Pompey sought refuge in Egypt after the defeat of Pharsalus and was welcomed by his vassal, Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. Pompey was betrayed by the pharaoh and when Caesar arrived in Egypt he saw the man carry the embalmed head of her old friend. The girl, seeing that terrible sight, burst into tears, she did not want Pompey's death, she had never desired it, her desire was to reconcile with him in order to be able to pacify Rome once and for all but by now it was too late.
Caesar's reaction shocked not only the pharaoh but also some of his legates, in fact it was known that in reality it was Caesar herself who asked the pharaoh to end Pompey's life, so why did she have that reaction?
Caesar was aware of the dynastic dispute between Ptolemy XIII, who was an anti-Roman, and Cleopatra who instead wanted to keep Egypt together with Rome. She manipulated the young Ptolemy to end Pompey's life but pretended to be saddened for an excuse to fight him and side with Cleopatra.
Cleopatra aspired to become the absolute queen of Egypt, she had in the past tried to seduce Pompey, but failed due to the latter's death and so she decided to use the same tactics on Caesar; when she saw her for the first time she almost got excited: she was a charming woman, in armor, the exemplification of divine power, a demigod with silver hair and scarlet eyes. Caesar was preparing to face Ptolemy and when she saw Cleopatra, a young girl of commendable beauty and seductive movements, she was speechless.
"You must be Gaius Julius Caesar, I've heard of you, daughter of Venus."
"I didn't think I was that famous around here."
"You were wrong. A woman with a man's name who gains so much power in a male chauvinist society that she becomes a dictator and host of armies. There are a lot of legends about you here in Egypt, some see you as the Messiah, because you are a demigod. in whose veins flows the blood of Venus, goddess of beauty, and of Mars, god of war, your soul is perfect and pure and your body doesn't know old age. How could you not be famous?"
Cleopatra caressed the girl's face and took her hand, her seductive gaze sought a glimpse into the heart of Caesar but, the latter, seemed to be immune to those eyes.
"I found it laudable and courageous that you rejected my brother to side with me. I know why you did it, I understand."
"Enlighten me."
Cleopatra's fleshy lips came close to Caesar's ear and whispered these words:
"Change."
Caesar snorted and walked away from the beautiful Egyptian queen.
"And what do you know about it?"
"For too long the laws of the world have been written by greedy and selfish men, and all this time we have done nothing but watch in silence, bowing our heads, and accepting their hatred and contempt for us . But it's time to change things. Now the world will have to pass into the hands of women, you and I, two women who rule the major powers in the world, will write history. We will be two queens and will dominate everything."
"Well, I see you like to touch my weak points, however…" Caesar took Cleopatra by her arm and pushed her to the wall. "I'm not exactly the kind of woman who lets herself be manipulated. What do you want from me?"
"What do you want from me?" she asked smiling.
"I want you to take power here in Egypt to end the conflicts, once you do that ... officially I will have ended this stupid and useless civil war."
"I want an alliance between Rome and Egypt, an eternal alliance that will make us both powerful and feared. We cannot resist if separated ... but together no one will dare to hinder us."
"So be it."
Cleopatra took Caesar's head, brought it close to her and kissed it on her lips. When Caesar felt Cleopatra's tongue in her mouth, ahe immediately understood that what the woman was looking for was not sincere love, but only lust. That gesture was enough to reveal the relationship that would exist between the two women.
Caesar didn't feel truly in love, however the relationship between the two was not well received by the population of Alexandria in Egypt; the alliance of the two women would have undermined the independence of the entire country and thus riots began to break out.
Caesar was forced to shut himself up in the royal palace together with Cleopatra. With few soldiers at her disposal, she built fortifications to resist the enemy siege. During their forced stay, Caesar and Cleopatra had the opportunity to bond more and more and, it is said, that by divine blessing, Cleopatra was made pregnant and with an immaculate conception gave birth to Caesarion. This left Caesar astonished but at the same time frightened her, because that divine intervention had to have a meaning and she feared that her deities would force her to stay in Alexandria and give up her dominion over her Rome.
In a certain sense Caesarion was the cause of the estrangement of the two women, not on a political level but on a purely sentimental level.
Meanwhile, Caesar tried several times to break the enemy siege but without success. Only after many months did the Roman reinforcements arrive, allowing the girl to respond to the revolts.
Many Pompeians sided with Cato, who did not cease to hinder Caesar throughout the duration of the civil war. During the pacification of Alexandria in Egypt, she did not lack the help of some local tribes who sided with Caesar, of great help was the intervention of Hyrcanus II and the Jews who supported the girl's army; they helped to pacify the whole East. Caesar was grateful for this and ordered that Hyrcanus be recognized as master of Judea and that the Romans cease sending legions into the territory.
