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legions to return to camp. They formed their lines again, grew quiet, and left the field with the good cheer of men who haven’t played the cowards. As for the talk that evening, it was uniformly in praise of Gnaeus Pompey. The lad had finally looked at Caesar’s legions and resisted the impulse to run away.

    Next morning, Caesar’s army spilled out across the plain again exactly as before. As on the previous morning, Gnaeus Pompey remained behind his palisade while we formed for battle. I thought he might refuse to fight again, but once Caesar’s army was in place, Pompey ordered his army to the field.
    With thirteen legions, Pompey’s fighting men numbered well over sixty thousand infantry. In addition to these men, he enjoyed another six thousand cavalrymen. This against Caesar’s thirty-five thousand infantry and eight thousand horse. Using his numbers to advantage, Pompey’s legions spread across the plain with reserve lines twice as deep as those of Caesar’s legions.
    The open ground between the two armies offered a slight incline for us most of the way. Only at the end did we face a steep climb. Caesar therefore made no order to advance. He wanted Pompey to leave his plateau and come across the plain before he answered. Pompey of course understood his advantage and refused. He had waited all winter. If Caesar would not attempt an uphill charge Pompey would wait another day. He would wait all spring and summer if he had to.
    Once it was clear Pompey did not intend to move, Caesar sent a courier to one of his cavalry prefects. The prefect sent three hundred light cavalry between the two armies. These men were armed with two javelins each and carried a shield sufficient for stopping darts and small stones. They drifted quite close to Pompey’s line as they crossed the field because Caesar hoped to lure the enemy cavalry forward. From there the fight might spread and leave Pompey no choice but to come off his high ground. Pompey refused to take the bait. Instead, he answered with two cohorts of archers. They came before their line in a cluster and began raining arrows down on our horsemen.
    Caesar’s cavalry turned toward them at once, forming a slender column. When the first men were in range, they threw one of their javelins, then turned away at a ninety degree angle. The rapid breaking away from the column after a cavalryman threw his spear allowed the next man in line to throw his javelin, decimating the archers with a continuous barrage.
    A second cohort of heavy cavalry left Caesar’s line in anticipation of Pompey sending horsemen forward to save his archers, but Pompey refused to engage. He let his archers run back to cover without assistance. With Pompey’s line standing at attention and offering nothing by way of a fight, our lancers came forward and chased them down with impunity, then retreated to the open plain, where both of Caesar’s cavalry units proceeded to gather the wounded and those men who had lost their horses. From there they returned to Caesar’s line.
    Having no choice if he wanted a fight, Caesar sent his army forward in a cadenced march. In the old days, Roman armies came with rhythmic shouts as they beat their shields. This was to excite fear in the enemy. No longer. Caesar’s men came silently, thirty-five thousand strong with only the centurions calling out orders. Every centurion’s optio watched the flags in case the orders were suddenly changed, but the centurion watched the men in his century. On command, they could stop midstride or advance at a run. This is how they drilled: every man ready to obey his centurion.
    As the distance between the armies closed, Caesar sent his archers forward, a cohort at either end of the line with cavalry standing by to defend them. Pompey’s archers answered, this time with cavalry in support. For the moment neither side wasted ammunition. Caesar called a halt when the two armies were a furlong apart, roughly an eighth of a mile. When