CLEOPATRA AND CÆSAR.
In the mean time, while the events related in the last chapter were taking
place at Alexandria, Cleopatra remained anxious and uneasy in her camp,
quite uncertain, for a time, what it was best for her to do. She wished to
be at Alexandria. She knew very well that Cæsar's power in controlling the
course of affairs in Egypt would necessarily be supreme. She was, of
course, very earnest in her desire to be able to present her cause before
him. As it was, Ptolemy and Pothinus were in communication with the
arbiter, and, for aught she knew, assiduously cultivating his favor, while
she was far away, her cause unheard, her wrongs unknown, and perhaps even
her existence forgotten. Of course, under such circumstances, she was very
earnest to get to Alexandria.
But how to accomplish this purpose was a source of great perplexity. She
could not march thither at the head of an army, for the army of the king
was strongly intrenched at Pelusium, and effectually barred the way. She
could not attempt to pass alone, or with few attendants, through the
country, for every town and village was occupied with garrisons and
officers under the orders of Pothinus, and she would be certainly
intercepted. She had no fleet, and could not, therefore, make the passage
by sea. Besides, even if she could by any means reach the gates of
Alexandria, how was she to pass safely through the streets of the city to
the palace where Cæsar resided, since the city, except in Cæsar's
quarters, was wholly in the hands of Pothinus's government? The
difficulties in the way of accomplishing her object seemed thus almost
insurmountable.
She was, however, resolved to make the attempt. She sent a message to
Cæsar, asking permission to appear before him and plead her own cause.
Cæsar replied, urging her by all means to come. She took a single boat,
and with the smallest number of attendants possible, made her way along
the coast to Alexandria. The man on whom she principally relied in this
hazardous expedition was a domestic named Apollodorus. She had, however,
some other attendants besides. When the party reached Alexandria, they
waited until night, and then advanced to the foot of the walls of the
citadel. Here Apollodorus rolled the queen up in a piece of carpeting,
and, covering the whole package with a cloth, he tied it with a thong, so
as to give it the appearance of a bale of ordinary merchandise, and then
throwing the load across his shoulder, he advanced into the city.
Cleopatra was at this time about twenty-one years of age, but she was of a
slender and graceful form, and the burden was, consequently, not very
heavy. Apollodorus came to the gates of the palace where Cæsar was
residing. The guards at the gates asked him what it was that he was
carrying. He said that it was a present for Cæsar. So they allowed him to
pass, and the pretended porter carried his package safely in.
When it was unrolled, and Cleopatra came out to view, Cæsar was perfectly
charmed with the spectacle. In fact, the various conflicting emotions
which she could not but feel under such circumstances as these, imparted a
double interest to her beautiful and expressive face, and to her naturally
bewitching manners. She was excited by the adventure through which she had
passed, and yet pleased with her narrow escape from its dangers. The
curiosity and interest which she felt on the one hand, in respect to
the great personage into whose presence she had been thus strangely
ushered, was very strong; but then, on the other, it was chastened and
subdued by that feeling of timidity which, in new and unexpected
situations like these, and under a consciousness of being the object of
eager observation to the other sex, is inseparable from the nature of
woman.
[Illustration: CLEOPATRA ENTERING THE PALACE OF CÆSAR.]
The conversation which Cæsar held with Cleopatra deepened the impression
which her first appearance had made upon him. Her intelligence and
animation, the originality of her ideas, and the point and pertinency of
her mode of expressing them, made her, independently of her personal
charms, an exceedingly entertaining and agreeable companion. She, in fact,
completely won the great conqueror's heart; and, through the strong
attachment to her which he immediately formed, he became wholly
disqualified to act impartially between her and her brother in regard to
their respective rights to the crown. We call Ptolemy Cleopatra's brother;
for, though he was also, in fact, her husband, still, as he was only ten
or twelve years of age at the time of Cleopatra's expulsion from
Alexandria, the marriage had been probably regarded, thus far, only as a
mere matter of form. Cæsar was now about fifty-two. He had a wife, named
Calpurnia, to whom he had been married about ten years. She was living, at
this time, in an unostentatious and quiet manner at Rome. She was a lady
of an amiable and gentle character, devotedly attached to her husband,
patient and forbearing in respect to his faults, and often anxious and
unhappy at the thought of the difficulties and dangers in which his ardent
and unbounded ambition so often involved him.
