been declared consul for the ensuing year. In these letters he conjured Gabinius to do his utmost in favour of the proposals which that prince should make to him, with regard to his re-establishment in his kingdom. However dangerous that conduct might be, the authority of Pompey, and still more the hope of considerable gain, made Gabinius begin to waver. The lively remonstrances of Antony, who sought occasions to signalize himself, and was moreover inclined to please Ptolemy, whose entreaties flattered his ambition, fully determined him. This was the famous Mark Antony, who afterwards formed the second triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus. Gabinius had engaged him to follow him into Syria, by giving him the command of his cavalry. The more dangerous the enterprise, the more right Gabinius thought he had to make Ptolemy pay dear for it. The latter, who found no difficulty in agreeing to any terms, offered him, for himself and the army, ten thousand talents, the greatest part to be advanced immediately in ready money, and the rest as soon as he should be reinstated. Gabinius accepted the offer without hesitation.*

Egypt had continued under the government of queen Berenice. As soon as she ascended the throne, the Egyptians had sent to offer the crown and Berenice to Antiochus Asiaticus in Syria, who, on his mother Selene's side, was the nearest male beir. The ambassadors found him dead, and returned; they brought an account, that his brother Seleucus, surnamed Cybiosactes, was still alive. The same offers were made to him, which he accepted. He was a prince of mean and sordid inclinations, and had no thoughts but of amassing money. His first care was to cause the body of Alexander the Great to be put into a coffin of glass, in order to sieze that of gold, in which it had lain untouched till then. This action, and many others of a like nature, having rendered him equally odious to his queen and subjects, she soon after caused him to be strangled. He was the last prince of the race of the Seleucides. She afterwards espoused Archelaus, high-priest of Comana in Pontus, who called himself the son of the great Mithridates, though, in fact, only the son of that prince's chief general.† Gabinius, after having repassed the Euphrates, and crossed Palestine, marched directly into Egypt. What was most to be feared in this war, was the way by which they must necessarily march to Pelusium; for they could not avoid passing plains, covered with sands of such a depth as was terrible to think on, and so parched, that there was not any water to be found within the whole length of the moors of Serbonida. Antony, who was sent before with the horse, not only seized the passes, but having taken Pelusium, the key of Egypt on that side, with the whole garrison, he made the way secure for the rest of his army, and gave his general great hopes of the expedition.‡

The enemy derived considerable advantage from the desire of glory which stimulated Antony; for Ptolemy had no sooner entered Pelusium, than, out of the violence of his hate and resentment, he would have put all the Egyptians in it to the sword. But Antony, who rightly judged that such an act of cruelty would revert upon himself, opposed it, and prevented Ptolemy from executing his design. In all the battles and encounters which immediately followed one another, he not only gave proofs of his great valour, but distinguished himself by all the abilities of a great general.

As soon as Gabinius received advice of Antony's success, he entered the heart of Egypt. It was in winter, when the waters of the Nile are very low, and consequently, the most proper time for the conquest of it. Archelaus, who was brave, able, and experienced, did all that could be done in his defence, and disputed his ground very well with the enemy. After he quitted the city, in order to march against the Romans, when it was necessary to encamp, and break ground for the intrenchments, the Egyptians, accustomed to live an idle and voluptuous life, raised an outcry, that Archelaus should employ the mercenaries in such work, at the expense of the public. What could be expected from such troops in a battle? They were in fact, soon put to the rout. Archelaus

A. M. 3949. Ant. J. C. 55. App. in Syr. p. 120. et in Parth. p. 134. Plut. in Anton. p. 916, 917. ↑ Strab. 1. xii. p. 538. Id. l. xvii. p. 794-796. Dion. 1. xxxix. p. 115-117. Cic. in Pison. n. 49, 50. Plut. in Anton. p. 916, 917.

388

was killed, fighting valiantly. Antony, who had been his particular friend and guest, having found his body upon the field of battle, adorned it in a royal manner, and solemnized his obsequies with great magnificence. By this action be left behind him a great name in Alexandria, and acquired among the Romans who served with him in this war, the reputation of a man of singular valour and exceeding generosity.

Egypt was soon reduced, and obliged to receive Auletes, who took entire possession of his dominions. In order to strengthen him in it, Gabinius left him some Roman troops for the guard of his person. These troops contracted at Alexandria the manners and customs of the country, and indulged in the luxury and effeminacy which reigned there in almost every city. Auletes put his daugh fer Berenice to death, for having worn the crown during his exile; and afterwards got rid, in the same manner, of all the rich persons who had been of the adverse party to him. He had occasion for the confiscation of their estates, to make up the sum he had promised to Gabinius, to whose aid he was indebted for his reestablishment.

