Battle of Ascurum
45 BCE.
Shown on the map at 42.850°, 13.570°.
The Battle of Ascurum took place in 46 BC during Caesar’s Civil War and saw the defeat of a force under Pompey the Younger in battle against the Mauretanians. In 49 BC, a civil war broke out within the Roman Republic between Julius Caesar and the senate, which was led by Pompey the Great. The Kingdom of Mauretania decided to support Julius Caesar in this struggle, probably because their rivals Numidia supported Pompey. When an anti-Caesarian rebellion broke out in Spain, Bogud of Mauretania intervened and helped put down the rebellion. The Mauretanians seemed to have picked the right side as the war swung in the favour of Julius Caesar following the Battle of Pharsalus and Pompey the Great’s murder in Egypt. The remaining Pompeians fled to North Africa and set up at Utica. There, Cato chastised Pompey's son, stating how his father had achieved much more at his age. This convinced Pompey the Younger to go on a campaign of his own and he decided to attack Mauretania to neutralise what was a potential threat. With a small force numbering around 2,000, Pompey landed on the Mauretanian coast and approached the town of Ascurum.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Ascurum, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.