The rumor spread throughout the Middle East: 'Caesar is a friend of the Jews'. Some celebrated, others less. Caesar's choice not to invade Judea was not enthusiastically received by the Senate; many businessmen got rich thanks to the taxes imposed on the Jews, the aristocracy saw Caesar's move as yet another affront to the Roman tradition.
46 BC
Caesar came to Thapsus to also put an end to the resistance of the allied forces to Cato. Thapsus' powerful ruler, Juba I, loathed Caesar and had no intention of letting a woman take power. The city of Thapsus was famous for its great walls and so the girl had trenches built to surround the city and near these she built her camp.
To come to the rescue of Juba, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, led an enormous army made up of valid Roman legionaries and also of impressive trained elephants. Caesar knew that facing elephants was very risky and many of her foot soldiers died due to the charge of those immense beasts, however the girl knew how to scare pachyderms. Caesar had built huge trumpets and made them sound with such force as to frighten the elephants; the big animals retreated and killed part of Metellus Scipio's soldiers.
With the use of archers and slingers, Caesar's legions were able to eliminate some elephants and then the time for cavalry arrived. A good warhorse was capable of traveling long distances in a very short time, and Caesar's horses were the best. The cavalry had no problems reaching the opposing legionaries and, with extreme speed, the adversaries were defeated and many retreated.
During the last stages of the battle, a legionary saw Caesar get off her horse and give the command to one of her lieutenants for a while, an unusual thing for all present but the lieutenant accepted and left with the cavalry to give the coup de grace to the enemy. Caesar moved away from the horse and the legionnaire immediately noticed that the girl's way of moving was unusual, she seemed to be about to fall.
"Caesar!"
The legionnaire followed the girl fearing that she had been seriously injured. He followed her into her camp, and then he saw her collapse on the ground and have tremors. He got scared. He knew the stories about the sacred disease but had not seen it. He went into the tent and took some water and also a cloth.
"Everything will be fine."
When the epileptic seizure came to an end, Caesar realized that she had been seen by a soldier and with an embarrassed manner she said:
"You haven't seen anything. Nobody will have to know."
"Do you need water?"
"Yes thanks."
She took a sip of water and returned the glass to the man. The legionnaire helped Caesar to get up.
"Thanks."
"Did it hurt you?" he asked.
"It bothers me, but you don't have to worry about me. Now we just have to end this battle."
Caesar looked tired and sweaty.
At that moment a messenger entered who exclaimed:
"I have a message from Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica: he accepts surrender. He has no more intention of fighting."
The legionnaire heaved a sigh of relief, however when he saw Caesar's angry gaze he worried. The girl had become well known for the grace she bestowed on her enemies, but this time she seemed to have something different in mind.
"Are you kidding me?!" she exclaimed, furious.
Silence. The indescribable amazement in the eyes of both men.
"That son of a bitch killed my soldiers, he used goddamn elephants to tear us apart, and he gives up like it was nothing? How many soldiers does he have?"
"Ten thousand."
"Elephants?"
"Sixty more."
"Are they trained by them?"
"Yes."
"Then kill them all. Release the elephants and kill all those traitors."
The legionnaire, shocked by that order, said:
"But they gave up."
"No, they haven't given up. They're just stalling. With ten thousand men and sixty elephants they can still keep fighting. Plus they've got Cato; he is hidden somewhere with forty thousand legionaries. I'm not going to trust them. I don't want to risk …"
The legionnaire noticed that Caesar's hand was still shaking.
"Kill everybody."
With the death of Metellus Scipio, Caesar was able to resume the siege of Thapsus. With the fall of the city, the girl ordered that the king be executed, but the latter managed to escape together with the last Roman survivor who had fought against Caesar in that bloody battle: Marcus Petreius. Both died shortly after.
The victory in the battle of Thapsus allowed Caesar to leave for Utica to meet Cato. The legionaries who had followed the man decided to surrender to Caesar without even fighting, and the girl ordered that Cato be captured and brought to her.
When the man was taken to Caesar's tent he was untied by order of her.
"So then?" he asked with a look full of contempt. "Won't you kill me?"
"I should?" Caesar sat down and poured herself some wine into a cup.
"You should. I'm a dangerous man, Caesar, I will never bow to you and I will not let you ruin the splendid Republic that made Rome powerful."
"Splendid? For you. You're privileged, Cato, you always have been. People treat you as a man of virtue but I know you, I know who you are. You are a common aristocrat, you are nothing special. Like all the others aristocrats you always treated me as an inferior creature, you always despised me and you always insulted me. And I grant you this, Cato, you have always been two steps ahead of me in philosophy, yet I have always been ten steps ahead of you in politics. And this is the proof."
"Yes, it is proof that I was right: you are like Sulla. You only crave power."