The Egyptians suffered all these violences without murmuring; but some days after, a Roman soldier having accidentally killed a cat, neither the fear of Gabinius, nor the authority of Ptolemy, could prevent the people from tearing him to pieces upon the spot, to avenge the insult done to the gods of the country, cats being ranked among their deities.*

Nothing farther is known in relation to the life of Ptolemy Auletes, except that C. Rabirius Posthumus, who had either lent him, or caused to be lent him, the greatest part of the sums he had borrowed at Rome, having gone to him, in order to his being paid when he was entirely reinstated; that prince gave him to understand, that he despaired of satisfying him, unless he would consent to take upon him the care of his revenues; by which means he might reimburse himself by little and little with his own hands. The unfortunate creditor having accepted that offer, out of fear of losing his debt if he refused it, the king soon found a colour for causing him to be imprisoned, though one of the oldest and dearest of Cæsar's friends, and though Pompey was in some measure security for the debt, as the money was lent, and the obligations executed, in his presence, and by his procurement, in a country-house of his near Alba.

Rabirius thought himself too happy in being able to escape from prison and Egypt, more miserable than he went thither. To complete his disgrace, he was prosecuted in form, as soon as he returned to Rome, for having aided Ptolemy in corrupting the senate, by the sums he had lent him for that use; for having dishonoured his quality of Roman knight, by the employment he had accepted in Egypt; and lastly, for having shared in the money which Gabinius brought from thence, with whom it was alleged that he had connived. Cicero's discourse in his defence, which we still have, is an eternal monument of the ingratitude and perfidy of this unworthy king.t

Ptolemy Auletes died in the peaceable possession of the kingdom of Egypt, about four years after his re-establishment. He left two sons and two daugh ters. He gave his crown to the eldest son and daughter, and ordered by his will, that they should marry together, according to the custom of that house, and govern jointly. And because they were both very young, for the daughter, who was the eldest, was only seventeen years of age, he left them under the tuition of the Roman senate. This was the famous Cleopatra, whose history it remains for us to relate. We find the people appointed Pompey the young king's guardian, who some years after so basely ordered him to be put to death. SECTION II. CLEOPATRA EXPELLED THE THRONE; BUT IS AFTERWARDS, WITH HER YOUNGER BROTHER, RE-ESTABLISHED. POMPEY ASSASSINATED.

LITTLE is known of the beginning of Cleopatra's and her brother's reign. That prince was a minor, under the tuition of Pothinus the eunuch, and of

*Diod. Sic. 1. i. p. 74, 75.

A. M. 3953. Ant. J. C. 51. Cæsar de Bello Civ. 1. x. v.

Cic. pro Rabir. Posth.

Eutrop. 1. vi.

Achillas, the general of his army. Those two ministers, to engross all affairs to themselves, had deprived Cleopatra, in the king's name, of the share in the sovereignty left her by the will of Auletes. Injured in this manner, she went into Syria and Palestine to raise troops in those countries, in order to assert her rights by force of arms.*

It was exactly at this conjuncture of the difference between the brother and sister, that Pompey, after having lost the battle of Pharsalia, fled to Egypt; conceiving that he should find there an open and assured asylum in his misfortunes. He had been the protector of Auletes, the father of the reigning king, and it was solely to his influence he was indebted for his re-establishment. He was in hopes of finding the son grateful, and of being powerfully assisted by him. When he arrived, Ptolemy was upon the coast with his army, between Pelusium and mount Casius, and Cleopatra, at no great distance, at the head of her troops also. Pompey, on approaching the coast, sent to Ptolemy to demand permission to land, and enter his kingdom.

The two ministers, Pothinus and Achillas, consulted with Theodotus the rhetorician, the young king's preceptor, and with some others, what answer they should make; Pompey, in the mean time, waited the result of that council, and chose rather to expose himself to the decision of the three unworthy persons who governed the prince, than to owe his safety to Cæsar, who was his fatherin-law, and the greatest of the Romans. This council differed in opinion; some were for receiving him, others for having him told to seek a retreat elsewhere. Theodotus approved neither of these methods; and displaying all his eloquence, undertook to demonstrate, that there was no other choice to be made than that of ridding the world of him. His reason was, that if they received him, Cæsar would never forgive their having assisted his enemy; if they sent him away without aid, and affairs should take a turn in his favour, he would not fail to revenge himself upon them for their refusal; and therefore there was no security for them, but in putting him to death; by which means they would gain Cæsar's friendship, and prevent the other from ever doing them any harm; for, said he, according to the proverb, "dead men do not bite."

