The Battle of Zela is a battle fought in 47 BCE between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II of the Kingdom of Pontus.
"{Readers} take infinitely more pleasure in knowing the variety of incidents that are contained in them, without ever thinking of imitating them, believing the imitation not only difficult, but impossible: as if heaven, the sun, the elements, and men should have changed the order of their motions and power, from what they were anciently"