Customer Reviews

Pharsalus 48 BC: Caesar and Pompey - Clash of the Titans (Campaign)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The great civil war between Pompey and Caesar still makes for interesting reading even two millennia later. In Pharsalus 48 BC, Osprey Campaign #174, author Si Sheppard presents a well-researched and insightful look at the campaign that decided the war in Caesar's favor. While the author's preference is to focus heavily on the political aspects of this struggle, military aspects of the campaign are thoroughly addressed. Pharsalus 48 BC is an exciting and erudite look at one of the key moments in history that helped to shape the Roman World and ultimately, our own.

The author begins this volume with a rather lengthy 10-page introduction that discusses the political strife and competitions in the late Roman Republic that were the basic causes of the Great Civil War between the factions of Pompey and Caesar. Although this introduction is informative and well-written, much of this material was covered in the Essential Histories volume #42 on the Civil War and is a bit too redundant for a campaign volume that is designed to focus more on the military aspects. The section on opposing commanders, 8 pages, is quite detailed and discusses not only Caesar and Pompey but provides capsule biographies on their key subordinates. On the other hand, the section on `Legions of the Late Republic' is a bit skimpy at 3 pages and rather over-generalized. This would have been the section to discuss order of battle (at least what is known) as well as cavalry tactics, which are often slighted in favor of talking about infantry tactics, but this section is rather more a discussion of the Marian-style army. There is no specific section on opposing plans in this volume, but that information is woven into the campaign narrative.

Pharsalus 48 BC includes five 2-D Maps (Caesar's five campaigns in the Mediterranean; Balkans theater of operations, January-April 48 BC; Battle of Dyrrachium, 10 July 48 BC; Balkans theater of operations, July-August 48 BC; Battle of Thapsus, 6 February 46 BC), three 3-D maps (Pharsalus: early morning, mid-morning, noon) and three battle scenes by Adam Hook (the collapse of Caesar's counterattack at Dyrrachium, 9 July 48 BC; the front line at Pharsalus; Caesar's reserves rout Pompey's cavalry). The author provides an excellent two-page bibliography that includes both scholarly and standard references.

The campaign narrative itself provides 21 pages on events leading up to the Battle of Pharsalus, 29 pages on the actual battle and about 9 on the aftermath. Overall, the author's battle narrative is well-written and coherent; he knows how to make the best use of ancient literary sources as well as modern archaeological studies to produce a smooth synthesis that makes military sense, unlike some authors who reduce the study of ancient military history to bickering with other scholars about various obscure and eclectic minutiae. I also found a certain level of political sarcasm interwoven into the text that made the characters seem more human hence, more interesting. Although the author does not always specify where he has crossed from fact to assumption in his narrative, this volume is certainly a cut well above most of Osprey's other ancient or medieval titles.

