Battle of Zela
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| Battle of Zela | |||||||
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| Part of Caesar's civil war | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Caesar's forces | Pharnacean forces | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Julius Caesar | Pharnaces II of Pontus | ||||||
The Battle of Zela was a battle fought in 47 BC between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II of Pontus.
After the defeat of the Ptolemaic forces at the Battle of the Nile, Caesar left Egypt and travelled through Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia to fight Pharnaces, son of Mithridates VI, and who had allegedly committed various atrocities against Roman citizens.
The battle took place in Zile, what is now a small town in the Tokat province of northern Turkey. Caesar had two Cohorts of VI Legion, XXII Legion, Pontines Legion, XXXVI Legion and a small contingent of cavalry. Pharnaces had about 20 000 warriors.
It was a decisive point in Julius Caesar's civil war - his five-day campaign against Pharnaces was so swift and complete that he commemorated it with the now famous Latin words written to Amantius in Rome Veni, vidi, vici ("I came, I saw, I conquered").
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