Cæsar immediately began to take a very strong interest in Cleopatra's
cause. He treated her personally with the fondest attention, and it was
impossible for her not to reciprocate in some degree the kind feeling with
which he regarded her. It was, in fact, something altogether new to her to
have a warm and devoted friend, espousing her cause, tendering her
protection, and seeking in every way to promote her happiness. Her father
had all his life neglected her. Her brother, of years and understanding
totally inferior to hers, whom she had been compelled to make her husband,
had become her mortal enemy. It is true that, in depriving her of her
inheritance and expelling her from her native land, he had been only the
tool and instrument of more designing men. This, however, far from
improving the point of view from which she regarded him, made him appear
not only hateful, but contemptible too. All the officers of government,
also, in the Alexandrian court had turned against her, because they had
supposed that they could control her brother more easily if she were away.
Thus she had always been surrounded by selfish, mercenary, and implacable
foes. Now, for the first time, she seemed to have a friend. A protector
had suddenly arisen to support and defend her--a man of very alluring
person and manners, of a very noble and generous spirit, and of the very
highest station. He loved her, and she could not refrain from loving him
in return. She committed her cause entirely into his hands, confided to
him all her interests, and gave herself up wholly into his power.
Nor was the unbounded confidence which she reposed in him undeserved, so
far as related to his efforts to restore her to her throne. The legions
which Cæsar had sent for into Syria had not yet arrived, and his situation
in Alexandria was still very defenseless and very precarious. He did not,
however, on this account, abate in the least degree the loftiness and
self-confidence of the position which he had assumed, but he commenced
immediately the work of securing Cleopatra's restoration. This quiet
assumption of the right and power to arbitrate and decide such a question
as that of the claim to the throne, in a country where he had accidentally
landed and found rival claimants disputing for the succession, while he
was still wholly destitute of the means of enforcing the superiority which
he so coolly assumed, marks the immense ascendency which the Roman power
had attained at this time in the estimation of mankind, and is, besides,
specially characteristic of the genius and disposition of Cæsar.
Very soon after Cleopatra had come to him, Cæsar sent for the young
Ptolemy, and urged upon him the duty and expediency of restoring
Cleopatra. Ptolemy was beginning now to attain an age at which he might be
supposed to have some opinion of his own on such a question. He declared
himself utterly opposed to any such design. In the course of the
conversation he learned that Cleopatra had arrived at Alexandria, and that
she was then concealed in Cæsar's palace. This intelligence awakened in
his mind the greatest excitement and indignation. He went away from
Cæsar's presence in a rage. He tore the diadem which he was accustomed to
wear from his head in the streets, threw it down, and trampled it under
his feet. He declared to the people that he was betrayed, and displayed
the most violent indications of vexation and chagrin. The chief subject of
his complaint, in the attempts which he made to awaken the popular
indignation against Cæsar and the Romans, was the disgraceful impropriety
of the position which his sister had assumed in surrendering herself as
she had done to Cæsar. It is most probable, however, unless his character
was very different from that of every other Ptolemy in the line, that what
really awakened his jealousy and anger was fear of the commanding
influence and power to which Cleopatra was likely to attain through the
agency of so distinguished a protector, rather than any other consequences
of his friendship, or any real considerations of delicacy in respect to
his sister's good name or his own marital honor.
However this may be, Ptolemy, together with Pothinus and Achillas, and all
his other friends and adherents, who joined him in the terrible outcry
that he made against the coalition which he had discovered between
Cleopatra and Cæsar, succeeded in producing a very general and violent
tumult throughout the city. The populace were aroused, and began to
assemble in great crowds, and full of indignation and anger. Some knew the
facts, and acted under something like an understanding of the cause of
their anger. Others only knew that the aim of this sudden outbreak was to
assault the Romans, and were ready, on any pretext, known or unknown, to
join in any deeds of violence directed against these foreign intruders.
There were others still, and these, probably, far the larger portion, who
knew nothing and understood nothing but that there was to be tumult and a
riot in and around the palaces, and were, accordingly, eager to be there.
Ptolemy and his officers had no large body of troops in Alexandria; for
the events which had thus far occurred since Cæsar's arrival had succeeded
each other so rapidly, that a very short time had yet elapsed, and the
main army remained still at Pelusium. The main force, therefore, by which
Cæsar was now attacked, consisted of the population of the city, headed,
perhaps, by the few guards which the young king had at his command.
