With eyes like a hawk, the Roman eagle that was Julius Caesar foresaw Pompey’s battleplans in the way he arrayed his troops for battle. This foresight granted him a fighting chance against the superiorly positioned and outnumbering enemy.
Caesar found success in the first year of the Civil War, but the second year proved to be a true challenge. After all, he was not in Gaul anymore. He was going up against one of Rome’s greatest heroes who had been collecting and training an army while Caesar was out fighting in foreign lands.
Julius Caesar spent the year of 49 B.C hunting down the men who opposed his coming to Rome with an active-duty army. The chase led him out to Hispania (modern: Spain) where he would learn how differently war was conducted outside of Gaul, how much more challenging it was to fight against fellow Roman generals who were as well trained and educated as him, and yet, how truly gifted he was indeed at adapting to new enemies and commanding a military dynamically.
After Julius Caesar’s time in Gaul was up, he wanted to return home and cash in on his new cache back in Rome, but the Roman Senate led by Pompei was less excited than the Roman citizenry to see Caesar return in all his military glory, so they issued an ultimatum: disband your army or else…
tldr History 