"You're wrong, I'm not like Sulla. I don't want to emulate that man. It's you who see the same thing in me, but I'm not him. I don't want power for myself, but for Rome. Rome needs me, it needs to change, it needs to modernize, and I will give Rome everything it needs. And what will become of you, Cato? You will be just a speck. A memory of a past that no longer exists."
"Then do it. Kill me."
"No," she replied, setting her glass down. "I'm not Sulla. I'm not going to kill you. He would have done it, I won't. I don't want to kill my enemies, I want to forgive them, I want to be able to trust them. I want to give you a second chance. I will grant you my grace and we will return to Rome as allies, as friends, and thus we will end this ridiculous civil war. What do you think?"
Cato was silent. He smiled. He laughed. That man laughed as if he had just heard a joke. He laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. When he stopped, it took him a while to catch his breath and then, with that smile still imprinted on his face, he replied:
"You're crazy. You are crazy and you don't respect me. I have no intention of submitting to you. I have no intention of accepting your grace. I don't do anything with the grace of a woman who wants to destroy the values of Rome." He took a dagger out of his toga. Caesar feared for her life but the man pointed the weapon at himself. "I'd rather die than submit to you."
With these words he stabbed himself and forcefully cut his belly. He fell to the ground leaving a stream of blood.
Caesar had not moved. Her face was stained with the blood of her rival. Her face had remained calm, almost indifferent. The girl stood up, looked at that lifeless body, and she uttered these last words:
"Cato ... I only feel a grudge for your death, because you have taken away from me the possibility of saving your life. But I respect that. However I will not let your martyrdom spur others like you."
Caesar's reaction shocked not only the pharaoh but also some of his legates, in fact it was known that in reality it was Caesar herself who asked the pharaoh to end Pompey's life, so why did she have that reaction?
Caesar was aware of the dynastic dispute between Ptolemy XIII, who was an anti-Roman, and Cleopatra who instead wanted to keep Egypt together with Rome. She manipulated the young Ptolemy to end Pompey's life but pretended to be saddened for an excuse to fight him and side with Cleopatra.
Cleopatra aspired to become the absolute queen of Egypt, she had in the past tried to seduce Pompey, but failed due to the latter's death and so she decided to use the same tactics on Caesar; when she saw her for the first time she almost got excited: she was a charming woman, in armor, the exemplification of divine power, a demigod with silver hair and scarlet eyes. Caesar was preparing to face Ptolemy and when she saw Cleopatra, a young girl of commendable beauty and seductive movements, she was speechless.
"You must be Gaius Julius Caesar, I've heard of you, daughter of Venus."
"I didn't think I was that famous around here."
"You were wrong. A woman with a man's name who gains so much power in a male chauvinist society that she becomes a dictator and host of armies. There are a lot of legends about you here in Egypt, some see you as the Messiah, because you are a demigod. in whose veins flows the blood of Venus, goddess of beauty, and of Mars, god of war, your soul is perfect and pure and your body doesn't know old age. How could you not be famous?"
Cleopatra caressed the girl's face and took her hand, her seductive gaze sought a glimpse into the heart of Caesar but, the latter, seemed to be immune to those eyes.
"I found it laudable and courageous that you rejected my brother to side with me. I know why you did it, I understand."
"Enlighten me."
Cleopatra's fleshy lips came close to Caesar's ear and whispered these words:
"Change."
Caesar snorted and walked away from the beautiful Egyptian queen.
"And what do you know about it?"
"For too long the laws of the world have been written by greedy and selfish men, and all this time we have done nothing but watch in silence, bowing our heads, and accepting their hatred and contempt for us . But it's time to change things. Now the world will have to pass into the hands of women, you and I, two women who rule the major powers in the world, will write history. We will be two queens and will dominate everything."
"Well, I see you like to touch my weak points, however…" Caesar took Cleopatra by her arm and pushed her to the wall. "I'm not exactly the kind of woman who lets herself be manipulated. What do you want from me?"
"What do you want from me?" she asked smiling.
"I want you to take power here in Egypt to end the conflicts, once you do that ... officially I will have ended this stupid and useless civil war."
"I want an alliance between Rome and Egypt, an eternal alliance that will make us both powerful and feared. We cannot resist if separated ... but together no one will dare to hinder us."
"So be it."
Cleopatra took Caesar's head, brought it close to her and kissed it on her lips. When Caesar felt Cleopatra's tongue in her mouth, ahe immediately understood that what the woman was looking for was not sincere love, but only lust. That gesture was enough to reveal the relationship that would exist between the two women.
Caesar didn't feel truly in love, however the relationship between the two was not well received by the population of Alexandria in Egypt; the alliance of the two women would have undermined the independence of the entire country and thus riots began to break out.
