On The Alexandrian War. Andrea Pietro Cornalba

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СКАЧАТЬ to conceal their true feelings and instinctively would have denied their assent, however he assessed differently. If it really was as they claimed, the release of their legitimate ruler would bring order to the kingdom. If, on the other hand, the intent was only to put that legitimate King at the head of the army, there would have been more glory and honour for him to face a Pharaoh rather than a counsellor, however, very skilled and capable. So Caesar called him and spoke to him; despite the apparent innocence, the young man was already able to camouflage his feelings: whimpering he tried to move the consul of Rome, who held him by the hand and handed him back to freedom and his subjects, while he said that it was difficult to reign over Egypt and that, if he could, he preferred to stay and enjoy the company of Caesar.

      Once free, however, the exact opposite occurred of what his words and his advisers had announced, and as part of Caesar already expected: the Alexandrian war operations resumed with more vigour, once again showing the falsity of those people. Caesar's men, but also friends, centurions and soldiers, thought that this time their commander had been made fun of by a boy and that he had acted more out of kindness than with sensible and thoughtful caution.

      25.

      The Alessandrini realized that, even if they now had only one leader, they had not become stronger than the Romans, and furthermore, following the continuous failures of their attacks, they lost confidence in their new guide who, as foreseen by Caesar, had ousted the capable eunuch Ganymede.

      Word came to the Alexandrians that reinforcements for the besieged were already on the march from Syria and Cilicia, so they decided to try again to intercept supplies for us. Having ships in Canopus in the Nile Delta and reinforcing them with other units, they prepared to take our convoy by surprise.

      Caesar did not know where his reinforcements were, but when he learned that the Egyptians were preparing to attack his supplies, he gave order to the fleet to sail and in command placed Tiberius Claudio Nero. With him went the Rodie ships commanded by the lucky Euphranor who had participated in all the battles and always with a happy outcome, but the luck that had always supported the skilled Euphranor that day changed his opinion and abandoned the Rhodium. In fact, when the two fleets near Canobio engaged in battle, Euphranor, with his ship, attacked first as he used to do; he sank a trireme and then went further to attack another one not far away, but he went too far from his fleet that had failed to follow him and found himself isolated and surrounded by enemy ships. Nobody cared to support him, perhaps because they were confident in his seafaring skills or because they were afraid of danger; it happened that alone he faced the glorious struggle, covered himself with honour but finally perished sinking with his ship that until then had always been victorious.

      26.

      In the same days Mithridates of Pergamum, noble by birth, skilled and courageous strategist, faithful friend of Caesar who had been sent to Syria and Cilicia to enlist troops since the beginning of the Alexandrian war, had come to Pelusio with a large army of those fond people who also thanks to his dignity and fame gladly followed him.

      Pelusio was well guarded by a strong contingent left by Achilla, who well knew the strengths of the place; in fact Pelusio connected Egypt to Syria by land and was, together with the port of Alexandria, one of the two entrances to the kingdom.

      Mithridates attacked him suddenly and with many soldiers, making them rotate on the front line so that the troops always carry the attack, fresh and not tired and battered; in one day he conquered the fortress and placed a garrison there. After this victory he focused on Alexandria and during the march he forced the lands crossed to declare himself in favour of Caesar.

      27.

      A short distance from Alexandria there is one of the most beautiful places in Egypt, known as the Nile Delta, given that there the large river divides itself gently into two branches that gradually distance each other more and more until it flows into the sea at a lot of distance between them, drawing the letter of the Greek alphabet called Delta. The Pharaoh, informed of the approach of Mithridates and knowing full well that he had to pass from there, sent him against a large army that he considered adequate to defeat him or at least to stop him, thus preventing him from bringing help to Caesar. But the first troops who crossed the river, eager for glory and eager not to divide the honor of victory, attacked without waiting for the rest of the army. Mithridates, who had learned the Roman technique of the entrenched camp, remained sheltered in the Castrum (fort, fortified camp), then, seeing the enemy attacking in a disorderly and scattered order, he brought his men out in full and exterminated many of them. Only the knowledge of the places and the location of the boats prevented the Egyptians from being completely annihilated; however, once reunited with the rest of the army who followed them, they reorganized and returned to threaten Mithridates.

      28.

      Mithridates immediately sent messengers to inform Caesar of what was happening; Pharaoh was also informed of the incident by the inhabitants of the area, and both left immediately: the Egyptian to overwhelm Mithridates, Caesar to help him, but they took different routes. Pharaoh chose to use the Nile on which he had a large fleet ready; Wanting to avoid having to fight a naval battle on the river, Caesar chose a longer road, which runs alongside the Nile Delta, that coast still considered Africa and made up of many islands (as noted above). Thus comes from his reinforcements almost by surprise, because spotted already in the distance by the army of Pharaoh, who had already begun preparations to attack Mithridates. This inconvenience postponed the clash and allowed Caesar to join his army with the intact one of Mithridates.

      The Egyptian King had placed the fortified field on a hill that dominated the entire plain around; this was defended on three sides by the nature of the place having on one side a branch of the Nile, on the other a steep escarpment and on the third a swamp.

      29.

      On the road followed by Caesar to reach the zone of the war operations where the enemy's camp was located, there was a small stream that from the steep banks that threw itself into the Nile; this was about 6000 steps (4.5 km) from the hill. The Pharaoh, wanting to prevent him from entering, crossing him to a more favourable position, sent all the cavalry and his best light infantry to counter the operation. In that situation, courage and fear have greater weight than military capability; the Egyptians, in a favourable position, had a good game in frustrating the attempts of ours to firmly gain the opposite bank. So it was that the Germanic cavalrymen of Caesar went up and down to look for an easier ford while the legionaries began to cut tall trees that they used to build a passage halfway between the dam and the bridge, or with carryovers also of earth to cross that small stream. In short, the legionaries gained the other side while the Germanic knights, having found the ford, launched themselves on the Alessandrini who broke the ranks and gave themselves to the disorderly escape, so that few returned to their camp, almost all mowed down by legionaries and knights .

      30.

      With this brilliant success, Caesar did not doubt that he could seize the decisive victory, taking advantage of the terror that had spread in the Alexandrian camp. He then marched rapidly towards the field of Pharaoh, but arrived in view of this and observing its position and the fortification works on the only accessible side, he assessed that it was better not to subject the soldiers to further risks, by virtue of the fact that they were also tired , both for the battle just ended, and for the long night march that had allowed him to show up there at dawn. He therefore decided to place the camp in that place, close to the Egyptian one, and to postpone the decisive clash until the day after.

      The next day, Caesar attacked and conquered, with little effort, a fortification placed by Pharaoh to defend a nearby village; this fortification was connected to the main camp by a fortified communication line. This was not an important victory, but Caesar, by conquering this village, intended to shake and demoralize the enemy before the decisive attack on the field on the hill. The attack of Caesar continued, pushed towards СКАЧАТЬ