Cæsar, on his part, had but a small portion of his forces at the palace
where he was attacked. The rest were scattered about the city. He,
however, seems to have felt no alarm. He did not even confine himself to
acting on the defensive. He sent out a detachment of his soldiers with
orders to seize Ptolemy and bring him in a prisoner. Soldiers trained,
disciplined, and armed as the Roman veterans were, and nerved by the ardor
and enthusiasm which seemed always to animate troops which were under
Cæsar's personal command, could accomplish almost any undertaking against
a mere populace, however numerous or however furiously excited they might
be. The soldiers sallied out, seized Ptolemy, and brought him in.
The populace were at first astounded at the daring presumption of this
deed, and then exasperated at the indignity of it, considered as a
violation of the person of their sovereign. The tumult would have greatly
increased, had it not been that Cæsar--who had now attained all his ends
in thus having brought Cleopatra and Ptolemy both within his
power--thought it most expedient to allay it. He accordingly ascended to
the window of a tower, or of some other elevated portion of his palace, so
high that missiles from the mob below could not reach him, and began to
make signals expressive of his wish to address them.
When silence was obtained, he made them a speech well calculated to quiet
the excitement. He told them that he did not pretend to any right to judge
between Cleopatra and Ptolemy as their superior, but only in the
performance of the duty solemnly assigned by Ptolemy Auletes, the father,
to the Roman people, whose representative he was. Other than this he
claimed no jurisdiction in the case; and his only wish, in the discharge
of the duty which devolved upon him to consider the cause, was to settle
the question in a manner just and equitable to all the parties concerned,
and thus arrest the progress of the civil war, which, if not arrested,
threatened to involve the country in the most terrible calamities. He
counseled them, therefore, to disperse, and no longer disturb the peace of
the city. He would immediately take measures for trying the question
between Cleopatra and Ptolemy, and he did not doubt but that they would
all be satisfied with his decision.
This speech, made, as it was, in the eloquent and persuasive, and yet
dignified and imposing manner for which Cæsar's harangues to turbulent
assemblies like these were so famed, produced a great effect. Some were
convinced, others were silenced; and those whose resentment and anger
were not appeased, found themselves deprived of their power by the
pacification of the rest. The mob was dispersed, and Ptolemy remained with
Cleopatra in Cæsar's custody.
The next day, Cæsar, according to his promise, convened an assembly of the
principal people of Alexandria and officers of state, and then brought out
Ptolemy and Cleopatra, that he might decide their cause. The original will
which Ptolemy Auletes had executed had been deposited in the public
archives of Alexandria, and carefully preserved there. An authentic copy
of it had been sent to Rome. Cæsar caused the original will to be brought
out and read to the assembly. The provisions of it were perfectly explicit
and clear. It required that Cleopatra and Ptolemy should be married, and
then settled the sovereign power upon them jointly, as king and queen. It
recognized the Roman commonwealth as the ally of Egypt, and constituted
the Roman government the executor of the will, and the guardian of the
king and queen. In fact, so clear and explicit was this document, that the
simple reading of it seemed to be of itself a decision of the question.
When, therefore, Cæsar announced that, in his judgment, Cleopatra was
entitled to share the supreme power with Ptolemy, and that it was his
duty, as the representative of the Roman power and the executor of the
will, to protect both the king and the queen in their respective rights,
there seemed to be nothing that could be said against his decision.
Besides Cleopatra and Ptolemy, there were two other children of Ptolemy
Auletes in the royal family at this time. One was a girl, named Arsinoë.
The other, a boy, was, singularly enough, named, like his brother,
Ptolemy. These children were quite young, but Cæsar thought that it would
perhaps gratify the Alexandrians, and lead them to acquiesce more readily
in his decision, if he were to make some royal provision for them. He
accordingly proposed to assign the island of Cyprus as a realm for them.
This was literally a gift, for Cyprus was at this time a Roman
possession.[5]
The whole assembly seemed satisfied with this decision except Pothinus. He
had been so determined and inveterate an enemy to Cleopatra, that, as he
was well aware, her restoration must end in his downfall and ruin. He
went away from the assembly moodily determining that he would not submit
to the decision, but would immediately adopt efficient measures to prevent
its being carried into effect.
Cæsar made arrangements for a series of festivals and celebrations, to
commemorate and confirm the re-establishment of a good understanding
between the king and the queen, and the consequent termination of the war.
