He found himself caught in a trap. Both the Egyptians and
the Roman garrison which had remained faithful to Pompey,
attacked his camp.
Fortune was with Caesar. He succeeded in setting fire to
the Egyptian fleet. Incidentally the sparks of the burning
vessels fell on the roof of the famous library of Alexandria
(which was just off the water front,) and destroyed it. Next
he attacked the Egyptian army, drove the soldiers into the
Nile, drowned Ptolemy, and established a new government
under Cleopatra, the sister of the late king. Just then word
reached him that Pharnaces, the son and heir of Mithridates,
had gone on the war-path. Caesar marched northward, defeated
Pharnaces in a war which lasted five days, sent word of
his victory to Rome in the famous sentence ``veni, vidi, vici,''
which is Latin for ``I came, I saw, I conquered,'' and returned
to Egypt where he fell desperately in love with Cleopatra, who
followed him to Rome when he returned to take charge of the
government, in the year 46. He marched at the head of not
less than four different victory-parades, having won four
different campaigns.
Then Caesar appeared in the Senate to report upon his
adventures, and the grateful Senate made him ``dictator'' for
ten years. It was a fatal step.
The new dictator made serious attempts to reform the
Roman state. He made it possible for freemen to become
members of the Senate.
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