[2]he
cries of discontent grew bolder. Alexandria was a large, populous city,
the common receptacle of vagabonds from all parts of the Mediterranean.
Pirates, thieves, political exiles, and outlaws had taken refuge there,
and had been received into the king's service. With the addition of the
dissolute legionaries left by Gabinius, they made up 20,000 as dangerous
ruffians as had ever been gathered into a single city. The more
respectable citizens had no reason to love the Romans. The fate of Cyprus
seemed a foreshadowing of their own. They too, unless they looked to
themselves, would be absorbed in the devouring Empire. They had made an
end of Pompey, and Caesar had shown no gratitude. Caesar himself was now
in their hands. Till the wind changed they thought that he could not
escape, and they were tempted, naturally enough, to use the chance which
fate had given them.
Pothinus, a palace eunuch and one of young Ptolemy's guardians, sent
secretly for the troops at Pelusium, and gave the command of them to
Achillas, the officer who had murdered Pompey. The city rose when they
came in, and Caesar found himself blockaded in the palace and the part of
the city which joined the outer harbor. The situation was irritating from
its absurdity, but more or less it was really dangerous. The Egyptian
fleet which had been sent to Greece in aid of Pompey had come back, and
was in the inner basin.
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