still the first school of science, and, next to Athens, the point to which all men of learning looked. Cæsar, the historian of his own great deeds, could have told us of the pain with which he saw the flames rise from the rolls of dry papyrus, and of the trouble which he took to quench the fire; but his guilty silence leads us to believe that he found the burning pile an useful flank to the line of walls that his little body of troops had to guard, and we must fear that the feelings of the scholar were for the time lost in those of the soldier.

(8) Cæsar must have known that, in keeping the young princes and their guardian, he was keeping traitors J. Cæsar, in his camp. This was first shown by Arsinoë Bell. Civ. iii. making her escape from the palace, and reaching the quarters of Achillas in safety; and then by Pothinus being found out in sending word to Achillas of Cæsar's want of stores, and in urging him not to give over his attacks upon the palace. Upon this Cæsar put Pothinus to death.

(9) The Alexandrians were not slow in preparing to make another attack on Cæsar's quarter of the city. They A. Hirtius, brought up troops from the other parts of Egypt; Bell. Alex. they drew a triple trench across the streets to stop

a sally; they armed the slaves, while the richer citizens served out daily supplies of food to the soldiers. But in the midst of this zeal a serious quarrel broke out between the general Achillas and the princess Arsinoë, who had escaped from Cæsar's quarters. This ended in Arsinoë having Achillas murdered, and thus she became mistress of the Egyptian army. Indeed she was for the time sovereign of Egypt, as her elder sister Cleopatra, and her two brothers, were prisoners in Cæsar's camp. Arsinoë made her eunuch Ganimedes general, and, though not eighteen years of age, she urged forward the war with the energy of an old soldier. The city of Alexandria had no wells or springs, but was supplied with fresh water by a canal from the Nile, from which the poorer citizens fetched it, while it was led by pipes into large cisterns under the palace and principal houses. One of these is so large that two stories of columns, each eighteen in number, with twenty-two half columns against the walls, uphold the arches with which it is roofed (see Fig. 23). From some of these cisterns Cæsar's troops were supplied; and Ganimedes proposed to deprive them of

their supply by pumping sea-water into those pipes which led into the Bruchium. The Roman soldiers were at first surprised to find the water brackish; and day by day cistern after cistern became unfit for use. The cause was then no longer doubtful; as water became scarce they began to learn its value, and the alarm through the legions was extreme; Cæsar gave orders to the centurions that they should put aside all other work, and turn their whole energy to digging wells; and notwithstanding the belief which had been entertained for three centuries, that the place contained no springs, in one night they found water enough for the whole city.

Fig. 23.

(10) The next plan of the Alexandrians was to attack Cæsar's ships in the harbour. As they had no fleet at sea they brought round the guard-ships which had been anchored in the mouths of the Nile to collect the customs duty; they refitted the old ships in the docks; they took beams out of their houses to make oars; and in a short time a fleet of twenty-seven large galleys, of four and five banks of oars each, with several smaller vessels, appeared off the island of Pharos. The Alexandrian ships of war were the same in build as Cæsar's. They differed in little but the ornaments. They had the same sharp beak in front to strike against the enemy, and the same two rudders near the stern. In both the steersman stood on deck, under shelter of a small hut, open in front; and in Cleopatra's vessels this was roofed with a covering in the shape of an elephant's head, in imitation of the elephant-shaped helmet peculiar to the Egyptian queens,

and shown

upon their coins (see Fig. 24).

From this

helmet-shaped covering for the steersman, that part of the vessel has been called the helm; and from its Latin name, Galea, the vessel itself has been called a galley. Cæsar had only fifteen large galleys and a few of smaller size; but, trusting

Fig. 24.

.

Bell. Alex.

to the skill and courage of his A. Hirtius, Rhodian sailors, he ordered

them to row out and give battle to the Egyptian fleet. It was not easy to get out of the harbour in the face of the enemy, as only four ships at a time could cross the shallows formed by the sand-banks at the mouth; and these were immediately attacked on all sides by the Alexandrian ships. But the skill of the Rhodians overcame the difficulty. To every attacking prow, a Rhodian prow was quickly turned; not a side was struck; not an oar was broken; and under cover of the first four the rest of Cæsar's galleys rowed out of the great port. At this time the house-tops of the city and island, from the promontory of Lochias to the lighthouse, were covered with anxious spectators, shouting to those who were near, making signs to those who were at a distance, giving their wishes and their prayers where they were too far off to give any other help. The fate of Cæsar's army was to be settled by the skill and courage of his sailors, and fortunately these did not fail him. In this battle two Egyptian ships were taken, three were sunk, and the rest fled for safety to the shore and to the island, where they were guarded by the troops which held that side of the harbour.

