Siege of Gomphi
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changes Capture of Gomphi by Julius Caesar
| Siege of Gomphi | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Caesar's invasion of Macedonia during Caesar's civil war | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Caesar's faction | City of Gomphi | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Gaius Julius Caesar Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus |
Androsthenes of Thessaly † Magistrates of Gomphi † | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
|
Legio VI Legio VII Legio VIII Legio IX Legio X Legio XI Legio XII Legio XIV | Gomphi militia | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
30,000 infantry 2,000 cavalry | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
The siege of Gomphi was a brief military confrontation during Caesar's Civil War. Following defeat at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, the men of Gaius Julius Caesar besieged the Thessalian city of Gomphi. The city fell in a few hours and Caesar's men were allowed to sack Gomphi.
After unsuccessfully besieging Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great") at Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar retreated south and east to Apollonia. At Apollonia Caesar briefly stopped to tend to his wounded, pay his army, encourage his allies, and leave garrisons, before setting off east again. Four cohorts were left to garrison Apollonia, another three at Oricum and one at Lissus.
The plan which Caesar had formulated was to link up with Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus who was based near Heraclea, unbeknownst to Caesar, conducting operations against Metellus Scipio. This was so as to keep as many contingencies in play as possible, if Pompey crossed to Italia then Caesar would link up his army with that of Domitius then head off through Illyricum and down into the peninsular himself. Otherwise, he might draw Pompey inland away from his coastal supply lines and fight a more favourable pitched battle at a place of his choosing. If Pompey chose instead to besiege Caesar's own garrisoned cities and supply lines then an assault against Scipio would be initiated to draw him away. In response to Caesar's movements, Pompey put his army on the march in an attempt to reach Domitius himself and thus mitigate the entire plan.
Due to the fact that neither Caesar nor Domitius knew of each other's exact whereabouts, and also the fact that many local communities were beginning to cooperate with Pompey, the Caesarian messengers were having no luck delivering their messages. Fortunately for Caesar, a detachment of auxiliary Allobroges who had recently deserted Pompey came into contact with some of Domitius' scouts and shared all they knew of the situation. Having been briefed by these scouts, Domitius managed to evade Pompey's advance and meet up with Caesar near Aeginium.[1]
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