In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of
Pharsalus, Caesar did not linger in Greece. Pharsalus, remember, was Julius Caesar's decisive
victory over Pompey Magnus, which effectively, although not literally, ended the Roman Civil
War. Caesar immediately sent one of his top lieutenants,
Marc Antony, back to Rome to oversee the political situation, and then, after some intelligence
gathering, he set off to Egypt in pursuit of Pompey, taking with him only 4,000 soldiers
for the sake of speed. As we know, Pompey was killed the moment he
stepped foot in Egypt, but this fact was not yet known to the outside world. When Caesar arrived in Egypt, officials greeted
him as an honoured guest, and as a token of Egypt's good will, presented him with Pompey's
severed head. According to some ancient sources, Caesar
reacted to this by recoiling in horror and refusing to look at it. When the Egyptians handed him Pompey's signet
ring, these same sources say that Caesar broke down in tears. Historians are not quite sure what to make
of this incident. Was Caesar upset, or was he pretending to
be upset? Or, is this a piece of propaganda intended
to win over Pompey's supporters? We don't know! Even the ancient sources disagree. Plutarch calls Caesar's grief genuine, while
Cassius Dio describes Caesar "feigning to mourn." Regardless, I think that we can with some
confidence that Pompey's head was not what Caesar wanted. What he wanted was Pompey's surrender. By this point it was clear that Caesar genuinely
wanted to reintegrate every Pompeian that was willing to acknowledge his supremacy,
knowing that their cooperation was key to a lasting peace. Reintegrating Pompey would have been the ultimate
prize, but now, thanks to the Egyptians, that was off the table. Whether or not Caesar was genuinely upset,
he used Pompey's murder as an excuse to bring his 4,000 soldiers off the ships and into
the city of Alexandria. The Egyptians did not give him permission
to do this, but didn't feel comfortable stopping him either. The Romans paraded through the streets of
Egypt's largest city as if they were a conquering army. This understandably offended the Alexandrians,
and before too long there were protests, and then rioting, and then several Roman soldiers
were killed. For the Romans, it was no longer safe to be
out on the streets. Caesar took his tiny army and hid them away
in the city's Royal Quarter, which housed the Egyptian king, his court, and a bunch
of government buildings. Caesar had entered Alexandria intending to
get Pompey's to surrender, but instead, in a matter of days, he had accidentally engulfed
the city in a general riot, and, just to make things extra complicated, taken custody of
the Egyptian king. What a mess. The current Egyptian king was a 13 year old
boy named Ptolemy. Ptolemy had two older sisters, Cleopatra and
Arsinoe, and one younger brother, also named Ptolemy. (Spoiler alert: they're all named Ptolemy,
and it's super annoying.) The current King Ptolemy's father, (also named
Ptolemy,) had died three years earlier, and, to sum up his entire life in one sentence,
which is a totally fair thing to do, the only thing that kept him on the throne was support
from Rome, specifically a series of massive loans. When the current king's father got sick, he
named Rome as the executor of his will, which was basically a way of sucking up to his benefactors. When he died, his son inherited his father's
crown and debts. Now that Caesar occupied the Royal Quarter,
he was like "while I'm here, how's that debt repayment coming?" Caesar owed pensions to tens of thousands
of soldiers, and at the moment was basically broke. It would be awfully nice if Egypt could magically
solve this problem. When Caesar approached the king's councilors,
they kinda gave him the runaround, saying it would take some time, blah blah blah, they
would try sending installments to Italy whenever they could. Caesar told them not to bother, because he
would be remaining in Egypt until their debts were paid. As you can imagine, this was a tense exchange. Meanwhile, the people of Alexandria continued
to riot against the Roman presence in their city. Caesar accused the king and his councilors
of being behind the riots, but they denied it. (Second spoiler alert: they were definitely
behind the riots.) Since the Egyptians were giving Caesar a hard
time, he decided that now was a good opportunity to step up and act as executor of the dead
king's will. So what was in that will? For starters, the child-king Ptolemy was supposed
to serve as co-monarch with his older sister, Cleopatra. Currently, that wasn't happening. In fact, Cleopatra had been ousted by a rival
faction, and was now raising an army to the south. Not only were the terms of the king's will
not being met, but an Egyptian Civil War seemed imminent. Since the king's will was at the root of this
problem, the Romans had every right to intervene if they wished. Caesar announced that he would be doing just
that. He would mediate the dispute. Naturally, the king and his councilors hated
