Pompey's army had been working with for eight years, a very loyal veterans, but very experienced. He could keep going longer than anybody else. Pompeys survivors flee to africa, set up a new base there. Caesar has to follow them to africa and win that battle - but again, he cannot destroy the senatorial faction. They move to spain, set up base there. Big climactic battle in forty five and we often think that's the end of the civil war. And that's the point at which caesar goes back to rome. It's his last campaign. But pompey’s younger son, sextus, survives
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life, work and reputation of Julius Caesar. Famously assassinated as he entered the Roman senate on the Ides of March, 44 BC, Caesar was an inspirational general who conquered much of Europe. He was a ruthless and canny politician who became dictator of Rome, and wrote The Gallic Wars, one of the most admired and studied works of Latin literature. Shakespeare is one of many later writers to have been fascinated by the figure of Julius Caesar.
With:
Christopher Pelling
Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford
Catherine Steel
Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow
Maria Wyke
Professor of Latin at University College London
Producer: Thomas Morris.