so that it might be thought that he was going a very long distance in this direction.  He started at first, then, to sail away, but afterward extinguished the glare, returned and passed alongside the city to the peninsula on the Libyan side, where he landed; there he disembarked the soldiers, went around the lake, and fell upon the Egyptians unexpectedly about dawn.  They were so startled on the instant that they sent a herald to him for terms, but, when he would not receive their entreaty, a fierce battle subsequently took place in which he was victorious and slew great numbers of the enemy.  Some fled hastily to cross the river and perished in it, together with Ptolemy.

[B.C. 47 (a.u. 707)]

[-44-] In this way Caesar overcame Egypt.  He did not, however, make it subject to the Romans, but bestowed it upon Cleopatra, for whose sake he had waged the conflict.  Yet, being afraid that the Egyptians might rebel again because they were delivered to a woman to rule them and that the Romans for this reason and because the woman was his companion might be angry, he commanded her to make her other brother partner of her habitation, and gave the kingdom to both of them,—­at least nominally.  In reality Cleopatra alone was to hold all the power.  For her husband was still a child and in view of Caesar’s favor there was nothing that she could not do.  Hence her living with her brother and sharing the sovereignty with him was a mere pretence which she accepted, whereas she actually ruled alone and spent her life in Caesar’s company.

[-45-] She would have detained him even longer in Egypt or else would have at once set out with him for Rome, had not Pharnaces drawn Caesar most unwillingly from Afric’s shores and hindered him from hurrying to Italy.  This man was a son of Mithridates and ruled the Cimmerian Bosporus, as has been stated:  it was his desire to win back again all his ancestral kingdom, and so he revolted just at the time of the quarrel between Caesar and Pompey, and, as the Romans had at that time found business, with one another and afterward were detained in Egypt, he got possession of Colchis without effort and, in the absence of Deiotarus, subjugated all of Armenia and some cities of Cappadocia and Pontus that were attached to the district of Bithynia. [-46-] While he was thus engaged Caesar himself did not stir,—­Egypt was not yet settled and he had some hope of overcoming the man through others—­but he sent Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, assigning him charge of Asia and ...[79] legions.  This officer added to his force Deiotarus and Ariobarzanes and marched straight against Pharnaces, who was in Nicopolis,—­a city he had previously occupied.  Indeed, he felt contempt for the barbarian, because the latter in terror of his presence was ready to agree to an armistice looking to an embassy, and so he would not conclude a truce with him, but attacked him and was defeated.