Asia is the Roman province of Asia.]

[Footnote 546:  Caesar (Civil War, iii. 106) speaks of his arrival on the coast of Egypt.  The Egyptians were offended to see the Roman fasces carried before him.]

[Footnote 547:  Caesar had the head of Pompeius burnt with due honours, and he built a temple to Nemesis over the ashes.  The temple was pulled down by the Jews in their rising in Egypt during the time of Trajanus.  (Appianus, Civil Wars, ii. 90.)

As to the seal ring see the Life of Pompeius, c. 80, and Dion Cassias (42. c. 18).]

[Footnote 548:  The Alexandrine war, which is confusedly told here, is recorded in a single book entitled De Bello Alexandrino and in Dion Cassius (42. c. 34-44).  The origin of it is told by Caesar at the end of the third Book of the Civil War.  The history of the Alexandrine war by Appianus was in his AEgyptiaca, which is lost.  Dion Cassius, a lover of scandal, mentions that Caesar’s attachment to Kleopatra was the cause of the Alexandrine war (42. c. 44).  But it could not be the sole cause.  Caesar landed with the insignia of his office, as if he were entering a Roman province, and it might be reasonably suspected by the Egyptians that he had a design on the country.  Instead of thanking them for ridding him of his rival, he fixed himself and his soldiers in one of the quarters of Alexandria.  Caesar went to get money (Dion, 42. c. 9).  Kleopatra kept him there longer than he at first intended to stay.]

[Footnote 549:  Ptolemaeus Auletes through Caesar’s influence had been declared a friend and ally of the Romans in Caesar’s consulship B.C. 59. (Cic. Ad Attic. ii. 16.) Ptolemaeus had to spend money for this:  he both gave and promised.  It does not appear that this money was promised to Caesar:  it is more probable that it was promised to the Roman State and Caesar came to get it.]

[Footnote 550:  The story of Kleopatra coming to Caesar is also told by Dion Cassius (42. c. 34).  Caesar mentions his putting Pothinus to death (Civil War, iii. 112).  Caesar had at first only 3200 foot soldiers and 800 cavalry to oppose to the 20,000 men of Achillas, who were not bad soldiers.  Besides these 20,000 men Achillas had a great number of vagabonds collected from all parts of Cilicia and Syria.]

[Footnote 551:  Alexandria had no springs, and it was supplied from the Nile, the water of which was received into cisterns under the houses.  This supply was (Bell.  Alex. 5, &c.) damaged by Ganymedes the Egyptian drawing up salt water from the sea and sending it into the cisterns.  Caesar supplied himself by digging wells in the sand.]

[Footnote 552:  As to the destruction of the library see Dion Cassius (42. c. 38) and the notes of Reimarus.  The destruction is not mentioned by Caesar or the author of the Alexandrine war.  Kleopatra afterwards restored it, and the library was famed for a long time after.  Lipsius (Opera iii. 1124, Vesal 1675) has collected all that is known of this and other ancient libraries.]