Andrea Pietro Cornalba "On The Alexandrian War"

10.

Caesar, who always wants to see everything in person, embarked on a ship and ordered the entire fleet to follow him; he brought only a few soldiers with him so as not to defeat the defences and entrenches in the city. On reaching the place, a place called Chersoneo (Peninsula), made part of the men land there and sent them to look for some water; but some sailors recklessly decided to raid and were thus captured by the enemy cavalry that patrolled the area. The captured sailors revealed to the enemy that Caesar was there with the entire fleet but did not have the army with him. The Egyptians thus thought that they had had a great stroke of luck and to take advantage of it; then, they armed the entire fleet at their disposal and set out in search of the Roman Consul; they met him while he was on the way back, having already spent most of the day, Caesar tried to avoid the battle also because his oarsmen were tired and the knowledge of the waters was all to the advantage of the Egyptians, which made a battle little advisable nocturnal which would have frightened his men, who were better than their enemies and lacked courage. So, he kept the ships near the coast hoping that there the enemies could not have the audacity to attack him, having him a more favourable position.

11.

A Rhodian ship (of Rhodes) to Caesar's right found himself quite far from the rest of the fleet; the enemy seized the opportunity and impetuously launched 4 vessels with prestigious insignia on the attack so as not to miss the opportunity to inflict a loss on the Consul of Rome. Caesar had to intervene so as not to suffer an affront that would have undermined morale even if that ship, due to its negligence, did not deserve that other ships took risks. The clash was immediately hard but the Rhodes, very skilled in naval battles and perhaps even feeling responsible for that avoidable battle, worked hard not to be blamed for any defeat.

However, the clash had a happy outcome: one enemy quadrireme was captured, another sunk and two others rendered harmless; in addition to this, the Romans massacred enemies on support ships, and only the onset of darkness took away the possibility of an even clearer victory, which would allow him to capture many other enemy ships. This victory disheartened the bold enemy and, with the weakening of the headwind, Caesar was able to return to Alexandria with the whole fleet and the other transport ships loaded with reinforcements.

12.

What most discouraged the Alexandrians was the fact that they were not defeated by the soldiers, but only by the sailors of the fleet, so they took refuge in the stands and behind the defences fearing that the Roman fleet, now that he was aware of his strength, would attack them in others points of the coast, bypassing the city defences. The eunuch Ganymede encouraged them in the council, encouraged them to work harder to rebuild the lost ships even to increase their number; so they rearmed the old ships left in the arsenals and even if they had lost more than 110 ships of all cabotage, they were lost in the docks of the port (set on fire by Caesar already at the beginning of the war in the famous stake that caused the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria ), did not despair of being able to rebuild it. Moreover, they had noticed that if they had been stronger on the sea, they could have prevented Caesar from receiving food and reinforcements. Furthermore, being born in a seaside city and in a predominantly maritime country, they were used to navigating from an early age and considered water to be both a precious and a familiar element; they thought they were superior in naval operations even with smaller ships, so they put all the effort into building the new fleet.

13.

In all branches of the Nile there were ships used for the collection of taxes which were brought to Alexandria to form this fleet; in addition to these, at the bottom of the Royal Arsenals there were old buildings with old warships unused for many years, which lacked many parts and especially the oars. Thus workers were sent to the city to dismantle the arcades, gymnasiums and all public buildings, and with them oars and other missing parts were obtained; another time, the ingenuity and industriousness of the Alessandrini, combined with the great availability of the city, made it possible to overcome all the needs of the fleet under construction. However, these ships did not have to make long demanding journeys but only to come to battle in the port (understood in a broad sense) of the city.

It so happened that, in spite of all expectations, the Egyptians managed to have a fleet of 22 quadriremes, 5 quinqueremi and many others smaller and open deck (walkable bridge) and, after having tried the rowing speed in the port, they armed them with chosen men and war machines.

Caesar had 9 rodie galleys (since of the 10 sent, one had been lost in the battle a few days earlier), 8 pontics, 5 lycians and 12 from Asia; only 10 of these were quinqueremi and quadriremi, while the others were of lower rank and many were without bridges, but he prepared confidently for the battle, trusting in the courage of his men.

14.

So the day came to compete in naval battle; Caesar brought the fleet out of the port part under his control, circumvented the island of Faro and sided with the enemy. He placed the Rhodes on the right wing and the Pontics on the left; between the two wings in the front line it left a space of 400 steps (300 meters), sufficient for naval manoeuvres, and behind it put all the others, keeping them in reserve and giving everyone precise provisions. The Alessandrini adopted a similar line-up, with the 22 quadriremes on the front line and the others behind on the second line as a reserve; in addition to these they also deployed many small boats equipped with incendiary devices with which they hoped to cause some damage to the Romans.

