[Cause] [Caesar crossed the Rubicon because returning without protection exposed him to prosecution]
[Negotiation] [Caesar sought a political office that would preserve legal immunity]
[Breakdown] [The Senate rejected the arrangement and left him no acceptable alternative]
[Event] [In January 49 BCE Caesar led Legio XIII from Cisalpine Gaul across the Rubicon into Italy] The act violated the law governing imperium and made armed conflict inevitable.
[Meaning] [Crossing the Rubicon means passing the point of no return]
[Optimates' response] [Pompey and many senators fled south because they overestimated Caesar's advancing force]
[Immediate result] [Caesar captured Rome without resistance]
Battle of Ilerda
[Strategic objective] [Caesar sought to neutralize Pompey's stronghold in Hispania]
[Pompeian base] [Pompey held Hispania as a major provincial base with many legions]
[Pompeian advantage] [Afranius and Petreius commanded five legions from strong ground near Ilerda] They controlled high ground and vital supplies.
Battle of Pharsalus
[Strategic objective] [Caesar pursued Pompey into Greece before Pompeian strength could grow]
[Significance] [Pharsalus became the decisive battle of the Caesarian civil war]
[Crisis] [Caesar's situation became critical because time favored Pompey]
[Forces] [Caesar fielded roughly 30,000 veteran infantry and 2,000 cavalry]
[Forces] [Pompey fielded roughly 47,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry with positional superiority]
[Qualification] [The headline numbers obscure differences in combat experience]
[Pompeian strategy] [Pompey preferred Fabian delay and supply interdiction]
[Caesarian strategy] [Caesar needed decisive battle because delay favored Pompey]
[Position] [Pompey's army waited uphill while Caesar occupied lower ground]
[Initiative] [Pompey initially refused battle, leading Caesar to feign departure]
[Tactic] [Pompey ordered his line to remain still so Caesar's charging infantry would tire]
[Discipline] [Caesar's veterans recognized the tactic and paused before resuming their advance]
[Decisive reserve] [Six concealed cohorts were trained to counter Pompey's cavalry]
[Cavalry action] [Labienus drove back Caesar's cavalry on Pompey's left]
[Surprise] [Caesar revealed a fourth infantry line and ordered pila to be thrust rather than thrown]
[Result] [Pompey's cavalry panicked, suffered heavy casualties, and exposed the flank]
Pompey's Retreat and Death
[Collapse] [Pompey's retreat caused his legions to panic and flee]
[Camp] [Pompey expected a long battle but soon learned Caesar's troops were entering his camp]
[Flight] [Pompey escaped in disguise and sought new support in Egypt]
[Assassination] [Egyptian authorities killed Pompey in an attempt to please Caesar]
[Caesar's response] [Caesar wept when presented with Pompey's head] Pompey had been his longtime ally and son-in-law, and Caesar had intended to pardon him.
Battle of Zela
[Event] [Caesar defeated Pharnaces II near Zela in 47 BCE]
[Summary] [Veni, vidi, vici compresses the speed and completeness of the victory]
[Pharnaces' strategy] [Pharnaces delayed because Caesar faced many competing crises]
[Battle] [Pharnaces unexpectedly crossed the valley and attacked uphill while Caesar's camp was unfinished]
[Defense] [Roman pila stopped the scythed chariots that penetrated Caesar's thin line]
[Counterattack] [Caesar drove the Pontic army downhill, routed it, and captured its camp]
Mutiny of Caesar's Legions
[Open question] [What should Caesar do about the mutiny?]
Battle of Thapsus
[Campaign] [Thapsus continued Caesar's war against the remaining Optimates]
Caesar's Victory
Destruction of the Optimates
[Result] [Caesar destroyed much of Rome's oldest patrician elite]
Four Triumphs
[Ritual] [Triumphs displayed battle paintings, spoils, and prominent prisoners]
[Gallic triumph] [The conquest of Gaul doubled Roman territory and ended with the execution of the Gallic king]
[Egyptian triumph] [The Egyptian celebration was not a conventional territorial triumph]
[Pontic triumph] [The Pontic celebration did not commemorate permanent annexation]
[African triumph] [Romans objected to images showing Optimates dying]
[Reward] [Each soldier received one silver talent, roughly fifteen years of military pay]
[Public distribution] [Roman citizens received roughly four years of minimum wages]
[Senate] [Caesar expanded the Senate from about 300 to 1,000 members]
[Calendar reform] [Caesar established a twelve-month calendar] July and August were added in the inherited naming scheme, while December still preserves the Latin root for ten.
Death of Julius Caesar
Public Excess
[Crown test] [Caesar had Mark Antony offer him a crown publicly to test the crowd]
[Golden throne] [A golden Senate throne appeared extravagantly monarchical]
[Tribunes] [Caesar imprisoned a tribune who opposed public royal symbolism]
Root Cause
[Strategic error] [Caesar pardoned enemies who later organized his assassination]
[Conspirators] [Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius led the plot]
Motives
[Urgency] [The conspirators acted before Caesar departed on further eastern campaigns]
[Dictatorship] [His title of dictator for life signaled the Republic's loss of power]
[Mercy paradox] [The enemies able to kill Caesar remained alive because he had pardoned them]
Ides of March
[Warnings] [A priest advised Caesar to stay home and his wife reported a nightmare]
[Condition] [Caesar was hungover]
[Persuasion] [Brutus argued that Caesar could not summon the Senate and then fail to attend]
Succession
[Antony] [Mark Antony's poor governance of Italy weakened his position as Caesar's principal heir]
[Octavian] [Campaign experience in Spain revealed Octavian's intelligence]
[Heir] [Caesar selected the eighteen-year-old Octavian partly because he lacked a son]
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