mentioned, and
after coasting along the shore as far as Cilicia went across from there
to Pelusium, where Ptolemy, just then engaged in a war with his sister
Cleopatra, was encamped. Bringing the ships to anchor he sent some men
to remind the prince of the favor shown his father and to ask that he be
permitted to land on definite and secure conditions: he did not venture
to disembark before obtaining some guarantee of safety. Ptolemy made him
no answer, for he was still a mere child, but some of the Egyptians and
Lucius Septimius, a Roman who had made campaigns with Pompey but was a
relative of Gabinius and had been left behind by him to keep guard over
Ptolemy, came in the guise of friends: for all that they impiously
plotted against him and by their act brought guilt upon themselves and
all Egypt. They themselves perished not long after and the Egyptians for
their part were first delivered to be slaves of Cleopatra (this they
particularly disliked) and later were enrolled among the Roman subjects.
[-4-] Now at this time Septimius and Achillas, the commander-in-chief,
and others who were with them declared they would readily receive
Pompey,--to the end, of course, that he might be the more easily
deceived and ensnared. Some of them sent on his messengers ahead,
bidding them be of good cheer, and the natives themselves next embarked
on some small boats and sailed out to him. After many friendly greetings
they begged him to come over to their vessels, saying that by reason of
its size and the shallow water a trireme could not closely approach
their land and that they were very eager to see Pompey himself more
quickly. He thereupon changed ships, although all his fellow voyagers
urged him not to do it, trusting in his hosts and saying merely:

"Whoever to a tyrant wends his way, His slave is he, e'en though his
steps be free." [72]

Now when they drew near the land, fearing that if he even met Ptolemy he
might be saved, by the king himself or by the Romans who dwelt with him
or by the Egyptians, who regarded him with great affection, they killed
him before sailing into harbor. He said not a word and uttered no
complaint, but as soon as he perceived their plot and recognized that he
would not be able to ward them off nor escape, he veiled his face.

[-5-] Such was the end of the famous Pompey the Great, wherein once more
the weakness and the strange fortune of the human race are proved. He
was no whit deficient in fores