Ten Roman warships anchored in the Bay of Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, at the beginning of October 48 BC. On board was Julius Caesar, accompanied by 3,000 legionnaires. The conqueror of the Gallic Wars in the eastern Mediterranean? A first. For thirty years, the East had been the domain of another Roman conqueror: Pompey. But Caesar decided to land on Egyptian shores precisely because of this general, who had become his great rival.
The two Roman statesmen were once allied. During the First Triumvirate, between 60 and 53 BC, these consuls had agreed to share power. But in a dying Roman Republic, plagued by an agrarian crisis, social unrest, and political conflicts, this alliance shattered. At the beginning of 49 BC, the ambitious Caesar and Pompey embarked on a fratricidal war. Their legions clashed throughout the Mediterranean basin, like pawns in a giant chess game.
Caesar’s masterstroke came during the Battle of Pharsalus, in Thessaly, in the summer of 48 BC. Defeated, Pompey fled to Egypt, under the protection of the ruling dynasty: the Ptolemies. Seven years earlier, the Roman general had restored Pharaoh Ptolemy XII to power after a revolt. Little did he know then that the Kingdom of the Nile would become his tomb.
Pompey Was Assassinated on the Orders of Ptolemy XIII’s Advisors
When Caesar reached the port of Alexandria, determined to bring his adversary back to Rome for execution, he learned that Pompey had been murdered! What happened? Among ancient historians, the Greek Plutarch provides the most detailed account of this murder in his work Parallel Lives. A month earlier, at Pelusium—northeast of the Nile Delta—Pompey was “stabbed to death” on the orders of three advisors to the new pharaoh, the young Ptolemy XIII, who was 13 years old.
The conspirators’ calculation was simple: by eliminating Pompey, Egypt would become an ally of the powerful Caesar. A gross mistake. Horrified by the sight of his enemy’s severed head presented to him on a platter, the imperator did not hide his fury. A Roman citizen, even a rival, could not be killed with impunity!
After organizing a funeral worthy of Pompey’s rank and erecting a tomb in his honor, Caesar unleashed his wrath on Egypt. Leading the XXXVII legion, formerly under Pompey’s command, he seized the royal palace in Alexandria and placed Ptolemy XIII, along with his elder sister and wife, Cleopatra VII Philopator, under close guard. Cleopatra would later be remembered by history simply as Cleopatra.
Why Did Caesar Linger in Egypt When He Had No Further Reason to Stay?
Was it love for Cleopatra, as romantic-minded historians have suggested? Vengeance for Pompey’s barbaric murder? Or a political move? Did this conqueror seek to take control of the land of the pharaohs, which until then had only had commercial ties with Rome? The question remains debated among specialists.
Historians of Roman antiquity explain Caesar’s Egyptian adventure differently: “We are far from the model of Roman imperialism waiting for the first opportunity to attack its prey. For Caesar, it was more about recognizing the curiosity and admiration the Romans had felt for Egypt for centuries.”
Caesar, the first Egyptologist? Regardless, the Roman showed a belligerent attitude toward his “hostages.” For instance, he demanded that the royal family repay the sums borrowed by Ptolemy XII from Roman bankers (argentarii). Alexandria refused. In truth, Caesar and his 3,000 legionnaires did not impress. Ptolemaic Egypt, descended from Alexander the Great and his best general, Ptolemy, did not fear Rome. The Greco-Egyptian kingdom had inherited, over three centuries, the military prowess of these two Macedonian conquerors.
This was evidenced by the strength of its army, inspired by the Greek military model: the phalanx. “These were formidable units of spearmen and pikemen designed to annihilate enemy infantry,” writes historian Pierre Ducrey in Guerre et guerriers dans la Grèce antique (Hachette, 1999). A dangerous adversary for Rome’s legions. Caesar, who came to the land of the pharaohs to secure his triumph over Pompey, not to fight Egypt, suddenly found himself drawn into a war against a formidable enemy.
