Kitap 2
14.97
The battle was long, severe, and doubtful in all parts of the field until toward evening, when victory declared itself on the side of Caesar, who went straight on and captured Scipio’s camp and did not desist, even in the night, from reaping the fruits of his victory until he had made a clean sweep.This was the battle of Thapsus. According to Hirtius Caesar’s soldiers broke away from their officers and began the battle without. orders. (Bell. Afr. 82.) The enemy scattered in small bodies wherever they could. Scipio himself with Afranius, abandoning everything, fled by sea with twelve open ships. And thus was this army also, composed of nearly 80,000 men who had been under long training and were inspired with hope and courage by the previous battle, in the second engagement, completely annihilated. And now Caesar’s fame began to be celebrated as of a man of invincible fortune, and those who were vanquished by him attributed nothing to his merit, but ascribed everything, including their own blunders, to Caesar’s luck. And it seems that the result of this war also was due to the bad generalship of the commanders who, as in Thessaly, neglected their opportunity to wear out Caesar by delay until his supplies were exhausted, in this foreign land, and in like manner failed to reap the fruits of their first victory by pushing it sharply to the end.συντριφθεὶς οὕτως ὀξέως διαλυθῆναι. No commentator has been able to explain satisfactorily the first of these four words. Schweighäuser says that πόλεμος must be understood, but he adds that a crushed war would be a wonderful thing. It may mean that the war, crushed out in this way, quickly came to an end.