In the sea space between the two fleets there were sandy shoals such that whoever wanted to attack first, would have had to switch to through making yourself vulnerable. The Egyptians used to say that these belong only half to Alexandria and the other half to Africa. So it happened that these shallows made it take a long time for one of the two sides to make the first move, that is, to enter that narrow passage that made it difficult to move and almost impossible to escape.

15.

The Rodie ships were commanded by Euphranor, whose audacity and courage were more comparable to a Latin than to a Greek; the Rodici themselves, knowing their skill and value, chose him as head of their fleet. The latter, noting Caesar's perplexity, approached him and said to him: В«You seem to have no faith in me; you fear that by entering that bottleneck first, you may not be able to fight before you have deployed the entire fleet. Entrust this task to us; we will support the clash without prolonging your waiting. As long as the entire fleet has passed, we cannot shamelessly ignore our opponents' invitation to battle. " Caesar praised and encouraged him, gave his consent and ordered to give the battle signal.

Four Rhodian ships were the first to cross the bottleneck and were immediately attacked by the Egyptian ones, but despite a bit of fear they kept the line while others followed them and, with a skilful move, they entered the deployment by widening the bow with the well-turned rostrums to the enemy; despite the narrow spaces the oars between them were not damaged, and in this way they never offered their side to the enemy. The entire fleet followed the Rhodes and since the spaces remained tight, the fleet could not be stretched and measured on the naval expertise, but the courage and the value of men had to be entrusted.

Meanwhile, in Alexandria, everyone had abandoned their duties, even the defence of their mutual positions to go to the roofs and at the highest points to witness the clash on which the fate of many depended; each prayed to their gods, hoping for good luck.

16.

It should be added that the battle was unbalanced not only for the amount of forces on the field, but also for the effects related to its outcome. In fact, for Caesar a defeat would have precluded any possibility of salvation even on the mainland, while a victory would have left the situation unchanged. Instead, for the Alessandrini a defeat would have left everything unchanged and they could even have tried again.

In addition to this, it must be added that this naval battle was fought only by a small part of the army, even if this determined the salvation of all; so it had happened that those who could not fight for their own salvation looked at the others who would participate, wondering if they would give all of themselves in that peril. Caesar noticed this and spoke several times to the soldiers to motivate and encourage them, making them understand that everyone's fate depended on them, so as to increase their determination.

The soldiers spoke among themselves; fellow soldiers, friends and relatives and those who remained warned the chosen ones not to disappoint the expectations placed in them. Thus, in the midst of the battle, the number, far superior, the seafaring ability, the many small vessels and the chosen troops could do nothing: the courage of the Cesarians won them all.

They captured a quinquereme and a bireme with the crews; three went down, while none of the winners was lost. The rest of the fleet fled to Porto Eunoste.

17.

Caesar understood that he had to prevent the enemies from leaving the port to bring him another attack on the sea; it had to conquer the island of Faro and the long 7-stage pier (1290 meters) that connected it to the city, also because the defences had not yet been completed. This would then give him the opportunity to attack the city too.

He decided to do this: he put 10 cohorts of his best light infantry on boats together with a certain number of Gaul knights, in a number suitable for the purpose. He promised them a grand prize, especially to those who first occupied the island; then to deflect his intentions he attacked another part of the island with bridged galleys (ships with a walkable bridge).

At first the enemy bravely supported the assault, both from the banks equipped with parapets, and from the roofs of the houses with an audacity similar to ours. To defend the narrow port entrance and the docks, they used ships, in particular five well-maneuvered long vessels. Ours had great difficulty approaching the shore because of the rather steep coasts, but when they found the suitable place for the landing and the signal of attack was given, they conquered the shore with vigour and the enemy who defended it turned away, also abandoned the Torre del Faro, while those who defended the port directed the ships to shore and disembarked to go and defend the houses.

18.

Despite the no our enemies had taken refuge in the houses, and that their number was higher, they did not hold the position for long; and yes their houses were no different from those of the city, built very close to creating almost a wall, and ours were not equipped with stairs or other siege machines. But as often happens, fear takes away judgment and the ardour of war; seeing others run away, and after some of their companions had died, they left the line of defence - which was a solid row of houses up to 30 feet (8 meters) high - and ran towards the sea to swim across it, as the city it was only 800 steps away (580/600 meters); those who did not flee were killed or captured, so that ultimately there were more than 600 prisoners.

19.

