Battle of Zela

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Battle of Zela
Campaign of Caesar in the Roman Civil War up to the Battle of Zela
Campaign of Caesar in the Roman Civil War up to the Battle of Zela
date May 21, 47 BC Chr. ( Julian calendar )
place Zile
output Decisive victory for Caesar
Parties to the conflict

Roman Empire

Pontus

Commander

Gaius Iulius Caesar

Pharnakes II

Troop strength
Legio XXII Deiotariana ; 2 cohorts of the Legio VI Ferrata ; Galatian allies 20,000 infantry and horsemen
losses

low

heavy

The Battle of Zela occurred near Zile in Asia Minor on May 21, 47 BC. BC ( Julian calendar ) or August 2, 47 BC. BC (according to the pre-Julian Roman calendar) between Gaius Iulius Caesar on the one hand and Pharnakes II , king of the Bosporan Empire , on the other.

prehistory

Pharnakes had defeated the Roman legate Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus in the battle of Nicopolis and then wanted the territories of his father Mithridates VI. recapture from Pontus. After the victory, so the Roman tradition, Pharnakes committed atrocities against Roman citizens and the former allies of Rome. However, when he heard of Caesar's near, he immediately sent envoys with peace offers, which the Roman general declined resolutely when his peace conditions, such as the immediate withdrawal of Pharnakes from Pontus, were not fulfilled.

The battle

After Pharnakes was informed of the hostile intentions of Caesar, he positioned his troops on a hill near the present-day city of Zile . He had only a few well-trained units, and a large part of his army consisted of mercenaries and conscripted soldiers. Caesar, who had very experienced legionaries who had been tried and tested in the civil war, also had his troops set up camp on a hill in order to be, like Pharnakes, in a good position of defense. Against any military logic, Pharnakes attacked Caesar's army uphill, which at first caused some confusion and losses among the Romans. However, the experienced Roman legionaries were able to repel the surprise attack quickly and put the Pontic army to flight. Pharnakes fled the battlefield with a few loyal followers, but was murdered in an ambush in the same year by the usurper Asandros in the Crimea .

consequences

After the five-day campaign against Pharnakes and the four-hour, decisive battle against the Bosporan king, Caesar formulated the words Veni Vidi Vici ("I came, I saw, I won") in a letter, according to the Greek biographer Plutarch , to his friend Gaius Matius . In addition, a sign with these three words was carried to Suetonius on his triumphal procession over Pontus.

literature

credentials

  1. ↑ De bello Alexandrino 69-76; Cassius Dio 42:47; Appian , Civil Wars 2, 91; Plutarch , Caesar 50, 2; Titus Livius , periochae 113; among others
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 50, 3.
  3. ^ So the conjecture of Conrad Cichorius : Römische Studien. Historical, epigraphic, literary history from four centuries of Rome . Leipzig and Berlin 1922, pp. 245-250 ( online ).
  4. ^ Suetonius, Divus Iulius , 37, 2.