![Legion versus Legion The Late Republican legionary [below] was a heavily armoured, highly drilled, citizen soldier equipped with shield (scutum), javelins (pila), and short stabbing sword (gladius). The soldiers depicted on the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus [above] are the basis for Peter Connolly’s reconstruction. Those shown on the Mainz relief [right] are somewhat later Imperial legionaries, but they are depicted wielding scutum and gladius in close quarters action in a manner that would have been familiar to Caesar’s men.](https://i0.wp.com/the-past.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/post-1_image3-16.jpg?fit=1400%2C521&ssl=1)
Pharsalus was one of the decisive battles of world history. It ended the 500-year history of the Roman Republic and launched the 500- year history of the Roman Empire. It ended the rule of the Senate and replaced it with the rule of the Emperors.
What was at stake was the outcome of the entire ‘Roman Revolution’, a century-long process of increasingly violent conflict which pitted the Optimates (‘the best men’) against the Populares (‘the populists’).
It was a struggle to decide whether the Roman state would remain dominated by an exclusive aristocracy of senators or be opened up to the homines novi (‘the new men’) – the officers, administrators, businessmen, and provincial gentry of a fast-expanding Empire.
