As once in the war with Sertorius he had been on
the point of abandoning the office entrusted to him
in presence of his superior opponent and of departing,(33)
so now, when he saw the legions retire over the stream,
he threw from him the fatal general’s scarf,
and rode off by the nearest route to the sea, to find
means of embarking there. His army discouraged
and leaderless— for Scipio, although recognized
by Pompeius as colleague in supreme command, was yet
general-in-chief only in name—hoped to find
protection behind the camp-walls; but Caesar allowed
it no rest; the obstinate resistance of the Roman
and Thracian guard of the camp was speedily overcome,
and the mass was compelled to withdraw in disorder
to the heights of Crannon and Scotussa, at the foot
of which the camp was pitched. It attempted
by moving forward along these hills to regain Larisa;
but the troops of Caesar, heeding neither booty nor
fatigue and advancing by better paths in the plain,
intercepted the route of the fugitives; in fact, when
late in the evening the Pompeians suspended their
march, their pursuers were able even to draw an entrenched
line which precluded the fugitives from access to
the only rivulet to be found in the neighbourhood.
So ended the day of Pharsalus. The enemy’s
army was not only defeated, but annihilated; 15,000
of the enemy lay dead or wounded on the field of battle,
while the Caesarians missed only 200 men; the body
which remained together, amounting still to nearly
20,000 men, laid down their arms on the morning after
the battle only isolated troops, including, it is true,
the officers of most note, sought a refuge in the
mountains; of the eleven eagles of the enemy nine
were handed over to Caesar. Caesar, who on the
very day of the battle had reminded the soldiers that
they should not forget the fellow-citizen in the foe,
did not treat the captives as did Bibulus and Labienus;
nevertheless he too found it necessary now to exercise
some severity. The common soldiers were incorporated
in the army, fines or confiscations of property were
inflicted on the men of better rank; the senators
and equites of note who were taken, with few exceptions,
suffered death. The time for clemency was past;
the longer the civil war lasted, the more remorseless
and implacable it became.
The Political Effects of the Battle of Pharsalus
The East Submits
Some time elapsed, before the consequences of the 9th of August 706 could be fully discerned. What admitted of least doubt, was the passing over to the side of Caesar of all those who had attached themselves to the party vanquished at Pharsalus merely as to the more powerful; the defeat was so thoroughly decisive, that the victor was joined by all who were not willing or were not obliged to fight for a lost cause. All the kings, peoples, and cities, which had hitherto been the clients of Pompeius, now recalled their naval and military contingents and declined to receive the refugees of the beaten party; such as