Chapter 547: Chapter 415: Pompey’s Victory
On January 2nd, which coincided with a similar time in history, Caesar’s transport fleet, fully loaded with soldiers, departed from Brindisi. They successfully crossed the Adriatic Sea and landed on the Epirus Coast.
The transport fleet was only discovered by patrol boats when returning at night. Bibulus hastily led his fleet out, but managed to intercept only a small portion of the ships.
Enraged, Bibulus burned all the captured sailors and ships and warned his subordinates not to make the same oversight again.
As a result, Pompey’s fleet tightened their defense, preventing Caesar’s transport fleet from ferrying more troops across the sea.
Caesar, already landed, had his reinforcements and supply lines cut off in the short term. Fortunately, the fleet had managed to transport nearly twenty thousand soldiers and several hundred cavalry ashore in one go. Although the fleet didn’t have enough space to carry ample grain, the presence of this force allowed him to devise solutions.
Caesar gathered the landed troops, took a short rest, and launched an attack on the neighboring towns the next day, quickly conquering most of Epirus.
Next, Caesar prepared to seize one of Pompey’s army’s main supply depots—an important coastal trading port, Dyrrachium.
By this time, Pompey had already gathered his army and rushed to the rescue, reaching there before Caesar.
Because Pompey’s army consisted of nine legions, more than twice Caesar’s force, Caesar had no choice but to retreat.
Pompey also chose not to pursue further attacks. Though Caesar’s army was smaller, their morale was extraordinarily high, leaving a deep impression on him, making him realize his own troops needed more training.
The two sides were locked in a stalemate, resorting more to negotiations and private exchanges, trying to undermine each other.
During this period, Labienus stood out the most. After the civil war erupted, this most capable legion commander under Caesar left Gaul and defected to Pompey.
He did so partly because Pompey was his patron, and according to Roman tradition, when a patron required it, a client had to provide assistance; partly because he believed he had made significant contributions in helping Caesar conquer Gaul, but the majority of the glory belonged to Caesar. He had stayed in Gaul for seven or eight years, yet received no governorship, and his true value in Caesar’s team was not recognized.
Because of these grievances, he acted exceptionally tough when facing his former comrades, even continually clamoring for the end of any negotiations unless they delivered Caesar’s head.
During this time, the ever-driven-for-revenge Bibulus fell ill due to overwork and soon passed away. For various reasons, no one was appointed to take over his fleet commander’s role, but the fleet’s maritime blockade continued.
This ensured that Caesar’s transport fleet could never deliver further troops to the East Adriatic Coast, and as time wore on, even Caesar himself began to feel despair.
He started to doubt the belief and loyalty of his subordinates left in Italy, thinking that only by personally taking charge could he spur reinforcements into action. Thus, he disguised himself, boarded a small merchant vessel, intending to head to Brindisi, but encountered strong winds at sea and was forced to return.
Upon learning of this incident, some soldiers were furious, thinking their commander lacked confidence in them to win the war with just their efforts, and they went to sense of unity between Caesar and his soldiers.
The stalemate continued until April, when Mark Antony led four legions and several hundred cavalry from Brindisi and successfully landed on the East Adriatic Coast. If Bibulus had been alive, this might not have happened, but lacking a commander, Pompey’s fleet ultimately slackened.
Now Caesar had nearly 50,000 infantry and over a thousand cavalry at his disposal. Though still outnumbered by the enemy, he unhesitatingly sought battle with Pompey.
Pompey, understanding his troops’ quality was inferior, refused direct confrontation, choosing instead to hold firm on land and blockade at sea. He believed that by cutting off Caesar’s army’s food supply, Caesar’s formidable force would eventually be worn down.
Caesar, aware of his army’s weakness in this regard, decided once again to seize Pompey’s main supply base—Dyrrachium.
Although his forces reached Dyrrachium first this time, Pompey’s army followed quickly, preventing him from taking the city.
Caesar then changed his strategy and started laying siege to Pompey’s camp.
Caesar employed one of his most adept tactics—the construction of long walls to encircle Pompey’s camp, thus completely cutting off the opponent’s land support.
Pompey, unwilling to be outdone, built his own long walls around his camp for protection.
Thus, an unusual spectacle in the history of warfare appeared: the soldiers were not engaged in slaughter but competing in wall-building, with two long lines of fortifications extending around Pompey’s camp.
During the wall-building process, small skirmishes occasionally broke out, usually with Caesar’s troops gaining the upper hand, as his soldiers were seasoned and more fiercely resilient.
