| Battle of Zela | |||||||
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| Part of the Pontic War | |||||||
 Caesar's campaigns from Rome to Zela. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Roman Republic | Kingdom of Pontus | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Julius Caesar | Pharnaces II | ||||||
The Battle of Zela was fought in 47 BC between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II of the Kingdom of Pontus. The battle took place near Zela (modern Zile), which is now a small hilltop town in the Tokat province of northern Turkey. The battle ended the ambitions of king Pharnaces who wanted to expand his rule over Asia Minor.
After the defeat of the Ptolemaic forces at the Battle of the Nile, Caesar left Egypt and travelled through Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia to fight Pharnaces, son of Mithridates VI.
Pharnaces had defeated Caesar's Legate Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, and his small Roman and allied army at the Battle of Nicopolis. He then committed atrocities against the Roman prisoners and against any Roman civilians he found in the region. When Pharnaces received word of Caesar's approach, he sent envoys to seek peace, which Caesar refused outright.
Pharnaces had made camp near the town of Zela on the site of a great victory won by his father. His camp was in a strong defensive position, on high ground with a track linking his camp to the town to maintain his supply line. Caesar set up camp on the other side of the valley, but upon his scouts reporting Pharnaces' position, he decided to move his camp to the high ground opposite the Pontic camp. The Romans quickly marched onto the highground and started building a camp. Pharnaces reacted by drawing his army out of camp and put them into battle order. Caesar drew up one line of infantry to protect the workers but kept the rest of his army constructing the new camp. The Pontic army suddenly marched against the Romans.
Caesar had a detachment [lower-alpha 1] of the veteran VI Legion [lower-alpha 2] , the XXII Legion [lower-alpha 3] , the XXXVI Legion [lower-alpha 4] and several cohorts of survivors of the army of Domitius Calvinus. He also had a small contingent of cavalry. His army numbered c. 15,000 men.
Pharnaces had an army of approximately 20,000 strong, mostly consisting of tribal and levied infantry, but also containing a core of professional soldiers: phalangites, legionaries, and cavalry. Pharnaces also had scythed chariots.
Pharnaces drew up his army with the scythed chariots in front of the first line, which was made up of light infantry and cavalry; the second and third lines held the rest of the infantry.
After Caesar had rushed his men into position, he had the VI on the right, the XXXVI on the left, and the Galatian legion in the centre.
Pharnaces' army marched down into the valley separating the two armies. Caesar initially laughed at this move, thinking it was merely bravado, as it meant his opponents had to fight an uphill battle. However, Pharnaces' men began climbing up from the valley, and Caesar realized they were serious. Caesar recalled the rest of his men from constructing their camp, and hastily drew them up for battle. Immediately after, the Pontic army engaged Caesar's thin line of legionaries. Pharnaces' scythed chariots broke through the thin defensive line but were met by a hail of missiles (pila, the Roman throwing spear) from Caesar's battle line and were forced to retreat. Caesar launched a counter-attack and drove the Pontic army back down the hill, where it was completely routed. Caesar then stormed and took Pharnaces' camp, completing his victory. [1] [2]
It was a decisive point in Caesar's military career - his five day campaign against Pharnaces was evidently so swift and complete that, according to Plutarch (writing about 150 years after the battle) he commemorated it with the now famous Latin words reportedly written to Amantius in Rome: Veni, vidi, vici ("I came, I saw, I conquered"). [3] Suetonius says that the same three words were displayed prominently in the triumph for the victory at Zela. [4] Pharnaces escaped from Zela, first fleeing to Sinope then back to his Bosporan Kingdom. He started to recruit another army but was soon after defeated and killed by his son-in-law Asander, one of his former governors who had revolted after the Battle of Nicopolis. Caesar made Mithridates of Pergamum the new king of the Bosporian kingdom in recognition of his aid during the Egyptian campaign.
The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War fought on 9 August 48 BC near Pharsalus in Central Greece. Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the Roman Republic under the command of Pompey. Pompey had the backing of a majority of Roman senators and his army significantly outnumbered the veteran Caesarian legions.
The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Liberators' civil war between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the leaders of Julius Caesar's assassination, Brutus and Cassius, in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia. The Second Triumvirate declared the civil war ostensibly to avenge Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, but the underlying cause was a long-brewing conflict between the so-called Optimates and the so-called Populares.
Legio XXII Deiotariana was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, founded ca. 48 BC and disbanded or destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. Its cognomen comes from Deiotarus, a Celtic king of Galatia. Its emblem is unknown.