The Osprey title Pharsalus 48 BC, about the decisive battle fought between the 'Titans' of Roman history Ceasar and Pompey the Great, is a compact overview of this battle that ended the Roman Republic and paved the way for 'Ceasars' to start ruling the Roman empire in later years, and the campaign that led up to it from the start of the Civil War (Caesar's famous crossing of the Rubicon). It includes some great full color battle scenes by Adam Hook and general information about how this Civil War came to be, the opposing commanders and how the legions of the late republic were formed and equipped.
But while a good general history of the battle of Pharsalus, several annoying mistakes prevent this book from getting more than three stars.
Let's start off with a minor quibble, but on page 16, he uses the famous Latin quote Caesar is supposed to have used before he crossed the Rubicon: "Alea jaecta est" and translates it as: "let the die be cast" but this means "the die is cast" (while "Jacta alea esto" means "let the die be cast"). While the alternate version is that he used the Greek quote "aneristho kubos" or "let the die be thrown". Minor mistake, I agree, but other Latin sentences/quotes are given the same lackadaisical treatment, so therefore I point it out as an example.
Then, on page 33, he states about the speed of action of Caesar: "If Caesar's blitzkrieg was a natural extension of his tactics in Gaul his attitude in victory was entirely uncharacteristic". But if you do any reading about Caesar's Gallic Wars, you will find that he uses the same 'clementia' against the Celts: yes, he could be utterly ruthless and massacre an entire village that kept resisting, but more often than not he used the same 'forgive and forget' tactic against the Celtic tribes that rose up against him, even those that did this several times, so this wasn't 'uncharacteristic' at all. Also, his 'clementia' was an important part of his propaganda campaign (Pompey had the nickname 'the young butcher' early in his career); so if Caesar's legions had slaughtered their way through Italy, this would have turned the population against him.
Then on page 37, Sheppard states, after a mutiny had broken out, that: "Caesar had to resort to disbanding the veteran IX legion, ignoring the appeals of his men to reinstate it until after decimating the ringleaders". This is incorrect. Caesar announced to the men that he intended to decimate the IX Legion, and dishonorably discharge the rest from the army. When the soldiers begged for mercy, he relented, saying that only 120 ringleaders needed to draw lots to choose 12 men to be executed. So he never disbanded the legion. After this, the Ninth would fight with great distinction in the forthcoming campaign.
On page 68, Sheppard states: "The capacity for cavalry to punch through heavy infantry in such a scenario would require the invention of the stirrup". The fable of the need for a stirrup for cavalry to be able to punch through a mass of infantry has since long proven false. If the infantry keeps up a strong enough 'wall', no horse will crash into it; nor does the cavalry need a stirrup just to keep a firm seat, if they charge at the enemy (as many cavalry 'charges' before the invention of the stirrup have shown, and the right kind of saddle will do the same).
These are a couple of examples of incorrect information presented in this title; hence the three stars.
Also, as mentioned by other reviewers, but of course not the fault of the author: the 3-D battle maps are not very good and show little detail, which is made worse by the crease of the binder (Osprey, do something about this! This is a problem in other titles, but particularly annoying in this one!).
So, in general, a reasonable account of the battle of Pharsalus that's worth reading for people interested this particular part of Roman history. But be careful about some of the 'facts' that are presented in it.
For a more in-depth coverage of this period, including the battle of Pharsalus, I would recommend "Ceasar: Life of a colossus" by Adrian Goldsworthy (a biography about Ceasar), "In the name of Rome" by Adrian Goldworthy, which is a look at Rome's greatest 'generals' and at how and why they won their victories ('generals' covered include Ceasar and Pompey) and "Ceasar against Rome" by Ramon L. Jimenez (covers the four-year Roman Civil War that began with Ceasar's crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BCE).

This book covers much more than the actual battle per se. Only about 20 pages of the book's 96 pages are actually dedicated to the battle. Nevertheless the book provides a very good introduction to the battle.

Like most of better written Osprey series of books on campaigns, it starts off with an excellent section providing background on how the Roman Republic had reached a crisis point and an almost inevitable conflict between its historical institutional structure (a Republic) and a dictatorship. This provides invaluable context as to what brought about the conflict between Pompey and Ceaser. The next section of the book provides a history of the military events that eventually led to Pharsulus, from Caeser's entry into Rome to the battles immediately aftewards in both mainland Italy and in mainland Greece, immediately proceeding the actual battle of Pharsulus. Afterwards the actual battle itself is dissected. This is not only in terms of the history of the battle itself but, more importantly, the factors that led to Caesar's victory and Pompey's defeat (i.e., many of Pompey's troops, despite the fact they greatly outnumbered Caesar's troops, were foreign and hence not very reliable, etc.). Then the aftermath of the battle is elaborated on. In most of the Osprey series of campaign books, this usually consists of only 1-2 pages of political and direct military consequences. In this book, however, about 10 pages are dedicated to Caesar's pursuit of Pompey to Egypt, his campaigns in Egypt against the forces arrayed against him and Cleopatra and Caesar's struggles against mutinies and the Republic's remaining forces in Spain and Gaul. All and all a very lengthy series of events but covered very well (and very clearly) despite the book's relatively short length (96 pages, about half of which are illustration). The book also provides very good maps showing how the major battles played out, the pursuit of Pompey's forces throughout the Mediteranean and modern pictures of the battle fields today).

All and all an excellent introduction to the battle for those looking to get up to speed in only about an hour and a half or so of reading. Highly recommended.

All in all, this is a well-written book on the battle where Caesar defeated Pompey. It is easy to follow, well organized, and follows the standard format for Osprey books in the Campaign series. Si Sheppard, the author, does an excellent job of describing the circumstances that caused the civil war, along with such events as Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River and the Battle of Dyrrachium.

