Flight of Pompey to Egypt. Pompey assassinated.
Pompey, on his defeat, fled to Larissa, embarked with his generals, and sailed to Mitylene. As he had still the province of Africa and a large fleet, it was his policy to go there; but he had a silly notion that his true field of glory was the East, and he saw no place of refuge but Egypt. That kingdom was then governed by the children of Ptolemy Auletes, Cleopatra and Ptolemy, neither of whom were adults, and who, moreover, were quarreling with each other for the undivided sovereignty of Egypt. At this juncture, Pompey appeared on the coast, on which Ptolemy was encamped. He sent a messenger to the king, with the request that he might be sheltered in Alexandria. To grant it would compromise Ptolemy with Cæsar; to refuse it would send Pompey to the camp of Cleopatra in Syria. He was invited to a conference, and his minister Achillus was sent out in a boat to bring him on shore. Pompey, infatuated, imprudently trusted himself in the boat, in which he recognized an old comrade, Septimius, who, however, did not return his salutation. On landing, he was stabbed by Septimius, who had persuaded Ptolemy to take his life, in order to propitiate Cæsar and gain the Egyptian crown. Thus ingloriously fell the conqueror of Asia, and the second man in the empire, by treachery.
Cæsar in Egypt. Eastern conquests.
On the flight of Pompey from the fatal battle-field, Cæsar pressed in pursuit, with only one legion and a troop of cavalry. Fearing a new war in Asia, Cæsar waited to collect his forces, and then embarked for Egypt. [pg 540] He arrived at Alexandria only a few days after the murder of his rival, and was met by an officer bearing his head. He ordered it to be burned with costly spices, and placed the ashes in a shrine, dedicated to Nemesis. He then demanded ten million drachmas, promised by the late king, and summoned the contending sovereigns to his camp. Cleopatra captivated him, and he decided that both should share the throne, but that the ministers of Ptolemy should be deposed, which was reducing the king to a cipher. But the fanaticism of the Alexandrians being excited, and a collision having taken place between them and his troops, Cæsar burned the Egyptian fleet, and fortified himself at Pharos, awaiting re-enforcements. Ptolemy, however, turned against him, when he had obtained his release, and perished in an action on the banks of the Nile. Cleopatra was restored to the throne, under the protection of Rome.
Pharnaces.
Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, rewarded by Pompey with the throne of the Bosphorus for the desertion of his father, now made war against Rome. Galvinus, sent against him, sustained a defeat, and Cæsar rapidly marched to Asia to restore affairs. It was then he wrote to the Senate that brief, but vaunting letter: “Veni, vidi, vici.” He already meditated those conquests in the East which had inflamed the ambition of his rival. He caught the spirit of Oriental despotism. He was not proof against the flatteries of the Asiatics. But his love for Cleopatra worked a still greater change in his character, even as it undermined the respect of his countrymen. History brands with infamy that unfortunate connection, which led to ostentation, arrogance, harshness, impatience, and contempt of mankind—the same qualities which characterized Napoleon on his return from Egypt.
Dictatorship of Cæsar.
In September, B.C. 47, Cæsar returned to Italy, having been already named dictator by a defeated and obsequious Senate. Cicero was among the first to meet him, and was graciously pardoned. The only severe measure which he would allow was the confiscation of the [pg 541] property of Pompey and his sons, whose statues, however, he replaced. He now ruled absolutely, but under the old forms, and was made tribune for life. The Senate nominated him consul for five years, and he was also named dictator.
Cato.
The only foes who now seriously stood out against him were the adherents of Pompey, who had time, during his absence in the East, to reorganize their forces, and it was in Africa that the last conflict was to be fought. The Pompeians were commanded by Scipio, who fixed his head-quarters at Hadrumentum, with an army of ten legions, a large force of Numidian cavalry, and one hundred and twenty elephants. But Cæsar defeated this large army with a vastly inferior force, and the rout was complete. Scipio took ship for Spain, but was driven back, as Marius had been on the Italian coasts when pursued by the generals of Sulla, and ended his life by suicide. Cato, the noblest Roman of his day, whose march across the African desert was one of the great feats of his age, might have escaped, and would probably have been pardoned: but the lofty stoic could not endure the sight of the prostration of Roman liberties, and, fortifying his courage with the Phædon of Plato, also fell upon his sword. The Roman republic ended with his death.