page_title: Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus
section_title: Civil war and death
hierarchical_section_title: Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus / Civil war and death
context_page_description: Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was a plodding conservative and upholder of the established social order who served in several magisterial positions alongside Julius Caesar and conceived a lifelong enmity towards him. In 59 BC he was consul alongside Julius Caesar. Their partnership was contentious to the extent that Caesar arranged for Bibulus to be doused in feces in Rome's main forum on the eve of an important vote. Bibulus withdrew from public politics for the rest of his term.
  In 51 to 50 BC, he was governor of Syria, where he was effective but alienated the army by taking too much personal credit for the repulse of the Parthians. In 49, after Caesar's Civil War broke out, Bibulus aligned himself with Pompey and was in charge of the fleet tasked with preventing Caesar from shipping his army across the Adriatic. He failed to do so and subsequently failed to effectively cut off Caesar's supplies. On blockade duty in 48 BC, he fell ill and died.
context_section_description: Completing his governorship, Bibulus returned to the west in 49 BC to find that civil war had erupted between Caesar and Pompey. Aligning himself with Pompey, he was placed in charge of Pompey's fleet in the Adriatic, to ensure that Caesar and his troops could not cross from Brundisium in Italy to Epirus to challenge Pompey's army. Having only assembled half the necessary ships, Caesar decided to take seven legions across the Adriatic, and to have the ships return and transport the remaining legions once they arrived at Brindisi. Transporting seven legions across the Adriatic Sea to Greece would ordinarily be difficult due to the winter season.  But because Caesar knew that the calendar was out of step with the astronomical seasons due to his responsibilities as pontifex maximus, he had the advantage of knowing the crossing would be easier than expected. This assisted Caesar to an extent as the Adriatic was sufficiently treacherous to deter Bibulus' war galleys from venturing far from their base at Corfu.
  Bibulus was caught by surprise when on the evening of 6 November Caesar and his fleet successfully crossed the Adriatic, landing at Palaeste. Although Bibulus was stationed only 50 miles (80 km) south of Palaeste, he had not sent out scouts and his ships were not ready to put to sea to intercept Caesar's transports. When he heard of Caesar's crossing, he ordered his crews to return to their ships, and sailed northward, hoping to capture the ships carrying Caesar's reinforcements. Again too slow, he only managed to arrive for their return journey to Italy, capturing and burning 30 of Caesar's transports. He then maneuvered to prevent any further ships crossing to reinforce or supply Caesar. He only captured one transport, which had been chartered by some private individuals and had refused to obey Bibulus's orders. Enraged, he ordered the entire crew killed.
  Bibulus then blockaded all the harbors along the coast, hoping to prevent any further crossings from Italy, and leaving Caesar stranded in Epirus. He found that he could not resupply his ships without abandoning the blockade, and so he attempted to bluff Caesar's legates at Oricum into persuading Caesar to agree to a temporary truce so that he could resupply. When Bibulus refused to guarantee the safety of the envoys Caesar wished to send to discuss a peaceful settlement with Pompey, Caesar realised it was a ploy and pulled out of negotiations. Determined to continue with the blockade, Bibulus pushed himself too hard; he fell ill in early 48 BC and died near Corcyra before the end of winter.
caption: The Roman Republic, shown in green, shortly after Bibulus' death