CHAPTER XX.

THE ALEXANDRINE WAR.

B.C. 48. 47.

SUETONIUS (Caesar, c. 56) states that it is uncertain who wrote the Alexandrine War, the African, and the Spanish War: some attribute them to Oppius and some to Hirtius, both of them friends of Caesar. Suetonius attributes to Hirtius the eighth and last book of the Gallic War (vol. iv. p. 369). The author of the Introduction to this eighth book says that he was not present either in the Alexandrine or the African war, but that he knew something of both wars from hearing Caesar talk about them; and he adds "but we listen to those things, which attract by their novelty or excite our admiration, in a different way from what we do when we are going to speak of events as writers." The conclusion from these words seems to be that either he did not write the Alexandrine and African Wars, or that he had no intention to write them when he composed this Introduction. But there are other parts of the Introduction which we must also examine.

We have no direct evidence about Hirtius having been with Caesar at Alexandria. Cicero (Ad Attic. xi. 20. 1), writing on the 15th of August B.C. 47, says that C. Trebonius, who arrived at Rome from Seleuceia Pieria on the 14th, informed him that he had seen Caesar at Antioch about four weeks before that date, and that Hirtius was with him. We cannot conclude from this fact that Hirtius was not with Caesar at Alexandria; but it seems more probable that he was not. For if Hirtius wrote the Introduction to the eighth book of the Gallic War, it is certain that he was not present either at the Alexandrine or the African war.

The author of this Introduction also says that he wrote something which comprised a period "up to the close, not of the civil dissension, of which we see no end, but to the close of Caesar's life." We do not know what these books were, unless they may have been the histories of the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish wars. The history of the Spanish War is incomplete, and it is possible that it may have extended to Caesar's death; but it is not probable that such an event would have been related in the last part of a book on the war in Spain. Caesar was murdered in B.C. 44, and Hirtius, who was consul in B.C. 43, fell in that year at the battle of Mutina. The author of this Introduction then wrote it after Caesar's death, and he speaks of the troublesome times which followed, as if he had seen a good deal of them. It is possible that the author, if he was Hirtius, wrote the eighth book of the Gallic War, before he wrote this Introduction to it; for it is very improbable that Hirtius could find time to write this book in the short and stormy period between Caesar's murder and his own death. If he wrote the Alexandrine War, he had time enough to do that before Caesar's death, and also to write the African and Spanish Wars. It is very difficult to understand this Introduction. There may be something corrupt in the first sentence, which is hardly intelligible.'

Alexandria, the foundation of the great Macedonian Alexander in B.C. 332, stands on the coast of the Mediterranean on the west side of the Delta of the Nile, but not within the Delta. It is in 31° 10' N. Lat. and nearly 30° E. Long. from Greenwich. The narrow strip of land on which the ancient city was built lies between the sea and a large lake named Mareotis. Opposite to Alexandria on the north was the island Pharos, and also the ports formed by this island and the causeway which joined it to the mainland. The city was built on a regular plan, and the streets were so arranged that they were well ventilated by the Etesian or northerly winds.

1 Dodwell (Dissertatio, &c., Oudendorp's Caesar, vol. ii. 1007) concludes that Hirtius published after Caesar's death the books on the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish Wars at the same time with the Introduction to the eighth book of the Gallic War.

2 The chief ancient authorities for the description of Alexandria are Caesar, B.C. iii. 112; Strabo, xvii. p. 791, &c.; Diodorus, xvii. c. 52, and Plinius N. H. 5. c. 10.

It was enclosed by a wall of great extent in circuit, for the two sides of the city, which were bounded by the water, were about thirty stadia in length, and the breadth of the city was from seven to eight stadia or about a Roman mile. There were only two narrow approaches to the city by land, one on the east and the other on the west, and both of them could be easily defended. The streets were wide enough for men on horseback and for vehicles: the two principal streets were a hundred feet in width, and crossed one another at right angles. Diodorus, who had visited the city, describes the length of the great street from east to west as forty stadia, which exceeds the length of the city as given by Strabo. Alexandria contained many public buildings, and a magnificent palace. It was a place of great commerce, and one of the finest, or as Diodorus states, in the opinion of many persons the finest city of the ancient world; and it was also the most populous. When Diodorus visited Alexandria in в.c. 60, or it may have been a little earlier, but it was certainly before B.C. 59 (Diod. i. 44, 83), he says that those who kept the registers of the inhabitants told him that the free population of the city exceeded three hundred thousand. He does not mention the number of slaves, nor does he estimate the probable number of strangers who visited and resided for a time in the place. The population was originally Greek and Egyptian. Many Jews also settled there, some probably at the foundation of the city, and more afterwards. Like all great trading towns Alexandria contained people from nearly all parts of the world.