every second of this. Caesar's implied message was clear. If Ptolemy's faction wouldn't cooperate, maybe
another faction would. Before we go any further we should probably
talk about Ptolemy's older sister Cleopatra, because even if this is all brand new to you,
you probably recognize that name. Every credible ancient sources describes her
as charming, and witty, and incredibly intelligent. Apparently she could speak at least 9 languages,
including Hebrew and Latin. She was even the first person of her dynasty
that could actually speak Egyptian, which was an incredibly tough language for an outsider
to learn. She was a world-class strategic thinker. She was often the first to diagnose problems,
and when she knew what needed to be done she was absolutely tenacious. The fact that she also happened to be royalty
truly made her a force to be reckoned with. So, Cleopatra was attempting to build an army
in the south of Egypt, but this wasn't going very well. Then, out of nowhere, a wildcard entered the
picture and offered to mediate. This could be turned to her advantage, but
she needed a plan. And then bam! She had a plan! Cleopatra found herself a tiny boat, disguised
herself in rags, and set off on an exhausting eight day journey down the Nile. Her only companion on this expedition was
a dude named Apollodorus, who was a big guy from Sicily who presumably spoke Latin without
an accent. When Cleopatra and Apollodorus reached the
end of the Nile, they waited until dark, and then silently rowed their boat into Alexandria's
Royal Harbour. At the docks, Cleopatra stuffed herself into
a laundry bag, and Apollodorus hiked the bag over his shoulder and casually walked into
the city. With his flawless Latin (probably) Apollodorus
was somehow able to talk his way into the Royal Quarter, and then into the palaces,
and then into Caesar's private chambers. Once in Caesar's presence, Apollodorus set
down the laundry bag and revealed Cleopatra, still dressed in rags and still a mess from
her eight day journey down the Nile. Nevertheless, Caesar was impressed, as I think,
we all would be, and grew even more impressed as he heard what the Cleopatra had to say. We don't know exactly what happened on that
first night, but we know that within a matter of time it was clear that Caesar and Cleopatra
had begun an affair. Caesar decided to side with Cleopatra in the
dispute with her brother, announcing that Cleopatra and Ptolemy were to serve as co-monarchs,
just as their father's will instructed. Let's not get too hung up on the fact that
Caesar and Cleopatra were sleeping together, though. Caesar already knew that Ptolemy's faction
was behind the riots. It had been nothing but thinly veiled hostility
since the moment he arrived. It made a lot of sense for Rome to throw their
support behind Ptolemy's rival, no matter who that was. Obviously, Ptolemy and his councilors were
not happy with this new arrangement. Shortly after Cleopatra's arrival, 20,000
Egyptian soldiers descended on the city. The anti-Roman riots suddenly shifted into
a formal blockade with the full support of the Egyptian military. The Siege of Alexandria had begun. Caesar sent a bunch of frantic messages to
allied kings in Syria and Asia Minor, but even in the best case scenario, help was months
away. Within a few days, it was no longer possible
to get word in or out of the city, and Caesar's 4,000 Romans were trapped in the Royal Quarter. Any attempt to negotiate was met with violence. The king and his councilors, who were still
under Caesar's care in the Royal Quarter, claimed that this was all happening against
their orders, which was obviously a lie. Caesar made the first move and seized the
nearby Royal Harbour, which was home to both the Egyptian and Roman fleets. There was some intense fighting down by the
docks, but in the end the Romans were able to set fire to a bunch of ships, successfully
crippling the Egyptian fleet. Many historians believe that this fire inadvertently
spread into the city, consuming part of the Library of Alexandria, which at this time
was one of the world's greatest repositories of ancient knowledge. However, it's kinda... trendy, for lack of
a better word, to exaggerate the impact of this, and the Library would continue to operate
for centuries, ultimately falling for reasons that had nothing to do with this fire. Caesar had the Roman army close off the streets
and fortify the Royal Quarter. As the defenses were going up, Arsinoe, the
king's other sister, escaped Roman custody and went over to the besieging Egyptian army,
who immediately proclaimed her Queen. After Arsinoe's escape fighting began in earnest,
and each day yielded only a few metres gained or lost in either direction. Historian Philip Freeman calls this "one of
the most vicious campaigns of urban warfare in the ancient world." This would go on for months. Caesar had never been much of a drinker, but
during this time he began staying up every night and drinking himself into a stupor. These were dark times. Things only got more desperate. The Egyptian army figured out how flood the