Such celebrations, he judged, would have great influence in removing any
remaining animosities from the minds of the people, and restore the
dominion of a kind and friendly feeling throughout the city. The people
fell in with these measures, and cordially co-operated to give them
effect; but Pothinus and Achillas, though they suppressed all outward
expressions of discontent, made incessant efforts in secret to organize a
party, and to form plans for overthrowing the influence of Cæsar, and
making Ptolemy again the sole and exclusive sovereign.
Pothinus represented to all whom he could induce to listen to him that
Cæsar's real design was to make Cleopatra queen alone, and to depose
Ptolemy, and urged them to combine with him to resist a policy which would
end in bringing Egypt under the dominion of a woman. He also formed a
plan, in connection with Achillas, for ordering the army back from
Pelusium. The army consisted of thirty thousand men. If that army could be
brought to Alexandria and kept under Pothinus's orders, Cæsar and his
three thousand Roman soldiers would be, they thought, wholly at their
mercy.
There was, however, one danger to be guarded against in ordering the army
to march toward the capital, and that was, that Ptolemy, while under
Cæsar's influence, might open communications with the officers, and so
obtain command of its movements, and thwart all the conspirators' designs.
To prevent this, it was arranged between Pothinus and Achillas that the
latter should make his escape from Alexandria, proceed immediately to the
camp at Pelusium, resume the command of the troops there, and conduct them
himself to the capital; and that in all these operations, and also
subsequently on his arrival, he should obey no orders unless they came to
him through Pothinus himself.
Although sentinels and guards were probably stationed at the gates and
avenues leading from the city, Achillas contrived to effect his escape
and to join the army. He placed himself at the head of the forces, and
commenced his march toward the capital. Pothinus remained all the time
within the city as a spy, pretending to acquiesce in Cæsar's decision, and
to be on friendly terms with him, but really plotting for his overthrow,
and obtaining all the information which his position enabled him to
command, in order that he might co-operate with the army and Achillas when
they should arrive.
All these things were done with the utmost secrecy, and so cunning and
adroit were the conspirators in forming and executing their plots, that
Cæsar seems to have had no knowledge of the measures which his enemies
were taking, until he suddenly heard that the main body of Ptolemy's army
was approaching the city, at least twenty thousand strong. In the mean
time, however, the forces which he had sent for from Syria had not
arrived, and no alternative was left but to defend the capital and himself
as well as he could with the very small force which he had at his
disposal.
He determined, however, first, to try the effect of orders sent out in
Ptolemy's name to forbid the approach of the army to the city. Two
officers were accordingly intrusted with these orders, and sent out to
communicate them to Achillas. The names of these officers were Dioscorides
and Serapion.
It shows in a very striking point of view to what an incredible exaltation
the authority and consequence of a sovereign king rose in those ancient
days, in the minds of men, that Achillas, at the moment when these men
made their appearance in the camp, bearing evidently some command from
Ptolemy in the city, considered it more prudent to kill them at once,
without hearing their message, rather than to allow the orders to be
delivered and then take the responsibility of disobeying them. If he could
succeed in marching to Alexandria and in taking possession of the city,
and then in expelling Cæsar and Cleopatra and restoring Ptolemy to the
exclusive possession of the throne, he knew very well that the king would
rejoice in the result, and would overlook all irregularities on his part
in the means by which he had accomplished it, short of absolute
disobedience of a known command. Whatever might be the commands that these
messengers were bringing him, he supposed that they doubtless originated,
not in Ptolemy's own free will, but that they were dictated by the
authority of Cæsar. Still, they would be commands coming in Ptolemy's
name; and the universal experience of officers serving under the military
despots of those ancient days showed that, rather than to take the
responsibility of directly disobeying a royal order once received, it was
safer to avoid receiving it by murdering the messengers.
Achillas therefore directed the officers to be seized and slain. They were
accordingly taken off and speared by the soldiers, and then the bodies
were borne away. The soldiers, however, it was found, had not done their
work effectually. There was no interest for them in such a cold-blooded
assassination, and perhaps something like a sentiment of compassion
restrained their hands. At any rate, though both the men were desperately
wounded, one only died. The other lived and recovered.
