Caesar and Cleopatra

Caesar now ruled all of Rome and all of Rome’s territories. The army obeyed him. The people loved him. And the Senate couldn’t drive him out.

But Caesar still wanted to get rid of Pompey.

“I can’t leave him down there!” Caesar thought to himself. “He’ll come marching back up here with a whole army of Egyptians and attack me again. As long as Pompey is free, this civil war will never end. I’ll have to go down to Egypt and arrest Pompey and put him in jail before I can have any peace.”

So he started down to Egypt. But the Egyptians were having troubles of their own. They had two pharaohs—a queen named Cleopatra and her brother. Cleopatra and her brother were supposed to rule Egypt together. But they didn’t get along with each other. They fought constantly, because each one wanted to rule Egypt alone.

But when Cleopatra and her brother heard that Caesar was coming, they stopped quarrelling with each other. They were terrified. The whole world had heard of Caesar. The Egyptians were sure that Caesar was coming to conquer them. “What will we do?” Cleopatra and her brother asked each other. “We’ve got to make friends with him quickly, or else he will attack us with his invincible army!”

“I know,” Cleopatra’s brother exclaimed, suddenly. “Caesar’s old enemy Pompey is living in Egypt. Let’s arrest him and send him to Caesar as a prisoner. Then Caesar will know that we want to be his allies.”

“I have a better idea,” Cleopatra answered. “Let’s cut off Pompey’s head and send that to Caesar instead.”

So that is what they did. Caesar was startled to get Pompey’s head in a bag. And he was sad, too.

Caesar marched the rest of the way to the Egyptian palace, intending to tell the pharaohs of Egypt how unhappy he was. Meanwhile, though, Cleopatra had an idea. “If I can get Caesar to like me,” she thought, “maybe he will help me get rid of my brother! Then I will be the only pharaoh of Egypt!”

So she arranged to meet Caesar all alone. She put on her prettiest clothes and surrounded herself with beautiful treasures of Egypt: gold, spices, monkeys, slaves, and jewelry. When Caesar was shown into Cleopatra’s room, he was dazzled by her beauty, and by the riches all around her!

“Caesar,” Cleopatra said sweetly, “if you’ll help me get rid of my brother, so that I can rule Egypt all by myself, I will share Egypt’s riches with you.”

Caesar was overcome by Cleopatra. He fell madly in love with her and agreed to do everything she said. He told his army to fight against the Egyptians who were loyal to Cleopatra’s brother. The Roman soldiers did as they were told. Cleopatra’s brother was killed in the battle, and Cleopatra became the sole ruler of Egypt.

It was time for Caesar to go back to Rome, but he delayed. He didn’t want to leave Cleopatra. Instead he stayed in Egypt, keeping his new love company.

But the senators back in Rome still wanted to get rid of Caesar. “This is our last chance,” they said to each other. “Let’s raise an army of Romans who are loyal to the Senate and try to defeat Caesar, one last time!”

So they gathered together an army and marched down towards Egypt, ready to attack Caesar. Caesar hadn’t forgotten how to fight, though. He got his own soldiers together and defeated the Senate army in record time.

Caesar was known for his fast victories. In fact, after one victory, when a friend asked him to describe the battle, he answered, “I can do it in three words: Veni, Vidi, Vici.” In Latin, the language of the Romans, this meant, “I came, I saw, I conquered!”