This advice prevailed, being, in their opinion, the wisest and most safe. Septimus, a Roman officer in the service of the king of Egypt, and some others, were charged with putting it in execution. They went to take Pompey on board a shallop, under the pretext that great vessels could not approach the shore without difficulty. The troops were drawn up on the seaside, with the pretence of doing honour to Pompey, with Ptolemy at their head. The perfidious Septimus tendered his hand to Pompey, in the name of his master, and bade him to come to a king, his friend, whom he ought to regard as his ward and son. Pompey then embraced his wife Cornelia, who was already in tears for his death; and after having repeated these verses of Sophocles, "Every man that enters the court of a tyrant becomes his slave, though free before," he went into the shallop. When they saw themselves near the shore, they stabbed him before the king's eyes, cut off his head, and threw his body upon the strand, where it had no other funeral than what one of his freedmen gave it, with the assistance of an old Roman who chanced to be there. They raised him a wretched funeral pile, and covered him with some fragments of an old wreck that had been driven ashore.

Cornelia saw Pompey massacred before her eyes. It is easier to imagine the condition of a woman in the height of grief from so tragical an object, than to describe it. Those who were in her galley, and in two other ships in company, made the coast resound with the cries they raised, and weighing anchor immediately, set sail before the wind, which blew fresh as soon as they got out to This prevented the Egyptians, who were getting ready to chase them, from pursuing their design.

sea.

A. M. 3956. Ant. J. C. 48. Plut. in Pomp. p. 659-662. Id. in Cæs. p. 730, 731. Appian, de Bell Civ. P. 480-484. Cæs. de Bell. Civ. I. iii. Diod. 1. xlii. P. 200-206.

390

Cæsar made all possible haste to arrive in Egypt, whither he suspected Pompey had retired, and where he was in hopes of finding him alive. That be might be there the sooner, he took very few troops with him; only eight hundred horse, and three thousand two hundred foot. He left the rest of his any in Greece and Asia Minor, under his lieutenant generals, with orders to mak all the advantages of his victory it would admit, and to establish his authority in all those countries. As for his person, confiding in his reputation, and the success of his arms at Pharsalia, and reckoning all places secure for him, he did not scruple to land at Alexandria with the few people he had.* He was very near paying dear for his temerity.

Upon his arrival, he was informed of Pompey's death, and found the city in great confusion. Theodotus, believing he should do him an exceeding pleasure, presented him the head of that illustrious fugitive. He wept at seeing it, and turned away his eyes from a spectacle that gave him horror. He even caused it to be interred with all the usual solemnities. And the better to express his esteem for Pompey, and the respect he had for his memory, he received with great kindness, and loaded with favours, all who had adhered to him, then in Egypt; and wrote to his friends at Rome, that the highest and most grateful advantage of this victory, was to find every day some new occasion to preserve the lives, and do services to some citizens who had borne arms against him.

The commotions increased every day at Alexandria, and many murders were committed there; the city having neither law nor government, because without a master. Cæsar, perceiving that the small number of troops with him were far from being sufficient to awe an insolent and seditious populace, gave orders for the legions he had in Asia to march thither. It was not in his power to leave Egypt, because of the Etesian winds, which in that country blow continu ally in the dog-days, and prevent all vessels from quitting Alexandria; those winds are then always due north. Not to lose time, he demanded the payment of the money due to him from Auletes, and took cognizance of the difference between Pompey and his sister Cleopatra.

We have seen, that when Cæsar was consul for the first time, Auletes had gained him by the promise of six thousand talents, and by that means had assured himself of the throne, and been declared the friend and ally of the Romans. The king had paid him only a part of that sum, and given him an obligation for the remainder.

Cæsar therefore demanded what was unpaid, which he wanted for the subsistence of his troops, and exacted it with rigour. Pothinus, Ptolemy's first minister, employed various stratagems to make this rigour appear still greater than it really was. He plundered the temples of all the gold and silver to be found in them, and made the king, and all the great persons of the kingdom, eat out of earthen or wooden vessels, insinuating that Cæsar had seized upon all their silver and gold plate, in order to render him odious to the populace by such reports, which were plausible, though entirely groundless.

