Politically it would have been better far for him to have returned to Rome
with Pompey as a friend. Nor, if it had been certain that Pompey would
have refused to be reconciled, were services such as this a road to
Caesar's favor. The Alexandrians speedily found that they were not to be
rewarded with the desired independence. The consular fasces, the emblem of
the hated Roman authority, were carried openly before Caesar when he
appeared in the streets; and it was not long before mobs began to assemble
with cries that Egypt was a free country, and that the people would not
allow their king to be insulted. Evidently there was business to be done
in Egypt before Caesar could leave it. Delay was specially inconvenient. A
prolonged absence from Italy would allow faction time to rally again. But
Caesar did not look on himself as the leader of a party, but as the
guardian of Roman interests, and it was not his habit to leave any
necessary work uncompleted. The etesian winds, too, had set in, which made
it difficult for his heavy vessels to work out of the harbor. Seeing that
troubles might rise, he sent a message to Mithridates of Pergamus,[1]
to bring him reinforcements from Syria, while he himself at once took the
government of Egypt into his hands. He forbade the Alexandrians to set
aside Ptolemy's will, and insisted that the sovereignty must be vested
jointly in Cleopatra and her brother as their father had ordered.
Pages:
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558