders that his troops
should not advance to meet the onset of Caesar's troops on the middle
ground between the two armies, but that they should wait calmly for the
attack, and receive the enemy at the posts where they had themselves
been arrayed.
[Sidenote: The battle of Pharsalia.]
[Sidenote: Defeat of Pompey.]
[Sidenote: Scene of horror.]
The hour at length arrived, the charge was sounded by the trumpets, and
Caesar's troops began to advance with loud shouts and great impetuosity
toward Pompey's lines. There was a long and terrible struggle, but the
forces of Pompey began finally to give way. Notwithstanding the
precautions which Pompey had taken to guard and protect the wing of his
army which was extended toward the land, Caesar succeeded in turning his
flank upon that side by driving off the cavalry and destroying the
archers and slingers, and he was thus enabled to throw a strong force
upon Pompey's rear. The flight then soon became general, and a scene of
dreadful confusion and slaughter ensued. The soldiers of Caesar's army,
maddened with the insane rage which the progress of a battle never fails
to awaken, and now excited to phrensy by the exultation of success,
pressed on after the affrighted fugitives, who trampled one upon
another, or fell pierced with the weapons of their assailants, filling
the air with their cries of agony and their shrieks of terror. The
horrors of the scene, far from allaying, only excited still more the
ferocity of their bloodthirsty foes, and they pressed steadily and
fiercely on, hour after hour, in their dreadful work of destruction. It
was one of those scenes of horror and woe such as those who have not
witnessed them can not conceive of, and those who have witnessed can
never forget.
[Sidenote: Pompey's flight to the camp.]
[Sidenote: Pompey in his tent.]
[Sidenote: His consternation and despair.]
When Pompey perceived that all was lost, he fled from the field in a
state of the wildest excitement and consternation. His troops were
flying in all directions, some toward the camp, vainly hoping to find
refuge there, and others in various other quarters, wherever they saw
the readiest hope of escape from their merciless pursuers. Pompey
himself fled instinctively toward the camp. As he passed the guards at
the gate where he entered, he commanded them, in his agitation and
terror, to defend the gate against the coming enemy, saying that he was
going to the other gates to attend to the defenses there. He then
hurried on, but a full sense of the helplessness and hopelessness of his
condition soon overwhelmed him; he gave up all thought of defense, and,
passing with a sinking heart through the scene of consternation and
confusion which reigned every where within the encampment, he sought
his own tent, and, rushing into it, sank down, amid the luxury and
splendor which had been arranged to do honor to his anticipated victory,
in a state of utter stupefaction and despair.
CHAPTER VIII.
FLIGHT AND DEATH OF POMPEY.
[Sidenote: Pursuit of the vanquished.]
[Sidenote: Pompey recovers himself.]
Caesar pursued the discomfited and flying bodies of Pompey's army to the
camp. They made a brief stand upon the ramparts and at the gates in a
vain and fruitless struggle against the tide of victory which they soon
perceived must fully overwhelm them. They gave way continually here and
there along the lines of intrenchment, and column after column of
Caesar's followers broke through into the camp. Pompey, hearing from his
tent the increasing noise and uproar, was at length aroused from his
stupor, and began to summon his faculties to the question what he was to
do. At length a party of fugitives, hotly pursued by some of Caesar's
soldiers, broke into his tent. "What!" said Pompey, "into my tent too!"
He had been for more than thirty years a victorious general, accustomed
to all the deference and respect which boundless wealth, extended and
absolute power, and the highest military rank could afford. In the
encampments which he had made, and in the cities which he had occupied
from time to time, he had been the supreme and unquestioned master, and
his tent, arranged and furnished, as it had always been, in a style of
the utmost magnificence and splendor, had been sacred from all
intrusion, and invested with such a dignity that potentates and princes
were impressed when they entered, with a feeling of deference and awe.
Now, rude soldiers burst wildly into it, and the air without was filled
with an uproar and confusion, drawing every moment nearer and nearer,
and warning the fallen hero that there was no longer any protection
there against the approaching torrent which was coming on to
overwhelm him.
[Sidenote: Pompey disguises himself.]