However, as time passed, the issue of lack of supplies in Caesar’s army became increasingly apparent. He had no choice but to send many soldiers into the surrounding areas to forage for food, forcing them to eat barley (usually livestock feed), and eventually, sometimes even barley was unavailable. They had to mix roots of a certain plant with milk to bake into an unpalatable bread.
Pompey’s army faced difficulties as well, though they had no shortage of grain thanks to continuous support from the sea. However, being besieged by the coast, they struggled with a lack of fresh water, leading to the death of many livestock and an outbreak of sickness in the camp.
Both armies bore considerable suffering, yet neither commander was willing to concede, so this massive siege continued unabated.
But soon, Pompey encountered another issue. Besieged as they were, obtaining enough fresh forage to feed their numerous warhorses became challenging. This made him realize that if this continued, his army’s situation would become even worse than the enemy’s, leading him to decide against passive defense any longer.
At this moment, several Gaul tribal leaders fighting alongside Caesar, fearing punishment from him for mistakes they’d made, defected to Pompey’s camp.
Through them, Pompey learned about the troop deployment and defensive situation along Caesar’s lines. Since Caesar’s walls extended further and further, his forces became thinner, especially as some had been sent out to forage, leaving certain parts of the defense severely undermanned.
Pompey made a snap decision to concentrate his forces and launched a fierce attack on the weakest point in Caesar’s defenses.
Unprepared, Caesar’s forces were swiftly defeated. Pompey’s troops successfully captured the segment of the wall closest to the sea and began building a new camp there, ensuring their troops could freely exit and enter Caesar’s encirclement to gather needed supplies.
Caesar, naturally unwilling for this to happen, immediately gathered his forces and launched a counterattack.
Pompey did not expect Caesar’s assault to come so swiftly and was at first taken by surprise.
But as Caesar’s reinforcements, unfamiliar with the terrain, went in the wrong direction and failed to launch a timely attack to aid in flanking the enemy,
Pompey’s reinforcements quickly arrived, joining their besieged comrades in a counteroffensive. Simultaneously, many of Pompey’s cavalry began striking the flanks of Caesar’s cavalry fiercely.
The weaker Caesar cavalry retreated first, affecting the collapse of Caesar’s right wing, eventually leading all attacking units to start fleeing. Regardless of how Caesar tried to stop them, it had no effect.
This attack resulted in considerable losses for Caesar, with more than a thousand soldiers killed or wounded and several dozen senior officers lost.
Nevertheless, the cautious Pompey did not press on to attack Caesar’s camp after the victory.
The following day, Caesar gathered his troops, criticizing their poor performance the previous day, but also praising their ability to besiege an enemy with much larger numbers for so long. Lastly, he encouraged the soldiers to fight bravely next time to make up for the previous day’s failure.
Inspired by him, the soldiers’ morale soared once more, with not a few officers urging Caesar to dare to engage the enemy again.
But Caesar recognized that the strategy of enclosing Pompey’s army had failed. The naval advantage of Pompey’s army was too significant, making it too disadvantageous to continue combating them near the coast.
So, at night, he led his troops to withdraw from the coast.
It wasn’t until the following afternoon that Pompey discovered the enemy had left, not returning to Italy, but heading east into the heart of Greece.
At this point, he hesitated.
The victory at Dyrrachium greatly inspired Pompey’s senior officers and the Senate. The Senate urged Pompey to use his navy to transport his troops back to Italy to recapture Rome, dispelling Caesar’s pretense of representing the true Senate. Meanwhile, his subordinates believed they should take decisive action, pursue Caesar’s army, and end the war.
Pompey was cautious, full of respect for the combat capabilities of Caesar’s army. In his heart, he wanted to return to Italy and first destroy Caesar’s base, but he worried that the Senate would say he was once again forced to retreat by sea. More importantly, he couldn’t leave his father-in-law Metellus, who was marching with troops from the east, isolated and vulnerable to being overwhelmed by Caesar’s much larger forces.
So, Pompey decided to track the enemy with his army, but not to engage them in direct combat. Instead, he aimed to cut off their supplies until he wore them down.
As Pompey’s forces packed their camp and left the Dyrrachium area, a small merchant ship also left the city’s harbor, sailing quickly north.
The ship’s captain was under the Commerce Officer of the Kingdom of Nix, Onomabatis, tasked with quickly conveying the news to the kingdom that both Roman armies had departed the Epirus coast, as specially instructed by King Maximus.
At the eastern end of the Northern Italy Province, on the east side of the road connecting to the Illyria Province, the rolling mountains, verdant and lush, with green and flourishing forests, provided excellent cover for a Yabode army of over four hundred men.