Roman water supply with impotable sea water. This caused a minor panic, and Caesar's soldiers
began to openly criticize their leader's slow response. Eventually the Romans were able to dig new
wells, but morale remained low. As the fighting continued back and forth,
the Egyptians started to gather a bit of momentum. The entire city rallied behind a big patriotic
push to rebuild the Egyptian fleet, which involved literally ripping up buildings for
their wood. These makeshift Egyptian ships eventually
outnumbered the Roman fleet at something like 2 to 1. This was bad. Such an extreme disadvantage at sea put the
Royal Harbour at risk. Something needed to change. Caesar decided to attack the island of Pharos. Pharos was home to one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, but more importantly, Pharos controlled access
to the Royal Harbour. If the Romans controlled Pharos, it would
buy them some time. Caesar loaded a third of his army onto a bunch
of small boats and lead an assault on the island. The Egyptians on Pharos were relentless in
their defense of the island, and as the day wore on, Egyptian reinforcements poured across
the bridge. By the end of the first day of fighting, the
Romans had only managed to capture part of the island. On the second day, the Romans launched an
all out assault on the bridge, but by this time they had obviously lost the element of
surprise and the Roman advance ground to a halt. Then, late in the day, the Egyptian fleet
swooped into the harbour and began landing soldiers behind the Roman position. Facing an attack on two fronts, a large number
of Romans broke and fled back to their boats. Caesar saw the writing on the wall, and ordered
a general retreat. In the rush to get off of the island, the
boat carrying Caesar capsized. Thinking quickly, Caesar slipped out of his
armour and proceeded to swim across the harbour all by himself, holding a bunch of maps and
papers above his head to keep them dry. This was one of the low points of Caesar's
career. Less than half of those who attacked the island
made it back alive. The total size of Caesar's tiny army fell
by like 20%. It was a devastating defeat. The Siege of Alexandria slid into its fifth
month, with no end in sight. When an envoy from the besieging Egyptians
approached the Romans asking for the release of their king, Caesar was all ears. The faction currently leading the Egyptian
army had shown consistent opposition to the idea of a negotiated settlement. Behind the scenes, some whispered that it
might be a different story if Ptolemy were in charge. Caesar agreed release the child-king and his
councilors, on the condition that they come back to him with a peace plan. But Caesar was had. As soon as Ptolemy and his councilors were
free, they ordered an all-out attack on the Royal Quarter. So much for that idea. About a month later, a foreign ship was able
to slip past the Egyptian fleet and into the Royal Harbour. It carried a letter addressed to Caesar from
King Mithridates of Pergamum, to whom Caesar had appealed for help at the beginning of
the siege. The letter said that Mithridates had just
entered Egypt with 18,000 soldiers. This was fantastic news. Caesar used this opportunity to load the majority
of his army, which was only like a couple thousand soldiers, onto his ships and sail
away, leaving behind only a small garrison to hold the Royal Quarter. The Roman ships evaded the Egyptian fleet
and sailed east around the Egyptian position to join up with Mithridates's army, at which
point Caesar assumed command. In late March, 6 months after Caesar's initial
landing in Egypt, a Roman-lead army and an Egyptian army faced each other at what historians
call "The Battle of the Nile." The Egyptians encamped on a hill just west
of a tiny little branch of the Nile, with one side of the protected by the river, another
by some rocky terrain, and a third by a marsh. Wisely, the Egyptians decided to make their
stand here. But naturally, before anything else could
happen, the Roman-lead army had to cross the river. The Egyptians anticipated this, and sent cavalry
and light infantry to make this crossing as difficult as possible. But Caesar anticipated their anticipation,
and as the Roman-lead army approached the river, he sent some cavalry upstream to secretly
cross ahead of the main army. Then, when the rest of the army reached at
the tiny river, they laid a bunch of tree trunks flat across its banks, forming makeshift
bridges. As this was happening the cavalry on the other
side of the river came into view, and the two groups simultaneously charged. This was more than the Egyptians were expecting,
and many were killed before they were able to withdraw back up the hill. The Roman-lead army was already exhausted
from a long day's march, but nevertheless Caesar ordered them to storm a nearby town,
hoping that the Egyptians would rush to their aid. They did not. For similar reasons, Caesar decided to encamp
uncomfortably close to the enemy, basically at the foot of the hill. Again, the Egyptians remained disciplined
and stayed put at the top of the hill. The next morning, left with no other options,