[Sidenote: He escapes from the camp.]
Pompey aroused himself from his stupor, threw off the military dress
which belonged to his rank and station, and assumed a hasty disguise, in
which he hoped he might make his escape from the immediate scene of his
calamities. He mounted a horse and rode out of the camp at the easiest
place of egress in the rear, in company with bodies of troops and guards
who were also flying in confusion, while Caesar and his forces on the
other side were carrying the intrenchments and forcing their way in. As
soon is he had thus made his escape from the immediate scene of danger,
he dismounted and left his horse, that he might assume more completely
the appearance of a common soldier, and, with a few attendants who were
willing to follow his fallen fortunes, he went on to the eastward,
directing his weary steps toward the shores of the Aegean Sea.
[Sidenote: The Vale of Tempe.]
[Sidenote: Its picturesqueness.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's sufferings.]
[Sidenote: A drink of water.]
The country through which he was traveling was Thessaly. Thessaly is a
vast amphitheater, surrounded by mountains, from whose sides streams
descend, which, after watering many fertile valleys and plains, combine
to form one great central river that flows to the eastward, and after
various meanderings, finds its way into the Aegean Sea through a
romantic gap between two mountains, called the Vale of Tempe--a vale
which has been famed in all ages for the extreme picturesqueness of its
scenery, and in which, in those days, all the charms both of the most
alluring beauty and of the sublimest grandeur seemed to be combined.
Pompey followed the roads leading along the banks of this stream, weary
in body, and harassed and disconsolate in mind. The news which came to
him from time to time, by the flying parties which were moving through
the country in all directions, of the entire and overwhelming
completeness of Caesar's victory, extinguished all remains of hope, and
narrowed down at last the grounds of his solicitude to the single point
of his own personal safety. He was well aware that he should be pursued,
and, to baffle the efforts which he knew that his enemies would make to
follow his track, he avoided large towns, and pressed forward in by-ways
and solitudes, bearing as patiently as he was able his increasing
destitution and distress. He reached, at length, the Vale of Tempe, and
there, exhausted with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, he sat down upon the
bank of the stream to recover by a little rest strength enough for the
remainder of his weary way. He wished for a drink, but he had nothing to
drink from. And so the mighty potentate, whose tent was full of
delicious beverages, and cups and goblets of silver and gold, extended
himself down upon the sand at the margin of the river, and drank the
warm water directly from the stream.
[Sidenote: Caesar in Pompey's camp.]
While Pompey was thus anxiously and toilsomely endeavoring to gain the
sea-shore, Caesar was completing his victory over the army which he had
left behind him. When Caesar had carried the intrenchments of the camp,
and the army found that there was no longer any safety for them there,
they continued their retreat under the guidance of such generals as
remained. Caesar thus gained undisputed possession of the camp. He found
every where the marks of wealth and luxury, and indications of the
confident expectation of victory which the discomfited army had
entertained. The tents of the generals were crowned with myrtle, the
beds were strewed with flowers, and tables every where were spread for
feasts, with cups and bowls of wine all ready for the expected revelers.
Caesar took possession of the whole, stationed a proper guard to protect
the property, and then pressed forward with his army in pursuit of
the enemy.
[Sidenote: Retreat of Pompey's army.]
[Sidenote: Surrender of Pompey's army.]
Pompey's army made their way to a neighboring rising ground, where they
threw up hasty intrenchments to protect themselves for the night. A
rivulet ran near the hill, the access to which they endeavored to
secure, in order to obtain supplies of water. Caesar and his forces
followed them to this spot. The day was gone, and it was too late to
attack them. Caesar's soldiers, too, were exhausted with the intense and
protracted excitement and exertions which had now been kept up for many
hours in the battle and in the pursuit, and they needed repose. They
made, however, one effort more. They seized the avenue of approach to
the rivulet, and threw up a temporary intrenchment to secure it which
intrenchment they protected with a guard; and then the army retired to
rest, leaving their helpless victims to while away the hours of the
night, tormented with thirst, and overwhelmed with anxiety and despair.
