Achillas commanded the mainland, with the exception of what Caesar had walled off, and the latter the sea—except the harbor. Caesar, indeed, was victorious in a sea-fight, and when the Egyptians consequently, fearing that he would sail into their harbor, had filled up the entrance all except a narrow passage, he cut off that outlet also by sinking freight ships full of stones; so they were unable to stir, no matter how much they might desire to sail out. After this achievement provisions, and among other things water, were brought in more easily. Achillas had deprived them of the city water supply by cutting the pipes.

[-39-] While these events were taking place one Ganymedes, a eunuch, abducted Arsinoë, as she was not very well guarded, and led her out to the people. They declared her queen and proceeded to prosecute the war more vigorously, inasmuch as they now had a representative of the race of the Ptolemies. Caesar, therefore, in fear that Pothemos might kidnap Ptolemy, put the former to death and guarded the latter strictly without any further dissimulation. This contributed to incense the Egyptians still more, to whose party numbers were added daily, whereas the Roman soldiers from Syria were not yet on the scene. Caesar was anxious to bring the people to a condition of peace, and so he had Ptolemy take his stand on a high place from which they could hear his voice and bade him say to them that he was unharmed and was averse to warfare. He urged them to peaceful measures and promised that he would arrange the details for them. Now if 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 Arsinoë, 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 terrifying to his own followers.

[-41-] Meanwhile Mithridates, named the Pergamenian, undertook to ascend with his ships the mouth of the Nile opposite Pelusium; but when the Egyptians barred his entrance with their boats he betook himself by night to the canal, hauled the ships over into it (it was one that does not open into the sea), and through it sailed up into the Nile. After that he suddenly began from the sea and the river at once a conflict with the vessels that were guarding the mouth and broke up their blockade, whereupon he assaulted Pelusium with both his infantry and his force of ships, and took it. Advancing then to Alexandria he learned that a certain Dioscorides was going to confront them, and he ambushed and annihilated him.

[-42-] The Egyptians on receiving the news would not end the war even under these conditions; yet they were irritated at the sovereignty of the eunuch and the woman and thought if they could put Ptolemy at their head, they would be superior to the Romans. So then, finding themselves unable to seize him by any kind of violence because he was skillfully guarded, they pretended that they were worn out by disasters and desired peace; and they sent to Caesar a herald to ask for Ptolemy, to the end that they might consult with him about the terms on which they would make a truce. Caesar thought that they had in very truth changed front, especially since he heard that they were cowardly and fickle and perceived that at this time they were terrified in the face of their defeats. And in order not to be regarded as hindering peace, even if they were devising some trick, he said that he approved their request, and sent them Ptolemy. He saw no tower of strength in the lad in view of his youth and ignorance, and hoped that the Egyptians would either become reconciled with him on what terms he wished or else would better deserve the waging of war and subjugation, so that there might be some reasonable excuse for delivering them to Cleopatra. He had no idea of being defeated by them, particularly since his force had been augmented. [-43-] The Egyptians, when they secured the child, had not a thought for peace but straightway set out against Mithridates as if they were sure to accomplish some great achievement in the name and by the family of Ptolemy. They cut him off near the lake, between the river and the marshes, and raised a great clamor. Caesar through fear of being ambushed did not pursue them but at night he set sail as if he were hurrying to some outlet of the Nile and kindled an enormous fire on each vessel so that it might be thought that he was going a very long distance in this direction. He started at first, then, to sail away, but afterward extinguished the glare, returned and passed alongside the city to the peninsula on the Libyan side, where he landed; there he disembarked the soldiers, went around the lake, and fell upon the Egyptians unexpectedly about dawn. They were so startled on the instant that they sent a herald to him for terms, but, when he would not receive their entreaty, a fierce battle subsequently took place in which he was victorious and slew great numbers of the enemy. Some fled hastily to cross the river and perished in it, together with Ptolemy.

[B.C. 47 (a.u. 707)]

[-44-] In this way Caesar overcame Egypt. He did not, however, make it subject to the Romans, but bestowed it upon Cleopatra, for whose sake he had waged the conflict. Yet, being afraid that the Egyptians might rebel again because they were delivered to a woman to rule them and that the Romans for this reason and because the woman was his companion might be angry, he commanded her to make her other brother partner of her habitation, and gave the kingdom to both of them,—at least nominally. In reality Cleopatra alone was to hold all the power. For her husband was still a child and in view of Caesar's favor there was nothing that she could not do. Hence her living with her brother and sharing the sovereignty with him was a mere pretence which she accepted, whereas she actually ruled alone and spent her life in Caesar's company.

