What was Pompeys strategy in the civil war and why did it fail?
His strategy was to lure Caesar into Epirus, and then defeat him with the large army he had raised in Macedonia. But he flubbed it: “Pompey managed to arrive in time to save Dyrrhachium, and he then attempted to wait Caesar out during the siege of Dyrrhachium, in which Caesar lost 1000 men. Yet, by failing to pursue at the critical moment of Caesar’s defeat, Pompey threw away the chance to destroy Caesar’s much smaller army. As Caesar himself said, “Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner” (Plutarch, 65). According to Suetonius, it was at this point that Caesar said that “that man (Pompey) does not know how to win a war.”” Pompey had an opportunity to defeat Caesar at the next major battle, the Battle of Pharsalus. Pompey had more troops and was expected to win, but: “…mistakes made by Pompey’s front cavalry horsemen led to a victory for Caesar.” Pompey was too weak to challenge Caesar again, so he fled to Egypt. But the Egyptians, not wanting to
