Someone needed to rally the troops, and Rome’s greatest living general was having a hard time doing it.

Pompey the Great had a—well…great reputation as a commander, which his recruits and veterans alike could see for themselves. He trained and drilled right alongside them, and could swing a sword like a man half his age. But this time his troops weren’t just Romans—desperate times—and a civil war--had caused him to recruit men from the provinces instead of just Italy itself, and they were about to go to war against soldiers who had up until recently been on the same side.

If ever there was a time for an inspiring speech, this was it. 

After the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, the Republic was now a resistance. It was a government in exile. With Cato at its head, Julius Caesar could be deprived of total victory, and Caesar knew it. The dictator could never rest easy on his throne while the standard-bearer of the institutions he was going to trample was still out there somewhere.

Cato and the Republic’s remnants went to Utica, to make Rome’s last stand. 

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