FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424  
425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   >>   >|  
for Calvinus threatened his reserve left behind under Favonius on the Haliacmon with the same fate which he had himself destined for Longinus. So Calvinus and Scipio met again on the Haliacmon, and encamped there for a considerable time opposite to each other. Caesar's Retreat from Dyrrachium to Thessaly Pompeius might choose among these plans; no choice was left to Caesar. After that unfortunate engagement he entered on his retreat to Apollonia. Pompeius followed. The march from Dyrrhachium to Apollonia along a difficult road crossed by several rivers was no easy task for a defeated army pursued by the enemy; but the dexterous leadership of their general and the indestructible marching energy of the soldiers compelled Pompeius after four days' pursuit to suspend it as useless. He had now to decide between the Italian expedition and the march into the interior. However advisable and attractive the former might seem, and though various voices were raised in its favour, he preferred not to abandon the corps of Scipio, the more especially as he hoped by this march to get the corps of Calvinus into his hands. Calvinus lay at the moment on the Egnatian road at Heraclea Lyncestis, between Pompeius and Scipio, and, after Caesar had retreated to Apollonia, farther distant from the latter than from the great army of Pompeius; without knowledge, moreover, of the events at Dyrrhachium and of his hazardous position, since after the successes achieved at Dyrrhachium the whole country inclined to Pompeius and the messengers of Caesar were everywhere seized. It was not till the enemy's main force had approached within a few hours of him that Calvinus learned from the accounts of the enemy's advanced posts themselves the state of things. A quick departure in a southerly direction towards Thessaly withdrew him at the last moment from imminent destruction; Pompeius had to content himself with having liberated Scipio from his position of peril. Caesar had meanwhile arrived unmolested at Apollonia. Immediately after the disaster of Dyrrhachium he had resolved if possible to transfer the struggle from the coast away into the interior, with the view of getting beyond the reach of the enemy's fleet--the ultimate cause of the failure of his previous exertions. The march to Apollonia had only been intended to place his wounded in safety and to pay his soldiers there, where his depots were stationed; as soon as this was done, he se
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424  
425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Pompeius

 

Caesar

 
Apollonia
 

Calvinus

 

Dyrrhachium

 
Scipio
 
soldiers
 
Thessaly
 

moment

 

Haliacmon


interior
 

position

 

approached

 
things
 
advanced
 
accounts
 
learned
 

country

 

events

 
hazardous

knowledge

 

distant

 

successes

 

achieved

 

seized

 
messengers
 

inclined

 

failure

 

previous

 

exertions


ultimate

 

intended

 
stationed
 

depots

 

wounded

 

safety

 

imminent

 
destruction
 

content

 

withdrew


departure

 

southerly

 

direction

 

liberated

 

transfer

 
struggle
 
resolved
 

disaster

 

farther

 

arrived