The people of Rome were, however, not prepared to receive her very cordially.  It was an age in which vice of every kind was regarded with great indulgence, but the moral instincts of mankind were too strong to be wholly blinded to the true character of so conspicuous an example of wickedness as this.  Arsinoe was at Rome, too, during this period of Caesar’s life.  He had brought her there, it will be recollected, on his return from Egypt, as a prisoner, and as a trophy of his victory.  His design was, in fact, to reserve her as a captive to grace his triumph.

A triumph, according to the usages of the ancient Romans, was a grand celebration decreed by the Senate to great military commanders of the highest rank, when they returned from distant campaigns in which they had made great conquests or gained extraordinary victories.  Caesar concentrated all his triumphs into one.  They were celebrated on his return to Rome for the last time, after having completed the conquest of the world.  The processions of this triumph occupied four days.  In fact, there were four triumphs, one on each day for the four days.  The wars and conquests which these ovations were intended to celebrate were those of Gaul, of Egypt, of Asia, and of Africa; and the processions on the several days consisted of endless trains of prisoners, trophies, arms, banners, pictures, images, convoys of wagons loaded with plunder, captive princes and princesses, animals wild and tame, and every thing else which the conqueror had been able to bring home with him from his campaigns, to excite the curiosity or the admiration of the people of the city and illustrate the magnitude of his exploits.  Of course, the Roman generals, when engaged in distant foreign wars, were ambitious of bringing back as many distinguished captives and as much public plunder as they were able to obtain, in order to add to the variety and splendor of the triumphal procession by which their victories were to be honored on their return.  It was with this view that Caesar brought Arsinoe from Egypt; and he had retained her as his captive at Rome until his conquests were completed and the time for his triumph arrived.  She, of course, formed a part of the triumphal train on the Egyptian day.  She walked immediately before the chariot in which Caesar rode.  She was in chains, like any other captive, though her chains in honor of her lofty rank, were made of gold.

The effect, however, upon the Roman population of seeing the unhappy princess, overwhelmed as she was with sorrow and chagrin, as she moved slowly along in the train, among the other emblems and trophies of violence and plunder, proved to be by no means favorable to Caesar.  The population were inclined to pity her, and to sympathize with her in her sufferings.  The sight of her distress recalled too, to their minds, the dereliction from duty which Caesar had been guilty of in his yielding to the enticements of Cleopatra, and remaining so long in Egypt to the neglect of his proper duties as a Roman minister of state.  In a word, the tide of admiration for Caesar’s military exploits which had been setting so strongly in his favor, seemed inclined to turn, and the city was filled with murmurs against him even in the midst of his triumphs.