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By the beginning of the year 45 B.C.E., Rome's Dictator, Consul, Pontifex Maximus, and fledgling authoritarian Julius Caesar received word that Rome's two Spanish provinces had fallen into enemy hands. The enemy was none other than Caesar's old right hand man Titus Labienus. Caesar and Labienus were exactly the same age, and may have known each other as far back as childhood, although this is impossible to prove definitively. By the time the two men burst onto the political scene in the 60s B.C.E., they were already close friends and stalwart political allies.
Caesar was always the most charasmatic of the two, and when he was elected Consul for the year 59 he helped Labienus get elected to the lesser office of Praetor for the same year. When their terms were up, Caesar secured for himself a prestigious governorship, and as his first order of business, he asked Labienus to come along as his #2. Labienus accepted, even though he was qualified for a province in his own right. The two men spent the next decade bringing Gaul under the Roman yoke.
This would forever be Caesar's greatest military achievement, and many would argue - in fact I think that I would argue - that Labienus deserves at least 50% of the credit for this. When the Civil War kicked off, Labienus shocked everybody by siding with the Roman Senate. We don't have a clear picture of why he made this decision, but it appears to have come from a genuine place. Caesar extended many olive branches, but Labienus would slap down every offer. Over the next several years, Labienus became a zealous defender of Republican institutions. And now, after the deaths of Pompey and Cato and Scipio and countless others, Labienus
was finally the leader of the Pompeian Faction - or what was left of it. He knew exactly what to do. Unrest in the Spanish provinces meant that they still required a strong military presence, and many of these legions had spent some time on the Pompeian side of the Civil War. As Caesar's legions back in Rome became rich beyond their wildest dreams, the Spanish legions became more and more unhappy. For Labienus, conditions were perfect. After joining forces with two of Pompey's sons, Labienus launched an attack on the Spanish provinces. Resistance was extremely light, and before too long entire legions were coming over to Labienus's side in droves.
Labienus then began to raise additional legions from local recruits, which proved to be extremely successful. According to estimates, Labienus raised something like 13 legions in basically no time at all. This was huge. It was more than Caesar faced at Pharsalus under Pompey or at Thapsus under Scipio. But the more important fact is this: Caesar knew that unlike Pompey and Scipio, Labienus was his equal. His astonishing momentum in Spain put the entire political order at risk. The stakes could not have been higher. Caesar had no choice but to intervene immediately.
He left Lepidus, his new #2, in charge of the city of Rome and departed with whatever legions happened to be nearby. Since he had just retired a massive number of soldiers, this worked out to approximately 8 legions, a mere 60% of what Labienus had at his disposal. This was, uh, not great, but time was of the essence, and it would have to do. It's worth mentioning here that Caesar recruited as an aide-de-camp his late sister's grandson, the 17 year old Gaius Octavius.
The boy didn't really do anything on the campaign, but like I said it's worth mentioning. There, I've mentioned it. Consider it mentioned. Before going any further let me make it clear that this campaign is pretty badly sourced. The only contemporaneous account is anonymous and borderline unreadable. Historians have been able to piece together a plausable account of what happened, but be forewarned evidence for any of this is pretty thin. But nevertheless, here we go. Caesar and his 8 legions set a breakneck pace and were able to make it to Spain in record time. When they arrived, Labienus and the Pompeians were in the middle of besieging one of Spain's last holdouts, the town of Ulia. As we know, Caesar was outnumbered.
He didn't want to risk attacking an entrenched position if he could avoid it, so instead he marched on Corduba, one of Spain's largest cities, hoping that the Pompeians would abandon their siege give chase. The plan mostly worked. A small detatchment stayed behind to continue the siege, but Labienus and the rest of the army moved to intercept Caesar. Labienus launched hit and run attacks, but Caesar refused to face his enemy head on. The two sides slowly settled into a weird standoff.
Caesar seized a few nearby towns for supplies, but other than that nobody seemed too eager to initiate a battle. Over the winter, the Pompeian army saw some defections. These were mostly from the local Spanish soldiers, who were understandably more concerned with the fate of Spanish towns than they were with some Roman political dispute. Labienus sought to minimize future defections by pulling back to the town of Munda. From here, he would plan his next move.
Labienus eventually decided that defections and the threat of future Caesarian reinforcements meant that a prolonged campaign was no longer in his interest. This cat and mouse stuff had to end. He found a good defensive hill near the town of Munda and planted his army there. Now all he had to do was trick Caesar into attacking. Caesar lead his army to the town of Munda, and approached Labienus's hill. For the first time, Caesar and Labienus faced each other as equals.
The future of Rome hung in the balance. Caesar moved his cavalry to his left, and his most experienced legions to the wings. Then, Caesar did exactly what Labienus wanted him to do. He attacked uphill. There were no clever tricks or maneuvers. Just each side pushing against the other, sweating and bleeding and dying over every inch of ground gained or lost. It was muddy, and brutal, exhausting, and it went on all day. As the sun approached the horizon, the two sides were basically at a stalemate.
Perhaps Caesar had expected Labienus's army to collapse within the first minutes of fighting. If so, that had been a mistake. The Caesarians were now fully committed, outnumbered, and out-positioned. The centre began to waver. Caesar could see the writing on the wall. He jumped down off his horse, grabbed a sword and a shield, and charged the Pompeian line. He probably didn't actually see any combat, but that didn't matter.
The soldiers got the message. Win or lose, Caesar would share their fate. And then, on the Caesarian right, one of Caesar's veteran legions broke through the Pompeian line. Labienus personally took command of a legion that he had been holding in reserve and charged Caesar's right. Equalibrium was restored. But then, Caesar's cavalry broke through on his left. Labienus was out of reserves. The cavalry swung around and encircled Labienus's position. The Pompeian army collapsed. Labienus was killed in the fighting. After the battle, Caesar ordered his soldiers to search the battlefield for Labienus's body.
They found it. Caesar buried his old friend with full honours in a field just outside the town of Munda. Caesar would later say he had often fought for victory, but at Munda, he fought for his life. In the coming weeks, one of Pompey's sons would be captured and executed. The other son would evade capture for another decade, but it's safe to say that the Battle of Munda basically put the final nail into the Pompeian coffin. The Civil War was over. For real this time. All of Caesar's rivals had been defeated. At this moment he was perhaps the most powerful person on the planet.
He would be dead in a year.