The chapter on the opposing commanders is broken down into the Caesareans and the Republicans. Each of these two-sections is further divided into the individual characters. The name of each individual is highlighted in bold print. This simple technique provides the reader an easy reference to all the main characters.

The author provides an excellent description of the events that occurred during the battle itself. His narrative gives an understanding of the influences that affected each commander. Caesar was clearly outnumbered but he had a battle tested force and was the sole authority in command. Although Pompey had a numerically superior force, it was not combat tested. The unwanted advice of the various Roman senators in his camp also burdened Pompey. He did not have the freedom of command that Caesar enjoyed. The author finishes with a chapter on the "Aftermath." He describes such events as the assassination of Pompey, Caesar's African campaign, and the battle of Thapsus. In essence, he provides just the right amount of information to wrap up the story.

The book contains several photographs of statues, coins, and relief carvings on tombs. The photographs are clear and provide an accurate image of people, clothing, and weapons of the time. The author also uses several medieval paintings to depict certain events, such as Pompey's marriage to Cornelia. Although these images are interesting, they are not representative of the time. Some of the other paintings are from the 1700s. The use of modern battlefield photographs, however, is different. These photographs provide an excellent view of the terrain.

The book contains several campaign maps, which provide a nice overview of events across a wide area. These maps, however, contain too much information. The map outlining Caesar's five campaigns in the Mediterranean has over seventeen separate events. The text for this map is crammed into a corner, and in such a small font, that it is hard to read.

The book also contains three 3-D "birds eye view" maps of the battle of Pharsalus; one each for early morning, mid morning, and noon. Two of the maps, however, are missing letter indicators. The legend lists a series of letters and numbers that correspond to elements in Pompey's and Caesar's forces. Two letter designators are missing from their respective maps. Thus, the reader is left to guess where those units are located. Although this is not a critical flaw, it does reflect upon the editor's attention to detail.

Again, this book is an easy read. It is nicely organized and well focused on the battle itself. In addition, the author provides relevant information on events leading up to the battle and its aftermath. The shortcomings in the maps and paintings are minor and do not take away from the excellent narrative. Bottom line: the author did a great job in covering this ancient and very significant battle.

Pharsalus, the great Roman battle that determined the course of Roman history. This battle proves to be the watershed for the Roman Republic, marking its end and showcasing the beginning for Roman Empire. The book written by Si Sheppard proves to be pretty well written. The basic format of the Ospery Campaign series is skillfully used here. The background, leaders and reaccounting of the actual campaign and battle of Pharsalus proves to be well presented. Any reader will gained a quick and clear understanding of the cause and effect of this campaign and battle.

I found Sheppard's protaryal of Pompey in this book to be somewhat refreshing. Sheppard obviously and rightly in my opinion, regards Pompey as greatest of Caesar's challenges during the latter's long military career. In one of the great ironies in history, the campaign of Pharsalus was being won by Pompey, but like in many instants of military history, the battle usually decides the campaign, the great equalizer and Caesar skillfully proves his place as one of the great captains of history.

However, good as the narrative proves to be, I found the rest of the book to be somewhat weak. A good example would be the battle maps. There are three battle maps of Pharsalus presented in this book. Each of them proves to be totally unuseable. They are small in scale, lacking in details and worst, the crease of the binder totally make them hard to see. These maps proves to be totally worthless. Second major weakness was the illustrations. The usage of idealized paintings totally failed to convey feeling for the events or personalities they were supposed to represent. The photographs that accompanied the book doesn't impart much information. The use of Roman reliefs however was useful. Three full colored illustrations by Adam Hook was okay although not all informative.

Overall, despite of the 3 star rating, I can recommended this book solely on its narrative but as an overall book I can see future improvement that could be made in this series.

The text is interesting and informative, and is supported by spirited plates by Adam Hook. An absorbing view of one of history's most fascinating and desicive battles.

Osprey's excellent military titles cover campaigns, units and specialized military history, and are perfect references for the in-depth military collection. Si Sheppard's PHARSALUS 48 BC: CAESAR AND POMPEY - CLASH OF THE TITANS covers early military history in chronicling the final clash of to Roman world greats. While odds were against Caesar, his battle genius won - and is reviewed here in great details including black and white illustrations throughout.