Alexandrian War

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The so-called Alexandrian War ( Latin: Bellum Alexandrinum ) describes the fighting in which the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar took part between September 48 and January 47 BC. Chr. , Following the (according to the Julian calendar) battle of Pharsalia in the Egyptian Alexandria was involved.

prehistory

The Ptolemaic king Ptolemy XII. left behind at his death in 51 BC Two sons ( Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV ) and two daughters ( Cleopatra VII and Arsinoë IV ). According to his will, his older daughter Cleopatra and his older son Ptolemy XIII. govern. Cleopatra, who was 18 at the time, ruled autocratically on her own. This led to a conflict with the guardians of her co-regent, who was only ten years old, the minister Potheinos , the general Achillas and the royal teacher Theodotus of Chios . The power bloc behind the young king finally succeeded in ousting Cleopatra and at the end of 49 BC. To expel. They recruited mercenaries and tried to regain their rule militarily.

But the Roman civil war between Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus broke out in the middle of the Egyptian controversy for the throne. After Caesar's decisive victory in the battle of Pharsalus , Pompey fled to Egypt because he was on friendly terms with the Ptolemies and Roman writers even acted as guardian of Ptolemy XIII. was true. But Potheinos had Pompey murdered (on July 25, 48 BC according to the Julian calendar or on September 28, 48 BC according to the pre-Julian calendar) in order not to draw Egypt into the Roman civil war and to win Caesar. But the victorious Roman general, who had quickly followed Pompey, turned out to be ungrateful, occupied the palace district of Alexandria and forced the dispute between the warring Ptolemaic siblings to be resolved. Cleopatra was able to win him over and at his instigation was recognized again as co-regent.

On the other hand, Potheinos mobilized the Egyptians, who were already extremely bitter by the imperious demeanor of the Roman and the unpopularity of Cleopatra. At the end of August 48 BC the minister called Chr. (Julian) the royal general Achillas von Pelusion , which he was supposed to defend against Cleopatra's troops, returned to Alexandria. The Egyptian army consisted of 20,000 war experienced infantrymen and 2,000 horsemen, above all the so-called Gabiniani , ie former Roman soldiers who had lived in Egypt for a long time and who had been used by Ptolemy XII. had fought, so were completely devoted to the Ptolemaic government. Caesar, unprepared for a campaign, was completely taken by surprise by this military action. His army was only 4,000 strong and therefore could not dare an open field battle. He forced Ptolemy XIII to send two high-ranking ambassadors, Dioscorides and Serapion , to Achillas to stop his advance by diplomatic channels. But the Egyptian general had the ambassadors killed (one survived seriously injured) and occupied large parts of Alexandria, with the population happily supporting him. Caesar had the royal family arrested in the palace and holed up in the associated district. This is how the Alexandrian War began.

course

In the fight against Caesar, the Alexandrians mobilized all forces, even armed slaves and recruited soldiers across the country. The Roman general was trapped in the palace quarter and could not escape by sea, but at the beginning of the war he had messengers sent out to request the Roman provinces and allied princes of Asia for relief armies and naval units. Achillas' attack on the palace quarter was able to repel Caesar.

At the same time, fighting took place in the port area. Caesar had the Egyptian fleet set on fire so that it could not be used as a weapon against him. The famous Alexandrian Library is said to have burned in the process. To this day, researchers are still divided as to whether and how many scrolls in the library actually burned. The ancient data vary between 40,000 and 700,000 destroyed books. If the latter number were actually correct, the entire inventory of the library would have been destroyed by flames. In the Bellum Alexandrinum , an account of the war by an author from Caesar's circle, the library fire is not mentioned at all. After the destruction of the Alexandrian fleet, Caesar was able to take the well-known lighthouse of Pharos , located on a small island, and thus control the narrow entrance to the Great Harbor. This was important in order to be able to receive reinforcements at sea.

