Plutarch on Caesar's War in Alexandria

Plutarch of Chaeronea (46-c.122): influential Greek philosopher and author, well known for his biographies and his moral treatises. His biography is here; the following fragment is from his Life of Julius Caesar.

In August 48 BCE, Julius Caesar defeated his rival Pompey and the last defenders of the Roman republic in the battle of Pharsalus in Greece. Many died, but Pompey managed to leave the battlefield and applied for asylum in Ptolemaic Egypt. However, the Egyptian authorities decided that it was better not to help Pompey, because they suspected that Caesar would declare war upon them. Therefore, Pompey was murdered when he tried to come ashore. Not much later, Caesar arrived.

The country was divided by civil war: king Ptolemy XII Auletes had left two children who had equal rights to the throne, his son Ptolemy XIII and an elder daughter Cleopatra VII. When Caesar arrived, the boy was in control of the situation.

The following story can be found in the Life of Julius Caesar (48-49) by the Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea. The translation was made by Rex Warner.

Chapter
48
49
Section
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

[48.2] Caesar arrived at Alexandria just after Pompey's death. When Theodotus came to him with Pompey's head, Caesar refused to look at him, but he took Pompey's signet ring and shed tears as he did so.

[48.3] He offered help and his own friendship to all who had been friends and companions of Pompey and who, without anywhere to go to, had been arrested by the king of Egypt [Ptolemy XIII].

[48.4] And he wrote to his friends in Rome to say that, of all the results of his victory, what gave him the most pleasure was that he was so often able to save the lives of fellow citizens who had fought against him.

[48.5] As for the war in Egypt, some say that it need never have taken place, that it was brought on by Caesar's passion for Cleopatra and that it did him little credit while involving him in great danger. Others blame the king's party for it, and particularly the eunuch Pothinus, who was the most influential person at the court.

[48.6] He had recently killed Pompey, had driven out Cleopatra, and was now secretly plotting against Caesar. Because of this, they say, Caesar now began to sit up for whole nights on end at drinking parties, in order to be sure that he was properly guarded. Even openly Pothinus made himself intolerable, belittling and insulting Caesar both in his words and his actions.

[48.7] For instance, the soldiers were given rations of the oldest and worst possible grain, and Pothinus told them that they must put up with it and learn to like it, since they were eating food that did not belong to them; and at official dinners he gave orders that wooden and earthenware dishes should be used, on the pretext that Caesar had taken all the gold and silver in payment of a debt.

[48.8] The father of the present king did in fact owe Caesar 17½ million drachmas, and, though Caesar had previously remitted part of this debt to the king's children, he now demanded 10 million for the support of his army.

[48.9] Pothinus suggested that for the time being he should go away and attend to more important matters, promising that later on they would be delighted to pay the money; but Caesar told him that Egyptians were the last people he would choose for his advisers, and secretly he sent for Cleopatra from the country.