Thapsus
About
Caesar's legions attacked before their general even gave the order, routing Metellus Scipio's Optimate army and its war elephants in a rout that turned into a massacre of surrendering troops. As many as 10,000 enemy soldiers died, many killed by Caesar's own men against his wishes. Cato the Younger, unwilling to live under Caesar's rule, took his own life at Utica soon after. The victory effectively finished organized Republican resistance in Africa.
What happened here
A Roman army fights the way it camps: in lines, by drill, on ground chosen if possible. The legions form up in cohorts with gaps that let ranks rotate, throw a volley of heavy javelins at close range, and then close with the short sword, pushing behind the shield. Auxiliaries hold the flanks and do most of the cavalry work and most of the skirmishing. Battles are short and decided by whether one line breaks, and the killing happens in the pursuit rather than the fighting. The camp is dug and palisaded every night regardless. Afterwards the dead are stripped and the field is looted for days; the ground is remembered locally long after the campaign is a paragraph in someone's history.
In ancient writing
- Anonymous, Bellum Africum 79–86
An eyewitness campaign diary: the elephants panicked by slingers on the left, and a slaughter carried on past the point where Caesar tried to stop it.
Sources
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