Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Fifteen

Alexandria was a city without compare in the ancient world. Some ancient commentators even thought its population surpassed Rome itself. It was not in the area of population that mattered however. The city of Alexandria was also far more beautiful and exquisite than Rome. Whereas the rugged labyrinth of Rome had been built up confusingly over the centuries, Alexandria was layed out in a grid system that was almost unchanged since the conquering Macedonian, Alexander the Great had founded the city three centuries before. Magnificent colonnades lined the streets which were in the first city in the world to boast numbered addresses. The much celebrated library of Alexandria was home to around 700,000 scrolls. This library had been built with the intention of having every book ever written available to scholars in one place. The financial institutions and the port of the city itself flowed with the capital and products of East and West alike. Egypt was also a land of immense fertility and the Roman who conquered this wonderfully and ancient land would be in control of the breadbasket of the Meditteranean. In our timeline thus far, Rome let the Ptolemaic dynasty rule Egypt on their own. The dynasty had catered to their every whim and of course the Ptolemies were very effective at milking their subjects on both their own and Rome's behalf.

The Romans had always regarded the dynasty, with its incestual marriages and Eastern decadence with scorn. Cato had found a particularly unique way of expressing his contempt. Once, when Cato had been administering Cyprus, a Ptolemy had come to see him. Cato spent the entire audience with the king sitting on the lavatory, as he had been undergoing treatment with a laxative. Caesar arrived in Egypt shortly after Pompey's death. The men who had taken part in the murder of Pompey had expected Caesar to be very grateful to them and award their charge, the boy-king Ptolemy XIII the throne in the ongoing battle with his sister Cleopatra over the Egyptian throne. However, even though Caesar must have been quite relieved that Pompey was out of the picture he was disgusted by the way he had been killed. He had wept when he had been presented with his former son-in-laws pickled head at the harbor upon his arrival and became even more furious when he learned the background details of the court intrigue that had led to his death. So instead of immediately backing Ptolemy XIII Caesar began to act like a king himself. He needed a place to stay and chose the royal palace! This enormous, fortified complex of buildings had been built up over the centuries until it covered almost a third of Alexandria.

Julius Caesar announced he would act as a judge in the royal dispute. He ordered both Ptolemy and Cleopatra to disband their armies and meet him in Alexandria. Ptolemy didn't disband-but was wisely persuaded by the eunuch Pothius (the central orchestrator of the plot against Pompey) to return to the palace. However, Cleopatra had no way to get to the capital and was trapped behind her brother's forces. She came up with an ingenious plan to circumvent this situation. One evening a small boat stealthily arrived at the palace. A Sicilian merchant named Apollodorus got out of the boat carrying a large bag on his shoulder that was supposed to contain a carpet. Apollodorus was able to smuggle the bag before Caesar. When the carpet was unrolled it revealed the astonishing sight of Cleopatra. In all probability Cleopatra was not the stunning beauty of Hollywood and other portrayals. She more than made up for this according to Plutarch: "Her sex appeal, together with the charm of her conversation and the charisma evident in everything she said or did, made her, quite simply, irresistible." (Plutarch, Antony, 27.). Cleopatra had gambled that Caesar would be charmed off his feet by her highly original debut into his life and she won. Caesar had been soldiering for more than a decade and intelligent female company must have been a rare pleasure. Not only was Cleopatra intelligent but ambitious also-a quality Caesar was no stranger to. They made love the very same evening.

This new love affair led to a very embarrassing situation for Caesar for a time. Perhaps love and the mysterious ways of Egypt had somewhat blinded him, for Julius Casear would normally have had great skill at avoiding such a mess. Upon hearing of Cleopatra's "meeting" with Caesar, Ptolemy ordered the citizens of Alexandria to riot, a habit they were much given over to. Also, Caesar's demands for money and his heavy handed treatment of the Alexandrians didn't exactly make him a very popular man anyway. The Alexandrians attacked the hated Romans with gusto. They were so successful that Caesar's position became so precarious that he had to recognize Ptolemy's joint monarchy with Cleopatra and give Cyprus back to the dynastic pair. Once the mob was joined by Ptolemy's army his situation became even more desperate-he couldn't even get a letter smuggled to Rome. During the next five months it seemed that nothing could go right for Caesar. When his forces burned the Egyptian fleet in the harbor, the bibliophile Caesar accidentally set fire to warehouses packed full of priceless books (a note here-this could possibly have been the whole Library of Alexandria that was torched accidentally, a catastrophe for which Muslims and Christians have also been blamed). These setbacks were only temporary, however, and Caesar finally regained control of the palace and the harbor. He also had the plotting eunuch Pothius put to death. In March of 47 BC reinforcements finally arrived in Egypt. By now, Cleopatra was visibly pregnant with Caesar's baby. The young Ptolemy XIII had tried to flee Alexandria, as Caesar's forces had destroyed the royal army at the delta of the river Nile. His boat was accidentally overturned by his soldiers who were also trying to get away on his ship and the unlucky boy drowned. This accident was very fortunate for Cleopatra and left her the sole ruler of Egypt.

I want to have the next post here soon. I am going to work on an article for my other blog tonight-but after that most of the time I have available to do research will be for this blog. The image is a silver tetradrachm showing an image of Cleopatra. The ancient portrayals of Cleopatra range from the sublime to the positively witch-like. From the research I have been able to do about her physical appearance it seems she wasn't a raving beauty-but not ugly at all either. With Cleopatra it seems to be the force of her personality and intelligence that most captivated the famous men who loved her. In Julius Caesar she had met her male counterpart as far as political ambition and both ruthlessness and subtlety could be used to achieve political ends. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!