Pharsalia

Pharsalia refers to two related subjects connected with the Roman civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great: the battle and place at Pharsalus in Thessaly, and the Latin epic poem by Lucan that interprets or reflects on the same conflict.

The Battle of Pharsalus occurred in 48 BCE near the town of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Caesar’s legions defeated Pompey’s forces, and Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated. Caesar’s victory shifted the balance of power in Rome and helped determine the outcome of the civil war, ultimately contributing to the end of the Roman Republic and the rise of Caesar as dictator. The battle is often portrayed as a turning point in Roman history.

Pharsalia, or Bellum Civile, is the title of a Latin epic poem by Marcus Annaeus Lucan, written in the early Imperial period (c. 60–65 CE). The poem, in ten books, narrates the civil war from Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon to its aftermath, but it concentrates on the horrors and moral costs of war rather than celebrating triumph. Lucan’s style is formal and erudite, and the work is noted for its stoic and often bleak portrait of violence. It is unfinished; Lucan died before completing the tenth book. The poem’s critical stance toward tyranny and its political reframing of recent Roman history led to mixed reception in antiquity.