f he had talked thus to them of his own accord, he could
have persuaded them to become reconciled; but as it was, they suspected
that it was all prearranged by Caesar, and they would not yield.

[-40-] As time went on a dispute arose among the followers of Arsinoe,
and Ganymedes prevailed upon her to put Achillas to death, on the ground
that he wished to betray the fleet. When this had been done he assumed
command of the soldiers and gathered all the boats that were in the
river and the lake, besides constructing others. All of them he conveyed
through the canals to the sea, where he attacked the Romans while off
their guard, burned some of their freight ships to the water's edge and
towed others away. Then he cleared out the entrance to the harbor and by
lying in wait for vessels there he caused the foreigners great
annoyance. One day Caesar noticed them behaving carelessly, by reason of
their supremacy, and suddenly sailed into the harbor, where he burned a
number of boats, and disembarking on Pharos slew the inhabitants of the
island. When the Egyptians on the mainland saw that, they came to their
aid over the bridges and after killing many of the Romans in their turn
they hurled the remainder back to their boats. While these fugitives
were forcing their way into them at any point and in crowds, Caesar,
besides many others, fell into the sea. And he would have perished
miserably weighed down by his robes and pelted by the Egyptians--his
garments, being purple, offered a good mark--had he not thrown off the
incumbrances and then succeeded in swimming out somewhere to a skiff,
which he boarded. In this way he was saved without wetting one of the
documents of which he held up a large number in his left hand as he
swam. His clothing the Egyptians took and hung upon the trophy which
they set up to commemorate this rout, as if they had as good as captured
the man himself. They also kept a close watch upon the landings (for the
legions which had been sent from Syria were now near at hand) and did
the Romans much injury. Caesar could ward off in a way the attack of
those who assailed him in the direction of Libya: but near the mouth of
the Nile they deceived many of his men by using signal fires as if they
too were Romans, and captured them, so that the rest no longer ventured
to coast along until Tiberius Claudius Nero at length sailed up the
river itself, conquered the foe in battle, and rendered the approach
less terrifyin