On The Alexandrian War. Caesar Gaius Julius

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СКАЧАТЬ 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.

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      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.

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      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 .

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      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 a corner of the field where a bitter fight started; the Egyptian fort had only two points where the attack could be carried out: the flat side from which the Romans were already engaging the enemy, and a small portion of land placed between the field and the river, a difficult place. The Romans were targeted from two sides, from the fortification defending the field and from the ships on the river which were loaded with archers and equipped with bullet-launching machines. Ptolemy had deployed the best troops to guard the most exposed side and left the rest to guard the river side.

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      Caesar realized that his troops, despite the courage, were unable to make progress or at least progressed slowly; he noticed, however, that the highest side of the hill, the steep and almost impassable one, had been unguarded, as the Alexandrians who were to preside over it had moved to other areas where the battle raged, who out of curiosity to see, who with the intention of participating. So he ordered some cohorts to go around the field and climb that steep the hill. He had among his commanders a certain Corfulano (Corfulenus), of good character but also of great military capacity; he was entrusted to him by the cohorts who climbed the hill and presented themselves to the enemy who, surprised, slipped and offered almost no resistance. So the Romans were able to spread from the high side of the field and made a great carnage; the turmoil created by Corfulano's men was accompanied by the contemporary reinvigoration of Roman action on the other two fronts, which produced panic among the Egyptians, who rushed to flee to the side of the river where the ships of the fleet were. The precipitous and disorganized escape caused the disaster: throwing themselves from the bastion, the fugitives fell into the ditch dug in defense and were trampled by those who followed them. With the moat full of corpses, the escape was simpler, but once arrived to the ships that had already left the shore, it happened inevitable: reached by swimming by the fugitives, these became heavier and sank. Even Pharaoh suffered the same fate; it is certain that he too had fled on his ship, which like the others was joined by too many fugitives, and burdened with the young sovereign on board.

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      After a quick and effective victory, Caesar decided to take advantage of it and to exploit the effect that this could have on the enemy, so he left with his cavalry on a country road in order to reach Alexandria as soon as possible. He entered the city not on the side occupied by his army but on the side controlled by the enemy and he could see that the news of his victory had taken away from the Alessandrini any desire to continue the war. In the city, Caesar received the subjugation of the citizens who had thrown their arms, left the fortifications and put on humble clothes, with the most sacred symbols before them as when they sought grace from their sovereign; they went to meet Caesar to submit to him and obtained clemency from him. Then Caesar crossed first the Alexandrian defences and then the Roman ones where he was welcomed by his soldiers, happy to see him victorious and also unharmed.

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      Caesar, now lord of Egypt, fulfilled the duties entrusted to the Roman people by the previous Pharaoh Ptolemy XII (12), who had asked the Capitoline not to upset his will, which expected to leave the Kingdom to the greatest of his children males. However, having died, Caesar gave the Kingdom of Egypt to his younger brother, associating his older sister Cleopatra IV (4). The other sister Arsine, younger than Cleopatra, who had reigned in a despotic way through the eunuch Ganymede, was sent into exile, in order to remove her from Egypt to prevent new troublemakers from using her as a pretext for new unrest before the two new rulers had had time to strengthen.

      After arranging these things, Caesar left bringing the VI (6) legion with him and leaving the others to strengthen and control the new sovereigns who, ruling only a few days, still did not have the necessary authority to govern those subjects who were still opposed to the Roman people, leaving to those legions the disposition to keep the Roman control of the Kingdom firm, therefore he took the land route to Syria.

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      While the things we told were happening in Egypt, Deiotaro, King of Galatia (Gallogrecia), went to Domizio Calvino, to whom Caesar had affiliated the governorate of Asia and the neighbouring provinces; to him, Deiotaro asked for help to stem the arrogance and raids of Farnace, ruler of Pontus, who oppressed Little Armenia and Cappadocia of Ariobarzane. He also pointed out to him that it would have been impossible, both for him and for the ruler of Cappadocia, to keep the promises of money made to Caesar if this situation had not been remedied. Domizio Calvino for his part, besides thinking about the money necessary СКАЧАТЬ