This could not long be endured. They surrendered in the morning, and
Caesar found himself in possession of over twenty thousand prisoners.
[Sidenote: Pompey in the Vale of Tempe.]
In the mean time, Pompey passed on through the Vale of Tempe toward the
sea, regardless of the beauty and splendor that surrounded him, and
thinking only of his fallen fortunes, and revolving despairingly in his
mind the various forms in which the final consummation of his ruin might
ultimately come. At length he reached the sea-shore, and found refuge
for the night in a fisherman's cabin. A small number of attendants
remained with him, some of whom were slaves. These he now dismissed,
directing them to return and surrender themselves to Caesar, saying that
he was a generous foe, and that they had nothing to fear from him. His
other attendants he retained, and he made arrangements for a boat to
take him the next day along the coast. It was a river boat, and
unsuited to the open sea, but it was all that he could obtain.
[Sidenote: Pompey embarks on board a vessel.]
[Sidenote: The shipmaster's dream.]
He arose the next morning at break of day, and embarked in the little
vessel, with two or three attendants, and the oarsmen began to row away
along the shore. They soon came in sight of a merchant ship just ready
to sail. The master of this vessel, it happened, had seen Pompey, and
knew his countenance, and he had dreamed, as a famous historian of the
times relates, on the night before, that Pompey had come to him hi the
guise of a simple soldier and in great distress, and that he had
received and rescued him. There was nothing extraordinary in such a
dream at such a time, as the contest between Caesar and Pompey, and the
approach of the final collision which was to destroy one or the other of
them, filled the minds and occupied the conversation of the world. The
shipmaster, therefore, having seen and known one of the great rivals in
the approaching conflict, would naturally find both his waking and
sleeping thoughts dwelling on the subject; and his fancy, in his dreams,
might easily picture the scene of his rescuing and saving the fallen
hero in the hour of his distress.
[Sidenote: Pompey goes on board a merchant ship.]
However this may be, the shipmaster is said to have been relating his
dream to the seamen on the deck of his vessel when the boat which was
conveying Pompey came into view. Pompey himself, having escaped from the
land, supposed all immediate danger over, not imagining that seafaring
men would recognize him in such a situation and in such a disguise. The
shipmaster did, however, recognize him. He was overwhelmed with grief at
seeing him in such a condition. With a countenance and with gestures
expressive of earnest surprise and sorrow, he beckoned to Pompey to come
on board. He ordered his own ship's boat to be immediately let down to
meet and receive him. Pompey came on board. The ship was given up to his
possession, and every possible arrangement was made to supply his wants,
to contribute to his comfort, and to do him honor.
[Sidenote: His arrival at Amphipolis.]
The vessel conveyed him to Amphipolis, a city of Macedonia near the sea,
and to the northward and eastward of the place where he had embarked.
When Pompey arrived at the port he sent proclamations to the shore,
calling upon the inhabitants to take arms and join his standard. He did
not, however, land, or take any other measures for carrying these
arrangements into effect. He only waited in the river upon which
Amphipolis stands long enough to receive a supply of money from some of
his friends on the shore, and stores for his voyage, and then get sail
again. Whether he learned that Caesar was advancing in that direction
with a force too strong for him to encounter, or found that the people
were disinclined to espouse his cause, or whether the whole movement was
a feint to direct Caesar's attention to Macedon as the field of his
operations, in order that he might escape more secretly and safely
beyond the sea, can not now be ascertained.
[Sidenote: Pompey's wife Cornelia.]
[Sidenote: Her beauty and accomplishments.]
Pompey's wife Cornelia was on the island of Lesbos, at Mitylene, near
the western coast of Asia Minor. She was a lady of distinguished beauty,
and of great intellectual superiority and moral worth. She was extremely
well versed in all the learning of the times, and yet was entirely free
from those peculiarities and airs which, as her historian says, were
often observed in learned ladies in those days. Pompey had married her
after the death of Julia, Caesar's daughter. They were strongly devoted
to each other. Pompey had provided for her a beautiful retreat on the
island of Lesbos, where she was living in elegance and splendor,
beloved for her own intrinsic charms, and highly honored on account of
the greatness and fame of her husband. Here she had received from time
to time glowing accounts of his success all exaggerated as they came to
her, through the eager desire of the narrators to give her pleasure.
