Civil War

On Caesar's approach to Rome, the Senate fled to Capua. Pompey's forces withdrew to Brundisium, where Caesar's army overtook and besieged them. Pompey managed to assemble ships and move the bulk of his men to Greece. Caesar then invaded Spain and subdued Pompey's forces there. Returning to Rome, he reigned as dictator for 11 days, and then managed to have himself elected consul.

Pompey had gathered a large force in Greece, and Caesar soon moved against him. Pompey's power was crushed forever at Pharsalus, in Thessaly (northern Greece), in August, 48 B.C. He fled to Egypt, with Caesar in pursuit, and was assassinated there.

In Egypt, Caesar's infatuation with Cleopatra kept him involved for some time in the young queen's quarrel with her brother, Ptolemy XII. Finally, having established Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt, Caesar moved against his remaining enemies. His defeat of Pompey's ally Pharnaces, in western Asia. (47 B.C.), was so easy that he reported to Rome: “Veni, vidi, vici” ("I came, I saw, I conquered”). The next year he defeated the last of Pompey's forces, led by Cato the Younger, in a naval battle at Thapsus, in northern Africa.

Caesar was now in complete control. He returned to Rome, and was rewarded for his victories by being appointed dictator for 10 years. In 45 B.C., after crushing the last of the opposition armies in Africa and Spain, he was made dictator for life.