Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC)

In 48 BC at Pharsalus Caesar, with fewer soldiers, defeated Pompey. A maneuver decided it: six hidden cohorts struck the enemy cavalry, which fled. According to Pollio no more than six thousand of Pompey’s soldiers fell.

Pompey fled to Egypt and died there. Suetonius writes that Caesar ordered his fellow citizens spared, and Plutarch that he incorporated most of the prisoners into his own legions (Caesar 46).