(11) In order to avoid this disadvantage in his future naval battles, Cæsar determined to attack the island of Pharos. For this purpose, he placed his cohorts in his boats, and crossing over the harbour, carried the island by storm, and seized the castle at that end of the Heptastadium, the mole which joined the island to the city. The Alexandrians still held the larger castle at the city end of the mole; and Cæsar's next attack was against this. But here he was beaten. His soldiers were driven back into the boats; his own boat was sunk by the crowds that rushed into it, while he himself escaped only because he had a few minutes before

Plutarch. in Vitâ.

thrown himself into the water, and swum to a more distant vessel. He had with him at the time some papers, which he saved with difficulty; and this gave rise to the story, that he swam through the waves with one hand, while with the other he held overhead the Commentaries of his wars. In this defeat, the Romans Appian. lost four hundred soldiers, and as many sailors; and Cæsar lost his scarlet chlamys, his cloak, the mark of his rank as general, which the Alexandrians, in their joy, hung upon a pole, and fixed up in the middle of the city as a trophy.

Bell. Civ. ii.

A. Hirtius,

(12) After this struggle, the two parties agreed to a truce. The Alexandrians were tired of the cruel governBell. Alex. ment of Arsinoe and her slave Ganimedes, and they wanted their king, who was Cæsar's prisoner. And Cæsar, notwithstanding the false and fickle character of the people, so far trusted the young Ptolemy's seeming goodwill towards him, and promises of friendship, as to send him to the Alexandrian army to take possession of the throne of his forefathers, and to heal the troubles of the kingdom. The crafty Ptolemy seemed unwilling to depart; he begged to be allowed to stay in the Bruchium with his friend Cæsar; he even shed tears on going. But he was no sooner out of reach of his Roman guards, than he showed himself a true Alexandrian. He wiped his tears, forgot his promises, and turned all his energies to strengthen the army and dislodge Cæsar from the Bruchium.

(13) The Alexandrians had stationed a small fleet of light vessels at the Canobic mouth of the Nile, to cut off Cæsar's supplies of food, which were sent by sea from Syria; and, as reports had lately reached the camps that an army was on its march from that country to Cæsar's help, it became important for him to disperse those vessels. He sent against them a fleet of his own, under the command of Euphranor the Rhodian, who had manoeuvred the ships so successfully in the former battle, and he placed on board of it a body of troops under the command of Tiberius Nero. Euphranor was badly supported by the other captains; he led his own ship bravely, and perhaps rashly, against the Egyptians; but, as he was not followed by the rest, its sides were crushed by the enemy's prows, it sunk in deep water, and he was

drowned with all his crew. The rest of Cæsar's fleet returned to Alexandria.

Josephus,

(14) About this time, Mithridates of Pergamus arrived before Pelusium with the troops, which he brought from Cilicia and Syria, to help Cæsar. He stormed the walls of that city, on the day of his arrival, and took the place; and his soldiers rested after their march within the Egyptian fortified town. He then marched towards Memphis, meaning to cross the Nile near Heliopolis. At first the Jews of that neighbourhood took arms against him. But Antiq. xiv. they gave way to the letters which he had brought from their countrymen at Jerusalem; and he was soon followed by a body of three thousand Syrian Jews, under Antipater, who were hastening to support Cæsar. A. Hirtius, In the meantime, Ptolemy sent a body of troops Bell. Alex. from Alexandria to oppose Mithridates, at his

8.

passage of the river; and on these receiving a check, he followed with his whole army. Cæsar also, at the same time, marched to the assistance of Mithridates; and they were able to unite their forces before they fought with the Alexandrians. Ptolemy was then defeated in several battles, near the head of the Delta, and was forced to keep his troops within his fortified camp, behind one of the deep canals. But Cæsar and Mithridates stormed the camp, and routed the Alexandrians, who fled in disorder to their ships on the Nile; and in one of these, which was sunk by the weight of the flying crowds, the young Ptolemy was drowned.

(15) Immediately after this victory, Cæsar hastened with his cavalry to Alexandria. The citizens had given over all thoughts of further resistance to his arms; they came out to meet him in the dress of suppliants, carrying out the statues of their gods; and he then marched into that part of the city which had before been held by his enemies. He was then master of Egypt; and it was his business to settle the government for the future. He ordered that the will of Ptolemy Auletes should be obeyed; and, as the elder son was dead, he appointed the younger Ptolemy, a boy of eleven years of age, to be Cleopatra's colleague on the throne. Cæsar's love for Cleopatra, who had just borne him a son named Cæsarion, was not so strong as his ambition; and, after having been above a year in Egypt, he left her to

VOL. II.

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