Achillas continued to advance toward the city. Cæsar, finding that the
crisis which was approaching was becoming very serious in its character,
took, himself, the whole command within the capital, and began to make the
best arrangements possible under the circumstances of the case to defend
himself there. His numbers were altogether too small to defend the whole
city against the overwhelming force which was advancing to assail it. He
accordingly intrenched his troops in the palaces and in the citadel, and
in such other parts of the city as it seemed practicable to defend. He
barricaded all the streets and avenues leading to these points, and
fortified the gates. Nor did he, while thus doing all in his power to
employ the insufficient means of defense already in his hands to the best
advantage, neglect the proper exertions for obtaining succor from abroad.
He sent off galleys to Syria, to Cyprus, to Rhodes, and to every other
point accessible from Alexandria where Roman troops might be expected to
be found, urging the authorities there to forward re-enforcements to him
with the utmost possible dispatch.
During all this time Cleopatra and Ptolemy remained in the palace with
Cæsar, both ostensibly co-operating with him in his councils and measures
for defending the city from Achillas. Cleopatra, of course, was sincere
and in earnest in this co-operation; but Ptolemy's adhesion to the common
cause was very little to be relied upon. Although, situated as he was, he
was compelled to seem to be on Cæsar's side, he must have secretly desired
that Achillas should succeed and Cæsar's plans be overthrown. Pothinus
was more active, though not less cautious in his hostility to them. He
opened a secret communication with Achillas, sending him information, from
time to time, of what took place within the walls, and of the arrangements
made there for the defense of the city against him, and gave him also
directions how to proceed. He was very wary and sagacious in all these
movements, feigning all the time to be on Cæsar's side. He pretended to be
very zealously employed in aiding Cæsar to secure more effectually the
various points where attacks were to be expected, and in maturing and
completing the arrangements for defense.
But, notwithstanding all his cunning, he was detected in his double
dealing, and his career was suddenly brought to a close, before the great
final conflict came on. There was a barber in Cæsar's household, who, for
some cause or other, began to suspect Pothinus; and, having little else to
do, he employed himself in watching the eunuch's movements and reporting
them to Cæsar. Cæsar directed the barber to continue his observations. He
did so; his suspicions were soon confirmed, and at length a letter, which
Pothinus had written to Achillas, was intercepted and brought to Cæsar.
This furnished the necessary proof of what they called his guilt, and
Cæsar ordered him to be beheaded.
This circumstance produced, of course, a great excitement within the
palace, for Pothinus had been for many years the great ruling minister of
state--the king, in fact, in all but in name. His execution alarmed a
great many others, who, though in Cæsar's power, were secretly wishing
that Achillas might prevail. Among those most disturbed by these fears was
a man named Ganymede. He was the officer who had charge of Arsinoë,
Cleopatra's sister. The arrangement which Cæsar had proposed for
establishing her in conjunction with her brother Ptolemy over the island
of Cyprus had not gone into effect; for, immediately after the decision of
Cæsar, the attention of all concerned had been wholly engrossed by the
tidings of the advance of the army, and by the busy preparations which
were required on all hands for the impending contest. Arsinoë, therefore,
with her governor Ganymede, remained in the palace. Ganymede had joined
Pothinus in his plots; and when Pothinus was beheaded, he concluded that
it would be safest for him to fly.
He accordingly resolved to make his escape from the city, taking Arsinoë
with him. It was a very hazardous attempt, but he succeeded in
accomplishing it. Arsinoë was very willing to go, for she was now
beginning to be old enough to feel the impulse of that insatiable and
reckless ambition which seemed to form such an essential element in the
character of every son and daughter in the whole Ptolemaic line. She was
insignificant and powerless where she was, but at the head of the army she
might become immediately a queen.
It resulted, in the first instance, as she had anticipated. Achillas and
his army received her with acclamations. Under Ganymede's influence they
decided that, as all the other members of the royal family were in
durance, being held captive by a foreign general, who had by chance
obtained possession of the capital, and were thus incapacitated for
exercising the royal power, the crown devolved upon Arsinoë; and they
accordingly proclaimed her queen.
Every thing was now prepared for a desperate and determined contest for
the crown between Cleopatra, with Cæsar for her minister and general, on
the one side, and Arsinoë, with Ganymede and Achillas for her chief
officers, on the other. The young Ptolemy, in the mean time, remained
Cæsar's prisoner, confused with the intricacies in which the quarrel had
become involved, and scarcely knowing now what to wish in respect to the
issue of the contest. It was very difficult to foresee whether it would be
best for him that Cleopatra or that Arsinoë should succeed.