ORDER OF BATTLE // -47 BCE
Battle of Pharsalus
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 64,000–77,000 estimated
Caesarians
23,000
Medium-confidence figure
Pompeians
41,000–54,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive engagement of Caesar's Civil War, fought on 9 August 48 BC near Pharsalus in Central Greece. Caesar's forces, though significantly outnumbered — facing a Pompeian army of between 41,000 and 54,000 with only 23,000 men — inflicted casualties estimated between 30,000 and 39,000 on the Pompeian side while suffering only around 1,200 of their own. Pompey commanded not only the larger force but the backing of a majority of the Roman Senate, giving the Pompeian cause both military weight and institutional legitimacy. The scale of the disparity in casualties points to a collapse of Pompeian resistance rather than a close-run contest, and the battle effectively broke the organized Senatorial opposition to Caesar. With Pompey's army destroyed at Pharsalus, the political coalition that had mustered behind the Republican cause lost its principal military instrument, shifting the trajectory of the civil war decisively toward Caesar.
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