15 April 43 BCE: To Cicero (at Rome) from Servius Sulpicius Galba (near Mutina)
Mark Antony suffers a defeat at Forum Gallorum!
On April 14th, the day when Pansa was to arrive at Hirtius’ camp—I was with him, for I had gone a hundred miles to meet him and speed his arrival—Antony brought out two legions, the Second and Thirty-Fifth, and two praetorian cohorts1 (his own and Silanus’) and a part of his reservists. He met us with this force because he thought we only had four legions of recruits. But during the night, so that we could reach the camp with greater safety, Hirtius had sent us the Martian legion, which I usually command, and two praetorian cohorts.
When Antony’s cavalry appeared, the Martian legion and praetorian cohorts could not be held back; we had to follow them—there was no choice in the matter—since we had been unable to keep them back. Antony was holding back his forces at Forum Gallorum and didn’t want it to be known that he had the legions; he displayed only his cavalry and lightly armed men. After Pansa saw that the legion was (against his wishes) on the move, he ordered two legions of recruits to follow him.
After we had gone through the narrow route between the marshes and the forest, our line of battle was drawn up, of twelve cohorts. The two legions had not arrived yet. At once, Antony led his forces out of the village and into a battle line, and engaged without delay. At first, both sides fought as bitterly as it is possibly to fight; although the right wing, where I was with eight cohorts of the Martian legion, had put Antony’s Thirty-Fifth legion to flight as soon as the fighting began, and advanced more than half a mile beyond the battle line from where it was originally stationed.
And so, when the cavalry were about to surround our wing, I began to draw back and set my lightly armed troops against the Mauretanian cavalry, so that they would not attack us from behind. Meanwhile, I saw that I was caught in the middle of the Antonians, and that Antony was a little way behind me. At once, I urged my horse to the two legions of recruits that were coming from the camp, with my shield slung across my back.2 The Antonians pursued me; our own men were about to throw their javelins. I don’t know what stroke of fate saved me—I was quickly recognised by our men.
On the Aemilian Way itself, where Caesar’s3 praetorian cohort was, the fighting went on for a long time. The left wing, which was weaker and made up of two cohorts of the Martian legion and a praetorian cohort, began to give ground because they were being surrounded by the cavalry—which is Antony’s strongest force.
When all of our lines had withdrawn, I was the last to start withdrawing to the camp. Antony, as if he were the victor, thought that he could take the camp. But when he arrived he lost a great many men there and did not achieve anything.
When Hirtius heard about this, he engaged Antony with twenty veteran cohorts as Antony was returning to his own camp, and destroyed or put to flight his entire force in the same place that the earlier fighting had been, at Forum Gallorum. Antony and his cavalry withdrew to his camp at Mutina four hours after sunset. Hirtius returned to the camp that Pansa had marched out of, where he had left two legions that had been attacked by Antony.
So Antony has lost the majority of his veteran troops; still, this could only be accomplished through the loss of some men in our praetorian cohorts and the Martian legion. Two of Antony’s eagle standards and sixty banners have been brought in. It is a great success.
Written April 15th, from camp.4
Latin text of ad Familiares 10.30 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
A praetorian cohort was the personal cohort or body-guard of a general.
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘For protection, and to show which side he was on.’
Octavian.
Galba seems to have written this letter so soon after the Battle of Forum Gallorum that his account of it is missing some crucial details, especially about the consul Pansa. But Cicero won’t know that for a while yet.