[Sidenote: Pompey's arrival at Mitylene.]
[Sidenote: His meeting with Cornelia.]
From this high elevation of honor and happiness the ill-fated Cornelia
suddenly fell, on the arrival of Pompey's solitary vessel at Mitylene,
bringing as it did, at the same time, both the first intelligence of her
husband's fall, and himself in person, a ruined and homeless fugitive
and wanderer. The meeting was sad and sorrowful. Cornelia was
overwhelmed at the suddenness and violence of the shock which it brought
her, and Pompey lamented anew the dreadful disaster that he had
sustained, at finding how inevitably it must involve his beloved wife as
well as himself in its irreparable ruin.
[Sidenote: Pompey gathers a little fleet.]
The pain, however, was not wholly without some mingling of pleasure. A
husband finds a strange sense of protection and safety in the presence
and sympathy of an affectionate wife in the hour of his calamity. She
can, perhaps do nothing, but her mute and sorrowful concern and pity
comfort and reassure him. Cornelia, however, was able to render her
husband some essential aid. She resolved immediately to accompany him
wherever he should go; and, by their joint endeavors, a little fleet was
gathered, and such supplies as could be hastily obtained, and such
attendants and followers as were willing to share his fate, were taken
on board. During all this time Pompey would not go on shore himself, but
remained on board, his ship in the harbor. Perhaps he was afraid of some
treachery or surprise, or perhaps, in his fallen and hopeless condition,
he was unwilling to expose himself to the gaze of those who had so often
seen him in all the splendor of his former power.
[Sidenote: He sails along the Mediterranean.]
[Sidenote: Pompey receives additional supplies.]
At length, when all was ready, he sailed away. He passed eastward along
the Mediterranean, touching at such ports as he supposed most likely to
favor his cause. Vague and uncertain, but still alarming rumors that
Caesar was advancing in pursuit of him met him every where, and the
people of the various provinces were taking sides, some in his favor and
some against him, the excitement being every where so great that the
utmost caution and circumspection were required in all his movements.
Sometimes he was refused permission to land; at others, his friends
were too few to afford him protection; and at others still, though the
authorities professed friendship, he did not dare to trust them. He
obtained, however, some supplies of money and some accessions to the
number of ships and men under his command, until at length he had quite
a little fleet in his train. Several men of rank and influence, who had
served under him in the days of his prosperity, nobly adhered to him
now, and formed a sort of court or council on board his galley, where
they held with their great though fallen commander frequent
conversations on the plan which it was best to pursue.
[Sidenote: He seeks refuge in Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Ptolemy and Cleopatra.]
It was finally decided that it was best to seek refuge in Egypt. There
seemed to be, in fact, no alternative. All the rest of the world was
evidently going over to Caesar. Pompey had been the means, some years
before, of restoring a certain king of Egypt to his throne, and many of
his soldiers had been left in the country, and remained there still. It
is true that the king himself had died. He had left a daughter named
Cleopatra, and also a son, who was at this time very young. The name of
this youthful prince was Ptolemy. Ptolemy and Cleopatra bad been made by
their father joint heirs to the throne. But Ptolemy, or, rather, the
ministers and counselors who acted for him and in his name, had expelled
Cleopatra, that they might govern alone. Cleopatra had raised an army in
Syria, and was on her way to the frontiers of Egypt to regain possession
of what she deemed her rights. Ptolemy's ministers had gone forth to
meet her at the head of their own troops, 'Ptolemy himself being also
with them. They had reached Pelusium, which is the frontier town between
Egypt and Syria on the coast of the Mediterranean. Here their armies had
assembled in vast encampments upon the land, and their galleys and
transports were riding at anchor along the shore of the sea. Pompey and
his-counselors thought that the government of Ptolemy would receive him
as a friend, on account of the services he had rendered to the young
prince's father, forgetting that gratitude has never a place on the list
of political virtues.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 | 8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13