The Battlefield of Pharsalos

F. L. Lucas

doi:10.1017/S0068245400010066

The Battlefield of Pharsalos

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013

F. L. Lucas

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The dead of Pharsalos sleep sound; but more than a century ago their battlefield began to walk; and since Leake a dozen scholars in succession have found it in as many different places, over an area of forty miles by ten.

I must apologise for introducing yet another claimant theory, but I have at least aimed also at reducing the total by the abolition of one or two of its wilder predecessors. I propose, then, to summarise the ancient evidence, to state and criticise the theories based on it, and to conclude with a new attempt at solution, checked by walking over the plains of Pharsalos.

Far the first, then, among our authorities stands of course Caesar himself (Bellum Civile, III. 81–98). After the occupation of Gomphoi and Metropolis, all the states of Thessaly, except Larissa, had declared for him. Accordingly, ‘having found a convenient position in the Thessalian plain,’ he sat down there to wait for Pompey and the final decision. A few days later Pompey marched south to Larissa and joined Scipio. When next heard of, their army is encamped opposite Caesar on a hill.

Type: Research Article
Information: Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 24 , November 1921 , pp. 34 - 53

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400010066 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1921

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^{page 34 note 1} As regards the summary which follows I must acknowledge my deep indebtedness to DrRice-Holmes', article in the Classical Quarterly of October, 1908Google Scholar, where full references to all previous literature will be found.

^{page 34 note 2} Caesar, , Bellum Civile, III. 81. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 34 note 3} Ibid. 85. 1.

^{page 34 note 4} Ibid. 85. 1.

^{page 35 note 1} Caesar, , Bellum Civile, III. 88. 6Google Scholar: ‘rivus quidam impeditis ripis.’

^{page 35 note 2} Ibid. 93. 6.

^{page 35 note 3} Ibid. 95. 5.

^{page 35 note 4} Ibid. 97. 3.: ‘commodiore itinere.’

^{page 35 note 5} Ibid. 97. 4: ‘Hunc montem flumen subluebat.’

^{page 36 note 1} 48.1.

^{page 36 note 2} Strategematica, 2. 3. 22.

^{page 36 note 3} 20.

^{page 36 note 4} 6.15. 27.

^{page 36 note 5} Plutarch, , Caesar, 52.Google Scholar and passim.

^{page 36 note 6} Brutus, 4.

^{page 36 note 7} Ibid. 6.

^{page 36 note 8} Caesar, 43: ἐπὶ Σκοτούσσης

^{page 36 note 9} Pompey, 68.

^{page 36 note 10} And since, I find, by General Chatzimichales.

^{page 36 note 11} Strategematica, 2. 3. 22: ‘qui et alveo et alluvie regionem impedierat.’

^{page 36 note 12} 7. 116, 224–6: At iuxta fluvios et stagna undantis Enipei Cappadocum montana cohors et liber habenae Ponticus ibit eques.

^{page 36 note 13} Bellum Civile, II. 64–5; 75.

^{page 36 note 14} 42. 1. 3.

^{page 37 note 1} The lines with figures (1–8) on Pl. II. mark the lines of battle of the armies, as placed by (1) Leake and Kromayer, (2) Von Goeler, (3) Mommsen, (4) Heuzey, (5) Stoffel, (6) Rice-Holmes, (7) Chatzimichales, (8) the Author.

^{page 37 note 2} N. Greece, IV. 477–84.

^{page 37 note 3} There is apparently no such place. But Leake's intention is clear; see Pl. II.

^{page 37 note 4} Caesar, , B. C. III. 97. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 5} Ibid. 97. 4.

^{page 37 note 6} Thus, as Dr. Rice-Holmes has pointed out, the Bellum Alexandrinum speaks both of ‘Palaepharsalus’ and ‘proelii Pharsalici’ (43. 2).

^{page 38 note 1} See below, p. 48.

^{page 38 note 2} IX. 5. 6.

^{page 40 note 1} B. C. III. 81. 2.

^{page 40 note 2} Appian, S. (B. C. 2. 88)Google Scholar says that Caesar conferred freedom after the battle on the Thessalians ‘συμμαχήσαντες οἱ’ and Pliny (4. 8. 15) mentions Pharsalos as a ‘libera civitas.’

^{page 40 note 3} I see since that General Dousmanes makes the fact that Pharsalos was Caesarian a reason for placing the battle by Karditsa, forty-five kilometres further west.

^{page 41 note 1} Caesar's Gallischer Krieg, etc., II. (1880).

^{page 41 note 2} Römische Geschichte, III. (1889), 424, 428.

^{page 42 note 1} Les opérations militaires de J. César, 104–35.

^{page 42 note 2} Called ‘Apidanos’ in the Greek Staff Map. ‘Pharsalos.’ 1911.

^{page 43 note 1} Histoire de J. César—Guerre Civile, II. (1887).

^{page 44 note 1} Antike Schlachtfelder in Griechenland, II. 401–443.

^{page 45 note 1} 1908, pp. 271 ff.

^{page 46 note 1} Παρατηρήοεις ἐπὶ προσδιορισμου̑ του̑ πεδίου μάχης Πομπηίου καὶ Καίσαρος Athens, 1900.

^{page 48 note 1} Greek Staff Map, ‘Pharsalos,’ 1/75,000; see map. Pl. II.

^{page 48 note 2} Mission en Macédoine, p. 441.

^{page 48 note 3} Mission en Macédoine, p. 411; Allen, , Homeric Catalogue of Ships, pp. 125 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 49 note 1} Cf. the story of Caesar and the soothsayer; Plutarch, , Caesar, 43.Google Scholar

^{page 50 note 1} So still in the Greek Staff Map of 1878.

^{page 50 note 2} Or the ‘castella’ Caesar mentions may have stretched to Pompey's left across the road at the mouth of the pass.

^{page 50 note 3} Cf. Frontinus, ‘alveo et alluvie’ (cf. p. 36).

^{page 50 note 4} Here Brutus may have fled (Plutarch, , Brutus, 6).Google Scholar

^{page 51 note 1} They may have hoped to find refuge of some sort in Krannon on their way.

^{page 51 note 2} The distance of Caesar's march measured from the foot of Dogantzes by Pompey's camp is nine kilometres = six Roman miles. This signifies little in itself; but at least it does not assume with the levity of several previous theories that Caesar did not know what a mile was.

^{page 52 note 1} I cannot attach any importance to the faint traces of a rampart on a little round hill south-east of Dogantzes,—a possible castellum.

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