[-45-] She would have detained him even longer in Egypt or else would have at once set out with him for Rome, had not Pharnaces drawn Caesar most unwillingly from Afric's shores and hindered him from hurrying to Italy. This man was a son of Mithridates and ruled the Cimmerian Bosporus, as has been stated: it was his desire to win back again all his ancestral kingdom, and so he revolted just at the time of the quarrel between Caesar and Pompey, and, as the Romans had at that time found business, with one another and afterward were detained in Egypt, he got possession of Colchis without effort and, in the absence of Deiotarus, subjugated all of Armenia and some cities of Cappadocia and Pontus that were attached to the district of Bithynia. [-46-] While he was thus engaged Caesar himself did not stir,—Egypt was not yet settled and he had some hope of overcoming the man through others—but he sent Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, assigning him charge of Asia and …[79] legions. This officer added to his force Deiotarus and Ariobarzanes and marched straight against Pharnaces, who was in Nicopolis,—a city he had previously occupied. Indeed, he felt contempt for the barbarian, because the latter in terror of his presence was ready to agree to an armistice looking to an embassy, and so he would not conclude a truce with him, but attacked him and was defeated.

After that he had to retire to Asia, since he was no match for his conqueror, and winter was approaching. Pharnaces, greatly elated, joined to his cause nearly all of Pontus, captured Amisus, though it held out against him a long time, plundered the city and put to the sword all the young men in it. He then hastened into Bithynia and Asia with the same hopes as his father had harbored. Meanwhile, learning that Asander whom he had left as governor of the Bosporus had revolted, he no longer advanced any farther. For Asander, as soon as the advance of Pharnaces to a point distant from his own position was reported to him and it seemed likely that even if he should temporarily escape his observation with the greatest success, he would still not get out of it well later, rose against him, so as to do a favor to the Romans and to receive the government of the Bosporus from them. [-47-] This was the news on hearing which Pharnaces started against him, but the venture was in vain. For on ascertaining that Caesar was on the way and was hurrying into Armenia Pharnaces turned back and met him there near Zela. Now that Ptolemy was dead and Domitius vanquished Caesar had decided that delay in Egypt was neither fitting nor profitable for him, but set out from there and by using great speed reached Armenia. The barbarian, alarmed and fearing his quickness much more than his army, sent messengers to him before he drew near, making frequent propositions to see if in any way on any terms he could compromise the existing situation and escape. One of the principal pleas that he presented was that he had not coöperated with Pompey, and by this he hoped that he might induce the Roman general to grant a truce, particularly since the latter was anxious to hasten to Italy and Africa; and once he was gone he, Pharnaces, could easily wage war again. Caesar suspected this, and the first and second sets of envoys he treated with great kindness in order that he might fall upon the foe in a state quite unguarded, through hopes of peace: when the third deputation came he began to reproach him, one of his grounds of censure being that he had deserted Pompey, his benefactor. Then without delay, that very day and just as he was, Caesar marched forward and attacked him as soon as he came up to him; for a little while some confusion was caused by the cavalry and the scythe-bearing chariots, but after that he conquered the Asiatics with his heavy-armed soldiers. Pharnaces escaped to the sea and later forced his way into Bosporus, where Asander shut him up and killed him.

[-48-] Caesar took great pride in the victory,—more, indeed, than in any other, in spite of the fact that it had not been very glorious,—because on the same day and at one and the same hour he had come to the enemy, had seen him, and had conquered him. All the spoils, though of great magnitude, he bestowed upon the soldiers, and he set up a trophy to offset one which Mithridates had raised to commemorate the defeat of Triarius.[80] He did not dare to take down that of the barbarians because it had been dedicated to the gods of war, but by the erection of his own he overshadowed and to a certain extent demolished the other. Next he gained possession of all the region belonging to the Romans and those bound to them by oath which Pharnaces had ravaged, and restored it to the individuals who had been dispossessed, except a portion of Armenia, which he granted to Ariobarzanes. The people of Amisus he rewarded with freedom, and to Mithridates the Pergamenian he gave a tetrarchy in Galatia with the name of kingdom and allowed him to wage war against Asander, so that by conquering him, because he had proved base toward his friend Mithridates might get Bosporus also.