WHAT IF POMPEY HAD DEFEATED JULIUS CAESAR?
INTERVIEW WITH DR SIMON ELLIOTT
Dr Elliott is a bestselling author, historian, archaeologist, broadcaster, and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent. His books include Roman Legionaries, Julius Caesar: Rome’s Greatest Warlord and Roman Conquests: Britain
Former political allies, and even allied through marriage, Julius Caesar and Pompey faced each other across a battlefield at Pharsalus in Greece, in 48 BCE, as deadly enemies. Political convenience had turned to dust and the outcome of this battle would determine the fate of both men, and the future of Rome and its influence in the world.
Was it inevitable that Pompey and Caesar would come to blows? How different were they, and was Pompey as ambitious as