Arsinoe and her mentor, the eunuch Ganymedes , were able to flee from the palace to Achillas , which was well helped by the fighting . She was raised to the rival queen of her older sister Cleopatra, with whom she was enemies, but soon quarreled with the Egyptian general about the priority in command of the troops. The Potheinos staying with Caesar in the palace sent messengers who supported Achillas, but the Roman general learned of their secret contacts and had Potheinos executed. On the opposing side, Arsinoe had Achillas removed from the way and gave Ganymedes supreme command of the Egyptian army.

Ganymedes had the canals that led underground to Caesar's quarter blocked and machines pumped enormous amounts of seawater into the higher parts of the city, which flowed down into the palace quarter. This made the water undrinkable and the Romans panicked, but Caesar ordered deep wells to be dug and enough drinking water was found. Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus sent a legion of soldiers from Asia Minor to reinforce Caesar in a fleet, which was driven past Alexandria by east winds. However, the dictator managed to return the fleet to the Great Port after beating Egyptian ships that tried to block his way. After this failure, Ganymedes tried all the more to restore his fleet. A number of ships were made operational again surprisingly quickly when Caesar appeared with his fleet and allegedly sank five Egyptian ships with almost no loss, whereupon the rest fled to the dam that connected the island to the city. There the Alexandrians were able to defend their ships better through nearby houses and fortifications, which is why Caesar withdrew.

Soon afterwards, Caesar completely conquered the island of Pharos near Alexandria and wanted to take the Heptastadion dam leading there, but this failed: Since Alexandrian boats landed in their back, the Romans feared being cut off and tried to take the boats on the pier board to get to their distant ships. Caesar got into a life-threatening situation when too many Romans crowded onto his boat and, at almost 53 years of age, had to swim about 200 paces through the cold water to the distant ships for his life. He lost 400 legionnaires and even more marines in this battle. After his failure, the Alexandrians asked Caesar to take the young King Ptolemy XIII. to be released because they were allegedly dissatisfied with the government of Arsinoë and hoped to achieve peace through the mediation of the king. Caesar complied with this request; the reasons for this are controversial in research.

Ptolemy XIII immediately took over the supreme command against Caesar. During a fierce naval battle before Kanopos found Euphranor who had bravely commanded the Rhodian vessels in Caesar's fleet, its demise. Soon afterwards, however, Mithridates of Pergamon of Syria advanced with relief troops - among other things, 3,000 Jews were there under the command of Antipater , the father of Herod the Great - for Caesar. He was able to take Pelusion and got through Leontopolis , whose Jewish population he won with the help of Antipater, to Memphis , which submitted to him voluntarily. Advancing on to Alexandria, he defeated the Ptolemaic army at a place of unknown location, Iudaion Stratopedon . The Egyptian king advanced against Mithridates with his troops to prevent his union with Caesar. For this purpose he probably sailed across Lake Mareotis into the Canobic Nile, went ashore and set up his base in well-covered terrain. But at the same time Caesar succeeded in deceiving his opponents by driving his fleet to the mouth of an arm of the Nile at night, turning off the lights on his ships, sailing back in exactly the opposite direction, landing west of Alexandria and bypassing Lake Mareotis on a land march. After repelling an attack by his enemy, he was able to unite his army with that of Mithridates. On January 14, 47 BC BC (Julian) he achieved the decisive victory over the Egyptian army in a battle near an arm of the Nile; Ptolemy XIII drowned on the run. Alexandria now had to surrender to the winner.

