Battle of Pharsalus - Aftermath

Aftermath

Pompey fled from Pharsalus to Egypt, where he was assassinated on the order of Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. Interestingly enough, Ptolemy XIII sent Pompey's head to Caesar in an effort to win his favor, but instead secured him as a furious enemy. Ptolemy, advised by his regent, the eunuch Pothinus, and his rhetoric tutor Theodotus of Chios, did not take into account that Caesar was granting amnesty to a great number of those of the senatorial faction in their defeat. Even men who had been bitter enemies were allowed to not only return to Rome but assume their previous positions in Roman society. Pompey's assassination had deprived Caesar of his ultimate public relations moment and pardoning his most ardent rival. The Battle of Pharsalus ended the wars of the First Triumvirate. The Roman Civil War, however, was not ended. Pompey's two sons, Gnaeus and Sextus, and the Pompeian faction, led now by Metellus Scipio and Cato, survived and fought for their cause in the name of Pompey the Great. Caesar spent the next few years 'mopping up' remnants of the senatorial faction. After seemingly destroying all his enemies and bringing peace to Rome he was assassinated by friends in a conspiracy organized by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.