Caesar ordered an all-out attack. The Roman-lead army charged straight up the
open side of the hill. Caesar then split off a small group, instructing
them to circle around and squeeze themselves between the river and the hill, where they
might be able to open up a second line of attack from the other direction. This didn't go very well. The Egyptians focused their arrow fire on
this tiny isolated group, and even brought up river vessels to fire at them from the
other direction. This group of soldiers would spend the rest
of the battle huddled together on the side of the hill trying not to get shot, and would
suffer massive casualties. Meanwhile, the main group were continuing
to the uphill attack, but were making virtually no progress. But Caesar noticed that in their zeal, the
Egyptians had moved a little too far down the hill, revealing a little gap in their
line. He ordered a few Roman cohorts to circle around
and see if they could exploit that gap. They got through! The cohorts stormed the top of the hill, and
then turned and charged straight into the rear of the Egyptian line. This was enough to set off a widespread panic. The signal was given to retreat back to the
Egyptian river boats. It was not an orderly retreat. In the confusion, the ship carrying King Ptolemy
capsized, and the child-king drowned in the Nile. Caesar didn't waste any time admiring his
victory. He immediately left for Alexandria with a
small group of cavalry, bringing with him news of the Egyptian defeat and of the death
of the king. The Alexandrian garrison surrendered at once,
which at last brought the Siege of Alexandria to an end. The historian Stacy Schiff wrote in her biography
of Cleopatra: "The best that can be said of the Alexandrian War is that Caesar acquitted
himself brilliantly in a situation in which he stupidly found himself." Plutarch, an ancient writer that I would generally
categorize as pro-Caesar, wrote: "as for the war in Egypt, some say that it was not necessary,"
later describing it as "inglorious and full of peril." There's a pretty broad historical consensus
that this entire campaign was a disaster, and frankly it's astonishing that it wasn't
end of Caesar's career. But now that Cleopatra was fully empowered
in Egypt, a peace deal was possible. Cleopatra agreed to repay Egypt's debts in
full, and to host to a permanent Roman garrison. She also agreed to serve as co-monarch with
her last living brother, also named Ptolemy, and to let the Romans take her sister Arsinoe
back to Rome in chains. In exchange, Caesar agreed to return the province
of Cyprus to Egypt. After the Battle of the Nile and the subsequent
peace settlement, Caesar lingered in Egypt for three months. What was he doing? Not a whole lot! Caesar and Clepoatra used this time to travel
up the Nile with the Roman army. On paper this was a demonstration to the people
of Egypt that their new Queen had Rome's full support, but if we're being honest, it was
probably just an excuse to take a pleasure cruise. By the time everybody returned to Alexandria,
Cleopatra was extremely pregnant. She would later give birth to a boy, naming
it - wait for it - Ptolemy. Back in Rome, people would half-jokingly refer
to the child as Caesarion, which means "Little Caesar." It's not exactly a subtle nickname, but it's
the name that historians still use. By this time news from the wider world was
beginning to trickle into Egypt. Most of it was not good. First, an allied king in Asia had turned against
Rome, and was slaughtering every Roman citizen found in his territory. Second, the remnants of the Pompeian Faction
were gathering strength at an alarming rate down in North Africa. Third, Marc Antony was making a big ol' mess
of Roman politics back home, and things were approaching a boiling point. Clearly, Caesar still lacked a reliable second
in command. Every time he removed himself from the equation,
things began to crumble. Lingering in Egypt had probably been a mistake.
I'm looking forward to the day I can watch an 8 hour Historia Civilis playlist of the fall of the roman republic
Historia Civilis for consul of the United States!
Man, the HBO miniseries really did a terrible job with that chapter of Roman history.
I've felt a big jump in production quality in the last few videos. I liked the humor in this one especially, and the small music callback from the death of Pompey in the previous video.
I am still waiting for a big news that they would find CLEOPATRA AND ANTONY'S bodies.
It's impressive how he keeps winning despite being outnumbered.
I was so worried that he was going to drone on about the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Like, it was totally a tragedy and it sucks hard that some of that knowledge was lost and that individuals in the area no longer had access to such a wealth of academic knowledge, but some people think we'd be colonizing Mars right now if it hadn't burned.
Tragic, yes, but hardly world shattering.
Always so happy to see these videos on my feed.
This is a great series. I really like the 'shits gettin real' synth that comes in
Yessss!