The inhabitants evacuated the island of Faro and Caesar left the soldiers free to plunder it, but immediately afterwards occupied the fortification guarding the bridge that connected the island with the long pier Eptastadio to the city, and placed a guard there. The Heptastadio, on the other side, was connected to the city by another bridge well-fortified by the Alexandrians. The next day, with a movement similar to the previous day, Caesar attacked that bridge; it intended to block the connection between the two east and west port basins, so as to completely prevent improvisation with the enemy's ships. With ships loaded with archers and war machines he drove the defenders off the bridge and defences, then landed just under three cohorts to occupy that narrow place that could not contain more. He ordered to fortify the access to the bridge and to the Heptastadium facing the city, and to those who remained on the ships, to fill the channel connecting the two ports with stones and other things; but with work just begun, a large number of Alessandrini came out of the houses and gathered in a space in front of the access to the bridge and, with many boats equipped with incendiary weapons, tried to set our ships on fire in support. Our people found themselves defending themselves on the bridge and on the pier, while the Alexandrians attacked the side of the Heptastadium with the troops in square formation in front of the bridge and with the boats.

20.

While Caesar was busy encouraging and directing the soldiers on the front line, a large number of rowers and sailors alighted from the ships resting on the pier on the Caesarian side of the port. The reason was not clear: some out of curiosity to see the fights, others out of the desire to participate; the fact is that at first this move was positive because these, with throwing stones and other things, managed to keep away the Alexandrian boats that tried to land on the pier on the opposite side. Later, however, after a small group of Alessandrini had managed to get close and set foot on it, they swerved, lost alignments, stopped following their signs and in total chaos tried to get back on the ships. Seeing this, the enemies became bold and bolder, which increased confusion; the moored ships took the catwalks away from the pier, while ours launched from the pier to go up there. The three cohorts, seeing the boats go away, feared to remain closed between the enemies who attacked them from the side of the bridge and those who landed on the pier, and so part of them became intimidated and joined those who fled to the ships; so the worst happened: many fell into the water, others used the shield as a board to swim the boats that were leaving, while those who remained undecided about what to do were killed by the Alexandrians who attacked their position.

21.

Caesar, who was busy inciting and giving orders, found himself in danger and seeing the impossibility of remedying the disaster, he took refuge on his flagship; but then, sensing what could happen, given that this was unable to move because of the chaos and the many men who climbed the sides to find escape, threw himself into the sea and swam to the most distant ships, free from impediments, and from there he sent boats to save as many men as possible. Caesar's ship, which was blocked and weighed down by those seeking escape, overturned and sank with all the crew; in this action Caesar lost more than 400 legionnaires and an even greater number of rowers and sailors. With this battle, the Alessandrini reconquered the fortifications of the bridge near the city, strengthened it considerably with works and war machines, then freed the canal, thus allowing their boats to continue using it.

22.

Despite this failure, ours were far from feeling defeated; rather, they were burning with revenge and put even more effort into overcoming and removing the barriers of the enemies. They conquered new positions in the city and in all those daily battles that took place here and there; thus, the Alexandrians understood that the Romans exalted themselves in victory and became determined hoist me in redeeming myself after a defeat. Legions continued to be duty-bound as usual, while, on the contrary, Caesar's incitement had failed. The defeat had proved it and it was at this moment that we found ourselves in greater difficulty, because the Alessandrini attacked with more vigour.

23.

The enemies, noting that despite their recent victory the Romans had not been demoralized but were even more determined than before, decided to try another path. Caesar had little Pharaoh as his prisoner; among the Egyptians within the perimeter there were partisans of this who worked for the liberation of the legitimate sovereign. With messages and the assent of their King, they decided to make this request to Caesar, or to leave their sovereign free by reporting that many subjects were tired of the despotic government of a young girl and the eunuch Ganymede. They made him realize that this would bring him benefits and even the end of the war, because with a just agreement, beneficial for little Pharaoh, Egypt could agree to return to the Roman Protectorate.

24.

Caesar was aware that the people were able 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 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.

31.

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.

32.

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.

33.

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.

34.

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 for the expenses of the civil war, was also concerned about the prestige of Rome; therefore he could not allow a foreign sovereign to devastate and usurp thrones of allied sovereigns and friends of the Romans. Domizio Calvino sent an embassy to Farnace with which he ordered him to leave both Armenia and Cappadocia immediately and not to believe that, due to the civil war, Rome neglected to defend its rights in the most distant provinces. Believing however that this request should be strengthened by military pressure, but having sent two legions to Caesar, one of which by land, through Syria, which will not arrive in time to Caesar, took XXXVI (36) with him and others two legions and added them to Deiotaro (King of Galatia); these two legions had been trained in the Roman way for years. To these three legions were added 100 knights and another 100 received them from Ariobarzane, and still sent the Quaestors P. Sesto (P. Sestius) and C. Pletorio (C. Pletorius) to Ponto to bring him the legion he had hurriedly enlisted there, while Q. Pelusio (Q. Pelusius) was sent to Cilicia to retrieve another auxiliary that was enlisting there; all these forces met in Comana Pontica.

35.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/pages/biblio_book/?art=57159411&lfrom=174836202) на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.