06/13/2026
Caesar and Pompey had built Rome together before they tore it apart.
Their alliance stretched back to 60 BC, when they joined with Crassus to form the First Triumvirate, the informal power-sharing arrangement that effectively ran the Roman Republic for a decade. Caesar cemented it personally by giving Pompey his daughter Julia in marriage, and by all accounts it was a genuine affection between them.
Julia died in childbirth in 54 BC. Crassus died at Carrhae in 53 BC.
The personal and political bonds that had held the arrangement together dissolved within a year, and the two men who remained had too much ambition and too little trust between them to find another arrangement.
By January 49 BC, Caesar had crossed the Rubicon and war was declared. What followed was two years of campaigning across the Mediterranean world, Italy, Spain, Greece, before both armies finally faced each other at Pharsalus in Thessaly on August 9, 48 BC.
Caesar was outnumbered, his men tired and underfed. Pompey had twice the infantry, superior cavalry, and the backing of most of the Senate.
He had every reason to expect to win. Caesar’s veterans, drilled to a different standard and fighting with a kind of desperate intensity, destroyed the Pompeian cavalry and rolled up the line within hours.
Pompey watched it happen from his command position, and when the formation broke he rode for the coast without stopping, still unable to process what had occurred.
He sailed to Egypt with his wife Cornelia and what remained of his entourage. Egypt owed him a debt. He had helped restore Ptolemy XII to the throne years earlier and expected the same hospitality now.
Instead, he arrived to find Ptolemy XIII’s court had already decided their position. A powerful Caesar in pursuit was more valuable than a grateful Pompey in defeat.