Eunostos or the western harbour of Alexandria contained a basin, which was formed on the shore of the mainland opposite to the Pharos; and there was a ship canal from this basin through the western quarter of the city to the lake Mareotis. The lake was filled from the Nile by canals, on which more merchandize was brought into the city than by the maritime. harbours. But more was exported from the maritime harbours than was imported into them. The exports from Egypt in the time of Caesar were principally grain. The Nile at the beginning of summer filled the lake Mareotis and prevented the formation of morasses or swamps, such as, Strabo observes, in other sea-coast towns send up pestilent vapours in the

summer heats. At the same time the Etesian winds blow from the north and make the summer season very agreeable at Alexandria.

The author of the Alexandrine War evidently intended to begin where Caesar ended (B. C. iii. 112). He says that after the war began, Caesar sent for all the fleet from Rhodes, Syria, and Cilicia; all the fleet or all the ships, we must suppose, which were in those parts and willing to obey his orders. He summoned archers from Crete, and horsemen from a king of the Nabathaei in Asia, who is named Malchus.3 He also ordered military engines to be got together from all quarters, corn to be sent to him and auxiliary forces to be brought. In the meantime his defences were daily improved, and all the parts of the town which were considered to be rather weak, were furnished with tortoises (testudines) and musculi (p. 105) to protect the men. Holes were bored in the walls between one house and the next, the rams were inserted into the holes, and whatever fresh ground was gained by battering down houses or by forcibly getting possession of them was added to Caesar's defences. It was his object to make open ground between the quarter which he occupied and the rest of the city, in order that he might defend himself better. He could not effect this purpose by burning the town, for Alexandria was nearly safe against fire, because the houses were built without wooden floorings and timber, and were formed of masonry with vaulted arches, and the roofs were made of rubble or paved. Caesar laboured chiefly to separate from the part which he held that part of the city where the width from north to south, from the harbour of Eunostos to lake Mareotis, was the least: and he attempted to accomplish this object by pushing forward his works and his vineae or covered defences.

His view was this: first, that when the city was divided into two parts, his army could be directed by one person; and second, that help could be sent from his side of the town to any of his men who were hard pressed. But his great object was to secure water and forage, for he had little water, and no

3 The word "Malchus" itself is the Hebrew word for king, with a Latin termination.

forage at all; and the lake could supply him with abundance of both.

The people of Alexandria showed no lack of vigour in defending their city. They sent to all parts of Egypt commissioners and men to enlist soldiers; and they had already brought into the place a great quantity of missiles and military engines, and a vast number of men, Large workshops were established for the manufacture of arms. They also armed the slaves who had attained the age of puberty; and those slave owners who were of the richer class supplied their slaves with daily food and pay. By a careful distribution of these forces the fortifications of the remoter parts were protected. The veteran cohorts were placed in the most public parts of the city, and relieved from all labour, in order that they might be ready to carry aid to any part of the city in which there might be a contest. All the streets and narrow passages were barricaded by a triple rampart built of squared stones, and forty feet high. The lower parts of the city were defended by very high towers of ten stories. They had also other towers of the same height, which were moveable, and being placed on wheels and drawn by ropes and beasts were taken into any part of the city along the straight

streets.

The city being very rich supplied materials for all purposes. The inhabitants were most ingenious and clever, and showed such skill in doing what they saw the Romans do, that the Romans seemed rather to have imitated them. The Egyptians had also many devices of their own invention; and at the same time they attacked Caesar's defences and protected their own. The chief men in their councils and in the public meetings used to speak to this effect: that the Roman people were gradually showing a design to take possession of the kingdom of Egypt: a few years past Gabinius was with an army in the country; Pompeius in his flight betook himself to Egypt; now Caesar was come with a force, and the death of Pompeius had not induced him to shorten his stay among them; that the kingdom would be made a province if they did not expel Caesar, and they must do it soon, because at present his communications were cut off in consequence of the