Caesar's own account of the civil war that destroyed the Roman Republic. Written in the third person with studied objectivity, it covers the crossing of the Rubicon through the campaigns in Greece, Egypt, and Africa. The prose is as ruthless as the strategy.
Start ReadingCaesar crosses the Rubicon. The Senate flees Rome, Pompey evacuates to Greece, and Caesar sweeps through Italy without a battle. In Spain, he defeats Pompey's legates at Ilerda: "an army without a general."
Caesar crosses the Adriatic and blockades Pompey at Dyrrhachium. But Pompey breaks out, inflicting a sharp defeat. Caesar retreats into Thessaly with the campaign hanging in the balance.
Pharsalus. The decisive battle of the civil war — Caesar's outnumbered veterans destroy Pompey's army in a single afternoon. Pompey flees to Egypt and is murdered on the beach. Caesar arrives to find the war won and a new crisis waiting.