But what finally incensed the Egyptians against Cæsar, and made them at last take arms, was the haughtiness with which he acted as judge between Ptolemy and Cleopatra, in causing them to be cited to appear before him, for the decision of their difference. We shall soon see upon what he founded his atthority for proceeding in that manner. He therefore decreed in form, that they should disband their armies, should appear and plead their cause before him, and receive such sentence as he should pass between them. This order was looked upon in Egypt as a violation of the royal dignity, which being independent, acknowledged no superior, and could be judged by no tribunal. Cesar replied to these complaints, that he acted only in virtue of being arbitrator by the will of Auletes, who had put his children under the tuition of the senate and people of Rome, whose whole authority then vested in his person, in quality

* Cæsar confisus fama rerum gestarum, infirmis auxiliis proficisci non dubitaverat; atque omnen shi locum tutum fore existimabat.-Cæs.

of consul; that as guardian, he had a right to arbitrate between them; and that all he pretended to, as executor of the will, was to establish peace between the brother and sister. This explanation having facilitated the affair, it was at length brought before Cæsar, and advocates were chosen to plead the cause.

But Cleopatra, who knew Cæsar's foible, believed her presence would be more persuasive than any advocate she could employ with her judge. She caused him to be told, that she perceived those she employed in her behalf betrayed her, and demanded permission to appear in person. Plutarch says it was Cæsar himself who pressed her to come and plead her cause.

That princess taking no one with her, of all her friends, but Apollodorus, the Sicilian, got into a little boat, and arrived at the bottom of the walls of the citadel of Alexandria, when it was quite dark, at night. Finding that there was no means of entering without being known, she thought of this stratagem. She laid herself at length in the midst of a bundle of clothes. Apollodorus wrapt it up in a cloth, tied it up with a thong, and in that manner carried it through the port of the citadel to Cæsar's apartment, who was far from being displeased with the stratagem. The first sight of so beautiful a person had all the effect upon him she had desired.

Cæsar sent the next day for Ptolemy, and pressed him to take her again, and be reconciled with her. Ptolemy saw plainly that his judge was become his adversary; and having learned that his sister was then in the palace, and in Cæsar's own apartment, he quitted it in the utmost fury, and in the open street took the diadem off his head, tore it to pieces, and threw it on the ground, crying out, with his face bathed in tears, that he was betrayed, and relating the circumstances to the multitude who assembled round him. In a moment the whole city was in motion. He put himself at the head of the populace, and led them on tumultuously to charge Cæsar with all the fury natural on such occasions.

The Roman soldiers, whom Cæsar had with him, secured the person of Ptolemy. But as all the rest, who knew nothing of what passed, were dispersed in the several quarters of that great city, Cæsar must have infallibly been overpowered and torn to pieces by that furious populace, if he had not had the presence of mind to show himself to them from a part of the palace, so high that he had nothing to fear upon it; from hence he assured them that they would be fully satisfied with the judgment he should pass. Those promises appeased the Egyptians a little.

The next day he brought out Ptolemy and Cleopatra into an assembly of the people, summoned by his order. After having caused the will of the late king to be read, he decreed, as tutor and arbitrator, that Ptolemy and Cleopatra should reign jointly in Egypt, according to the intent of that will; and that Ptolemy, the younger son, and Arsinoe, the younger daughter, should reign in Cyprus. He added the last article to please the people; for it was purely a gift he made them, as the Romans were actually in possession of that island. But he feared the effects of the Alexandrians' fury; and to extricate himself out of danger, was the reason of his making that concession.

All persons, except Pothinus, were satisfied and charmed with this decree. As it was he who had occasioned the breach between Cleopatra and her brother, and the expulsion of that princess from the throne, he had reason to apprehend that the consequences of this accommodation would prove fatal to him. To prevent the effect of Cæsar's decree, he inspired the people with new subjects of jealousy and discontent. He gave out, that Cæsar had only granted this decree by force, and through fear, which would not long subsist; and that his true design was to place only Cleopatra upon the throne. This was what the Egyptians exceedingly feared, not being able to endure that a woman should govern them alone, and have all authority to herself. When he saw that the people acceded to his views, he made Achillas advance at the head of the army from Pelusium, in order to drive Cæsar out of Alexandria. The approach of that army threw all things into their first confusion. Achillas, who had twenty