sword of the enemy were drowned in the attempt
to escape to the fleet on the Nile. With one of the boats, which sank
overladen with men, the young king also disappeared in the waters of his
native stream. Immediately after the battle Caesar advanced at the head
of his cavalry from the land side straight into the portion of the
capital occupied by the Egyptians. In mourning attire, with the images
of their gods in their hands, the enemy received him and sued for
peace; and his troops, when they saw him return as victor from the side
opposite to that by which he had set forth, welcomed him with boundless
joy. The fate of the town, which had ventured to thwart the plans of
the master of the world and had brought him within a hair's-breadth of
destruction, lay in Caesar's hands; but he was too much of a ruler to
be sensitive, and dealt with the Alexandrians as with the Massiliots.
Caesar--pointing to their city severely devastated and deprived of its
granaries, of its world-renowned library, and of other important public
buildings on the occasion of the burning of the fleet--exhorted the
inhabitants in future earnestly to cultivate the arts of peace alone,
and to heal the wounds inflicted on themselves; for the rest, he
contented himself with granting to the Jews settled in Alexandria the
same rights which the Greek population of the city enjoyed, and
with placing in Alexandria instead of the previous Roman army of
occupation--which nominally at least obeyed the kings of Egypt, a
Roman garrison--two of the legions besieged there, and a third which
afterwards arrived from Syria--under a commander nominated by himself.
For this position of trust a man was purposely selected whose birth made
it impossible for him to abuse it--Rufio, an able soldier, but the son
of a freed man. Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy obtained the
sovereignty of Egypt under the supremacy of Rome; the Princess Arsinoe
was carried off to Italy, that she might not serve once more as a
pretext for insurrections to the Egyptians, who were after the Oriental
fashion quite as much devoted to their dynasty as they were indifferent
towards the individual dynasts; and Cyprus became again a part of the
Roman province of Cilicia. Caesar's love for Cleopatra, who had just
borne him a son named Caesarion, was not so strong as his ambition;
and after having been above a year in Egypt he left her to govern the
kingdom in her own name, but on his behalf; and sa