XLV.  The infantry having thus rushed together in the centre and being engaged in the struggle, the cavalry of Pompeius proudly advanced from the wing, extending their companies to enclose Caesar’s right; but before they fell upon the enemy, the cohorts sprang forward from among Caesar’s troops, not, according to the usual fashion of war, throwing their spears nor yet holding them in their hands and aiming at the thighs and legs of the enemy, but pushing them against their eyes and wounding them in the face; and they had been instructed to do this by Caesar, who was confident that men who had no great familiarity with battles or wounds, and were young and very proud of their beauty and youth, would dread such wounds and would not keep their ground both through fear of the present danger and the future disfigurement.  And it turned out so; for they could not stand the spears being pushed up at them nor did they venture to look at the iron that was presented against their eyes, but they turned away and covered their faces to save them; and at last, having thus thrown themselves into confusion, they turned to flight most disgracefully and ruined the whole cause.  For those who had defeated the cavalry, immediately surrounded the infantry and falling on them in the rear began to cut them down.  But when Pompeius saw from the other wing the cavalry dispersed in flight, he was no longer the same, nor did he recollect that he was Pompeius Magnus, but more like a man who was deprived of his understanding by the god than anything else,[540] he retired without speaking a word to his tent, and sitting down awaited the result, until the rout becoming general the enemy were assailing the ramparts, and fighting with those who defended them.  Then, as if he had recovered his senses and uttering only these words, as it is reported, “What even to the ramparts!” he put off his military and general’s dress, and taking one suited for a fugitive, stole away.  But what fortunes he afterwards had, and how he gave himself up to the Egyptians and was murdered, I shall tell in the Life of Pompeius.

XLVI.  When Caesar entered the camp of Pompeius and saw the bodies of those who were already killed, and the slaughter still going on among the living, he said with a groan:  They would have it so; they brought me into such a critical position that I, Caius Caesar, who have been successful in the greatest wars, should have been condemned, if I had disbanded my troops.  Asinius Pollio[541] says that Caesar uttered these words on that occasion in Latin, and that he wrote them down in Greek.  He also says that the chief part of those who were killed were slaves, and they were killed when the camp was taken; and that not more than six thousand soldiers fell.  Of those who were taken prisoners, Caesar drafted most into his legions; and he pardoned many men of distinction, among whom was Brutus, who afterwards murdered him.  Caesar is said to have been very much troubled at his not being found, but when Brutus, who had escaped unhurt, presented himself to Caesar, he was greatly pleased.