Spain Author:Edward Everett Hale Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. JULIUS CAESAR IN SPAIN. THE death of Sertorius took place in the year 72 B.C. His rule, on the whole beneficent, had lasted nearly ten years.... more » His people in general submitted to the Romans. Pompey followed up his successes, and considered Spain as One of the provinces on which he could rely. It was nearly thirty years after the death of Sertorius that, in the great contest between Julius Caesar and that part of the senate which adhered to Pompey and his family, the decisive battle of the world was fought out in Southern Spain. This was not much more than a year before Caesar was killed in the senate-house at Rome. The younger Pompey was his antagonist. Caesar was following up his own victories in Africa, and had come to Spain to end the civil war in person. The decisive battle was at Munda. Pompey seems really to have supposed that he was superior in force,—so large a proportion of Caesar's men were new levies. He certainly had the advantage of the ground. The narrative of the battle is not more intelligible than are the narratives of most battles where we have not the advantage of an accurate map of the place. But it is certain thatPompey and his army had the advantage of the fortifications of the town of Munda, and apparently of considerable military stores there. He fixed his camp about five miles from Caesar's, where he had there advantages to rely upon. The country between JULIUS CAESAR. the two armies was flat, but Pompey's front was protected by a stream, which was not easy to cross. On his left, particularly, it flowed through marshyground which was wellnigh impracticable. Notwithstanding this, Caesar determined to attack him where he was, though he himself seems to have thought that this was somewhat rash. He saw that he must push his enemy in ...« less