consequences

Although there had been several discussions in Rome about withdrawing Egypt as a province without this happening, this time too Caesar left the Nile land as a sovereign state and installed his lover Cleopatra as ruler. He feared that a Roman governor might one day use such a rich country as a starting point for a rebellion, and Caesar's rule was by no means secure even after his victory over Pompey, because his sons prolonged the fight. Out of consideration for tradition, he gave Cleopatra her younger brother Ptolemy XIV, who was only twelve years old, as a spouse as a powerless co-regent. Since Cleopatra was still extremely unpopular with her subjects, Caesar used this as a pretext to station three Roman legions in Egypt under the command of the able but dependent Rufio to support her ; these troops should of course also control the loyalty of the young queen. Almost all of Caesar's main enemies were dead, and Arsinoe was interned in Rome and later carried along on a triumphal procession. Thus Egypt was again an allied clientele of Rome, which was even more closely tied to the world empire through the good relations between its ruler and Caesar. A child emerged from the love affair between Cleopatra and the Roman general, who later became Ptolemy XV. , called Kaisarion.

swell

  • Alexandrian War ( Bellum Alexandrinum ): This report is the main source, was probably written by an eyewitness, perhaps Caesar's general Aulus Hirtius , and passed down in the corpus of Caesar's writings. The last section of the “civil wars” (3, 103ff.) Written by Caesar himself provides the prehistory.
  • Cassius Dio provides important additions in a section (42, 34-43) of his historical work, written much later, which here is probably based on the lost parts of the historical work of Titus Livius .
  • In his biography of Caesar (48f.), As well as Cassius Dio and Lucan (in the 10th book of his Pharsalia), Plutarch mainly provides more details from the dictator's personal relationship with the Egyptian queen, about which Caesar is completely silent.

literature

  • Heinz Heinen : Rome and Egypt from 51 to 47 BC Chr. Tübingen 1966, pp. 92–142.
  • Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period. Munich 2001, pp. 714-720.
  • Günther Hölbl : History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Darmstadt 1994, pp. 210-213.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 108, 4-6; among others
  2. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 103, 2; Plutarch, Caesar 48, 5; among others
  3. ↑ Livy, periochae 112, Lucan, Pharsalia 8, 448f .; among others
  4. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 103f .; Plutarch, Pompeius 77ff .; among others
  5. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 106f .; Cassius Dio 42, 7f .; among others
  6. ^ Cassius Dio 42, 34f .; Plutarch, Caesar 49, 1-3
  7. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 108, 2; among others
  8. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 110; among others
  9. ↑ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 109; among others
  10. ↑ Alexandrian War 2f.
  11. ↑ Alexandrian War 1, 1
  12. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3:111, 1-6; Plutarch, Caesar 49, 6; Lucan, Pharsalia 10, 478-503; Cassius Dio 42, 38, 2; among others
  13. ↑ Caesar, Civil Wars 3: 112, 1-6; Lucan, Pharsalia 10: 504-514; among others
  14. ^ Caesar, Civil Wars 3, 112, 10ff .; Alexandrian War 4; A fragment of Livy near Adnot. super Lucan 10,521; Cassius Dio 42, 39, 1f .; 42, 40, 1
  15. ↑ Alexandrian War 5-9; Cassius Dio 42, 38, 4; Plutarch, Caesar 49, 6
  16. ^ Alexandrian War 10f .; Cassius Dio 42, 38, 3
  17. ↑ Alexandrian War 12-16; Cassius Dio 42, 40, 3
  18. ↑ Alexandrian War 17-21; Cassius Dio 42, 40, 3-5; Plutarch, Caesar 49, 7f .; Suetonius, Caesar 64; among others
  19. ↑ Alexandrian War 23f .; different Cassius Dio 42, 42
  20. ↑ Alexandrian War 25.
  21. ↑ Josephus , Jüdische Antiquities 14, 127-139; Jewish War 1, 187-193
  22. ^ Alexandrian War 26-32; Cassius Dio 42, 41; 42, 43; among others
  23. ^ Suetonius, Caesar 35, 1
  24. ↑ Alexandrian War 33, 1f .; Suetonius, Caesar 35, 1; Cassius Dio 42, 44, 1f .; among others
  25. ↑ Alexandrian War 33, 3f .; Suetonius, Caesar 76, 3
  26. ^ Cassius Dio 43, 19, 2f.
  27. ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 49:10; among others