3,000 Legionnaires Face 22,000 Egyptians
“Whoever controls Alexandria commands the Mediterranean,” wrote the Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily, a contemporary of Julius Caesar. However, the imperator holds only a small part of the Egyptian capital: the residential districts along the coast. Soon, the balance of power shifts against him. His 3,000 legionnaires are up against 22,000 Alexandrian soldiers, including over 2,000 cavalrymen. At sea, the disadvantage is equally severe: his flotilla is surrounded by more than 200 Egyptian warships. The Battle of Alexandria is not starting well for the victor of Gaul.
Aware of his significant numerical inferiority, Caesar sends emissaries to request reinforcements. He asks Mithridates, king of Pergamum and loyal to Rome, to send infantry soldiers and cavalry from the governor of Judea. Meanwhile, the Alexandrian army prepares to attack. Led by two of the three conspirators responsible for Pompey’s assassination—an eunuch named Pothinus and an Egyptian general named Achillas (the third, a Greek rhetorician named Theodotus of Chios, fled Egypt)—the army enters the city amidst cheers from the crowd.
The Egyptians then build a 12-meter-high stone wall and ten-story wooden towers around the royal quarter, where the Romans are stationed. Arsinoe IV, younger sister of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra, also joins the forces. Her first order: execute Achillas and replace him with a more strategic general, Ganymedes.
The Battle of Alexandria Lasts 6 Months
In the lesser-known De Bello Alexandrino (undated), written by Aulus Hirtius, Caesar’s general, this battle of Alexandria, which lasted from October 48 to March 47 BC, is detailed thoroughly. The first clashes occur in the port, where the Romans gain the upper hand by setting fire to dozens of Egyptian ships. But in the city streets, the enemy proves more cunning. Ganymedes blocks the canals supplying drinking water. “Using wheels and machines, the Egyptian elevated the seawater and made it flow into our quarters… After a few days, the water was no longer drinkable; it began to spoil and turn salty,” writes Aulus Hirtius.
After a month of siege, thirsty and starving legionnaires use battering rams to destroy parts of the wall built by the Alexandrians. Pothinus then distributes spoiled food and poisoned drinks to them. As Aulus Hirtius bitterly writes, “Whoever has once dealt with this nation cannot doubt that they are the most prone to treachery.”
In December, Caesar and his men attempt a desperate move to seize the island of Pharos, where the city’s monumental lighthouse stands. However, the Romans are repelled by the Alexandrian phalanxes. Aulus Hirtius recounts an often-overlooked anecdote from this defeat: under the threat of Egyptian spears, the great Caesar, who had never fled from an enemy, abandons his ship by jumping into the sea after discarding his purple cloak, a symbol of his command… This inglorious retreat is something Latin authors like Cicero and Suetonius, always eager to celebrate Caesar’s exploits, conveniently “forgot” to mention. “That day, we lost about 400 legionnaires,” laments Hirtius.
Just as he is on the verge of suffering his first military defeat, a glimmer of hope appears for Caesar in early February 47 BC. The reinforcements he had requested finally arrive on the Egyptian shores! The final battle does not take place in Alexandria but further east, in the Nile Delta, where tens of thousands of Mithridates’ soldiers, king of Pergamum, and legionnaires from Judea, decisively defeat the Egyptian army on March 26, 47 BC.
Cleopatra Becomes Queen at 22
Alexandria surrenders, while the lifeless body of Ptolemy XIII floats in the Nile… Ganymedes dies in the battle, and Pothinus is assassinated on Caesar’s orders. Arsinoe IV is taken aboard a Roman ship to be executed during Caesar’s next triumph in Rome. As for the people of Alexandria, “they donned the robes of supplicants to beg the victor for mercy,” Aulus Hirtius concludes.
Now the master of Egypt, Julius Caesar does not make Egypt a Roman province. Against all expectations, he entrusts the kingdom to Cleopatra VII Philopator, a young 22-year-old woman, who is to rule alongside her younger brother, Ptolemy XIV. In July 47 BC, nine months after arriving in Egypt to capture Pompey, Caesar leaves Alexandria, leaving behind three legions. And thus, begins the reign of Cleopatra, who would become the most famous queen of ancient Egypt.