Pharnaces II of Pontus was the king of the Bosporan Kingdom and Kingdom of Pontus until his death. He was a monarch of Persian and Greek ancestry. He was the youngest child born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus from his first wife, his sister Queen Laodice. He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus and was the namesake of his late double great grandfather Pharnaces I of Pontus. After his father was defeated by the Romans in the Third Mithridatic War and died in 63 BC, the Romans annexed the western part of Pontus, merged it with the former Kingdom of Bithynia and formed the Roman province of Bithynia and Pontus. The eastern part of Pontus remained under the rule of Pharnaces as a client kingdom until his death.
The Battle of Chaeronea was fought by the Roman forces of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Mithridates' general, Archelaus, near Chaeronea, in Boeotia, in 86 BC during the First Mithridatic War. The battle ended with a complete rout of the Pontic army and a decisive victory for the Romans.
Deiotarus of Galatia was a Chief Tetrarch of the Tolistobogii in western Galatia, Asia Minor, and a King of Galatia ("Gallo-Graecia"). He was considered one of the most adept of Celtic kings, ruling the three tribes of Celtic Galatia from his fortress in Blucium.
Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus was a Roman general, senator and consul who was a loyal partisan of Caesar and Octavianus.
The Battle of Orchomenus was fought in 85 BC between Rome and the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus. The Roman army was led by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, while Mithridates' army was led by Archelaus. The Roman force was victorious, and Archelaus later defected to Rome. The battle ended the Mithridatic invasion of Europe. Information on the battle is included in Plutarch's Life of Sulla, chapters 20–21.
The Battle of the Lycus was fought in 66 BC between an army of Roman Republic under the command of Pompey the great and the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus. The Romans won the battle with few losses; their victory turned out to be decisive with Mithridates fleeing to the Kingdom of the Bosporus and committing suicide a few years later, finally ending the Third Mithridatic War.
Legio VI Ferrata was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. In 30 BC it became part of the emperor Augustus's standing army. It continued in existence into the 4th century. A Legio VI fought in the Roman Republican civil wars of the 40s and 30s BC. Sent to garrison the province of Judaea, it remained there for the next two centuries.
The Liberators' civil war was started by the Second Triumvirate to avenge Julius Caesar's assassination. The war was fought by the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian against the forces of Caesar's assassins, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, referred to as the Liberatores. The latter were defeated by the Triumvirs at the Battle of Philippi in October 42 BC, and committed suicide. Brutus committed suicide after the second part of the battle.
Pontus was a Hellenistic kingdom centered in the historical region of Pontus in modern-day Turkey, and ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty of Persian origin, which may have been directly related to Darius the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty. The kingdom was proclaimed by Mithridates I in 281 BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC. The Kingdom of Pontus reached its largest extent under Mithridates VI the Great, who conquered Colchis, Cappadocia, Bithynia, the Greek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos, and for a brief time the Roman province of Asia. After a long struggle with Rome in the Mithridatic Wars, Pontus was defeated.
Mithridates II of the Bosporus, also known as Mithridates of Pergamon, was a nobleman from Anatolia. Mithridates was one of the sons born to King Mithridates VI from his mistress, the Galatian Princess Adobogiona the Elder. He also had a full-blooded sister called Adobogiona the Younger. The Pontic prince was of Persian, Macedonian and Galatian ancestry.
Asander, named Philocaesar Philoromaios was a Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom. He was of Greek and possibly of Persian ancestry. Not much is known of his family and early life. He started his career as a general under Pharnaces II, the king of the Bosporus. According to some scholars, Asander took as his first wife a woman called Glykareia, known from one surviving Greek inscription, "Glykareia, wife of Asander".
The Battle of Nicopolis was fought in December 48 BC between the army of Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of Mithdridates VI Eupator, and a Roman army led by Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus.
Cappadocia was a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia, with its capital at Caesarea. It was established in 17 AD by the Emperor Tiberius, following the death of Cappadocia's last king, Archelaus.
Bithynia and Pontus was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus. The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces.
Caucasian campaign of Pompey was a military campaign led by Pompey that took place in 65 BC and was a consequence of the third Mithridatic War fought over Georgian lands and its neighboring frontiers. Rome sought to expand its influence and establish itself as the overlord of the Middle East. After conquering the Kingdom of Pontus and receiving the subjugation of Tigranes II of Armenia the Romans marched on the Kingdom of Iberia, whose king, Artoces had been an ally of Mithridates VI of Pontus, Rome's premier enemy during the 80's, 70's and early 60's BC.
The siege of Corduba was an engagement near the end of Caesar's Civil War, in which Julius Caesar had besieged the city of Corduba after Sextus Pompey, Son of Pompey Magnus had fled the city leaving Annio Scapula in charge. Caesar stormed the city and 22,000 people died.
The Pontic War of 48-47 BC was an armed conflict between Rome and the king of Bosporus and Pontus, Pharnaces II, who tried to restore the kingdom of Mithridates Eupator.
40°18′N35°53′E / 40.300°N 35.883°E
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