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2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1.
3-Multumesc persoanei care imi permite sa pun aceste articole !
Death on the Nile
In late 48 BC, the ‘Senate’ extended Caesar’s dictatorship for another year. With his power legitimised, he continued his pursuit of Pompey to Egypt, taking just a cohort with him rather than a full army in his customary haste. Arriving at Alexandria, Caesar was presented with the head of Pompey Magnus, upon sight of which he broke down and wept. As his despair (real, or feigned) turned to outrage, he began to have his soldiers execute those advisors to Ptolemy that had been involved in the murder. It was clear to Caesar that the teenage pharaoh was being led astray by his advisors, and was determined to ‘drain the swamp’, as it were.
The Egyptians were a proud people, despite the fact they had not enjoyed local rule for around 500 years since the Persian conquest, and despite the fact their reduced status now saw them as a secondary power beneath the shadow of Rome. These were a people who were building the Pyramids of Giza 1,800 years before Romulus was sucking at a wolf’s teat! Now they were under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the last of the Diadochi kingdoms to have carved up Alexander the Great’s empire, and thus were dominated by a Greek nobility who did not mix with the local population, and practiced sibling marriage. This inbreeding had led to a number of genetic issues over the generations, with the Ptolemies almost all suffering from obesity, and their eyes being set further back in their head (a similar issue can be seen in Medieval Europe with the ‘Hapsburg chin’, where the lower jaw protrudes beyond the upper jaw – a result of generations of inbreeding). Caesar’s arrogance, in arriving with Roman soldiers and acting as if he owned the city, must have been humiliating, especially as more and more heads of the pharaoh’s advisors appeared on the palace wall. Civil unrest caused by Roman resentment was soon rife in Alexandria.
Ptolemy XIII had been taking part in a civil war with his sister-wife Cleopatra VII, who he had exiled, despite her role as his regent. Sensing an opportunity to sway the Romans to her cause, Cleopatra determined that she would woo Caesar. Caesar and his Romans soon found themselves effectively imprisoned in one of the palace’s, and when a carpet was delivered to him that started moving, he initially feared an assassin. He was pleasantly surprised when the 22-year-old seductress emerged instead, and strengthened his belief that Ptolemy was being led astray.
Choosing to support Cleopatra in the civil struggle, Caesar thus hatched a daring plan. Early one morning his legionaries stormed out of their quarters and into the palace, barging through the lightly armoured Egyptian guards and capturing Ptolemy before they could mobilise on mass and bringing him back to their quarters. An outrages populace now surrounded them, but were unwilling to storm the building while their pharaoh was within. Caesar spent days getting to know the young pharaoh, and the two formed a close bond, with the Roman even having a miniature gladius made for him. Ptolemy seemed contrite and to support a closer relationship with Rome, and believing he would exile his advisors and continue his support to Caesar, the Roman set him free. Several steps outside of the quarters, he donned his head mask and urged the baying mob to kill the Romans.
Caesar’s men were hard pressed to hold of the attack, hurling tiles down from the roof, but managed to keep the aggressors at bay. By this time Ptolemy had brought his general Achillas in to occupy the city with his army of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, leaving Caesar in a perilous position without a strong enough force to oppose him. During the night, Caesar sent a number of legionaries to escape across the rooftops, and start a fire on the fleet of Egyptian ships which were blockading the Romans transports in the bay. The fire was successful in diverted swathes of the mob and occupying army, though unfortunately got out of control and embers from it led to the burning down of the great library of Alexandria. Caesar now led his legionaries in a desperate push through the cramped streets, hacking down their opponents in the close quarters fighting which the legions revelled in. Reaching the docks in a panic, the Roman ships were soon overloaded and began to capsize. Caesar himself famously leaped from a ship and swan across the bay holding his latest writings of his autobiography above his head. Swimming across to the Pharos (the lighthouse, which was one of the seven wonders of the world), the Romans were now able to defend the island they were on as it was connected to Alexandria by a narrow causeway.
Relief ships were now able to reach Caesar, and he sailed east, calling for help from the Romans provinces in the Levant. Mithridates of Pergamum marched to reinforce him, defeating a small army sent to oppose him before linking up with the Romans. Caesar now had a force the same size as the Egyptian army. Meeting on the west bank of the Nile, Caesar initially destroyed a Ptolemaic fort in a failed attempt to lure the Egyptians away from their strong position. The Romans suffered heavy casualties as they then attacked the Egyptians uphill, especially as they were in range of missile fire from the Egyptian ships. They eventually forced a gap in Ptolemy’s line, which the Romans were able to penetrate and attack the Egyptian rear, causing them to panic and flee. As they fled into the Nile to escape, Ptolemy’s boat capsized, and the fifteen-year-old either drowned, was eaten by crocodiles, or drowned and was then eaten by crocodiles.
Rather than continue with his usual haste, Caesar then uncharacteristically lingered in Egypt. He indulged himself in the decedent life of the pharaohs, spending months sailing down to the Upper Nile with Cleopatra to see the city of Thebes. The young queen was now the de facto ruler of Egypt, with her young brother Ptolemy XIV now the pharaoh and her as regent. She bore Caesar a child, a son named Caesarion, and their affair was widely known, though not looked upon as adulterous as it was with a foreign queen, not a Roman. She would go on to later visit Rome and stay in Caesar’s villa on the Tiber. Cleopatra was revered and respected amongst the locals, the first of the Ptolemaic dynasty to bother learning the Egyptian language. They viewed their pharaohs as gods, and thus offered them tremendous respect.
Caesar’s time of luxurious relaxation came to an abrupt end though when he received word from Asia Province. Pharnaces II, the son of Mithridates the Great “Eupator”, viewed the Roman civil strife as an opportunity to return Pontus to its pedestal. His swift action had seen him defeat Caesar’s legate in the region, and he was now sweeping through Asia Minor to restore Pontic greatness. Caesar’s legions prepared to march north through the Levant to stop him.
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