Caesar was forced to shut himself up in the royal palace together with Cleopatra. With few soldiers at her disposal, she built fortifications to resist the enemy siege. During their forced stay, Caesar and Cleopatra had the opportunity to bond more and more and, it is said, that by divine blessing, Cleopatra was made pregnant and with an immaculate conception gave birth to Caesarion. This left Caesar astonished but at the same time frightened her, because that divine intervention had to have a meaning and she feared that her deities would force her to stay in Alexandria and give up her dominion over her Rome.
In a certain sense Caesarion was the cause of the estrangement of the two women, not on a political level but on a purely sentimental level.
Meanwhile, Caesar tried several times to break the enemy siege but without success. Only after many months did the Roman reinforcements arrive, allowing the girl to respond to the revolts.
Many Pompeians sided with Cato, who did not cease to hinder Caesar throughout the duration of the civil war. During the pacification of Alexandria in Egypt, she did not lack the help of some local tribes who sided with Caesar, of great help was the intervention of Hyrcanus II and the Jews who supported the girl's army; they helped to pacify the whole East. Caesar was grateful for this and ordered that Hyrcanus be recognized as master of Judea and that the Romans cease sending legions into the territory.
The rumor spread throughout the Middle East: 'Caesar is a friend of the Jews'. Some celebrated, others less. Caesar's choice not to invade Judea was not enthusiastically received by the Senate; many businessmen got rich thanks to the taxes imposed on the Jews, the aristocracy saw Caesar's move as yet another affront to the Roman tradition.
46 BC
Caesar came to Thapsus to also put an end to the resistance of the allied forces to Cato. Thapsus' powerful ruler, Juba I, loathed Caesar and had no intention of letting a woman take power. The city of Thapsus was famous for its great walls and so the girl had trenches built to surround the city and near these she built her camp.
To come to the rescue of Juba, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, led an enormous army made up of valid Roman legionaries and also of impressive trained elephants. Caesar knew that facing elephants was very risky and many of her foot soldiers died due to the charge of those immense beasts, however the girl knew how to scare pachyderms. Caesar had built huge trumpets and made them sound with such force as to frighten the elephants; the big animals retreated and killed part of Metellus Scipio's soldiers.
With the use of archers and slingers, Caesar's legions were able to eliminate some elephants and then the time for cavalry arrived. A good warhorse was capable of traveling long distances in a very short time, and Caesar's horses were the best. The cavalry had no problems reaching the opposing legionaries and, with extreme speed, the adversaries were defeated and many retreated.
During the last stages of the battle, a legionary saw Caesar get off her horse and give the command to one of her lieutenants for a while, an unusual thing for all present but the lieutenant accepted and left with the cavalry to give the coup de grace to the enemy. Caesar moved away from the horse and the legionnaire immediately noticed that the girl's way of moving was unusual, she seemed to be about to fall.
"Caesar!"
The legionnaire followed the girl fearing that she had been seriously injured. He followed her into her camp, and then he saw her collapse on the ground and have tremors. He got scared. He knew the stories about the sacred disease but had not seen it. He went into the tent and took some water and also a cloth.
"Everything will be fine."
When the epileptic seizure came to an end, Caesar realized that she had been seen by a soldier and with an embarrassed manner she said:
"You haven't seen anything. Nobody will have to know."
"Do you need water?"
"Yes thanks."
She took a sip of water and returned the glass to the man. The legionnaire helped Caesar to get up.
"Thanks."
"Did it hurt you?" he asked.
"It bothers me, but you don't have to worry about me. Now we just have to end this battle."
Caesar looked tired and sweaty.
At that moment a messenger entered who exclaimed:
"I have a message from Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica: he accepts surrender. He has no more intention of fighting."
The legionnaire heaved a sigh of relief, however when he saw Caesar's angry gaze he worried. The girl had become well known for the grace she bestowed on her enemies, but this time she seemed to have something different in mind.
"Are you kidding me?!" she exclaimed, furious.
Silence. The indescribable amazement in the eyes of both men.
"That son of a bitch killed my soldiers, he used goddamn elephants to tear us apart, and he gives up like it was nothing? How many soldiers does he have?"
"Ten thousand."
"Elephants?"
"Sixty more."
"Are they trained by them?"
"Yes."
"Then kill them all. Release the elephants and kill all those traitors."
The legionnaire, shocked by that order, said:
"But they gave up."
"No, they haven't given up. They're just stalling. With ten thousand men and sixty elephants they can still keep fighting. Plus they've got Cato; he is hidden somewhere with forty thousand legionaries. I'm not going to trust them. I don't want to risk …"
The legionnaire noticed that Caesar's hand was still shaking.
"Kill everybody."
With the death of Metellus Scipio, Caesar was able to resume the siege of Thapsus. With the fall of the city, the girl ordered that the king be executed, but the latter managed to escape together with the last Roman survivor who had fought against Caesar in that bloody battle: Marcus Petreius. Both died shortly after.
The victory in the battle of Thapsus allowed Caesar to leave for Utica to meet Cato. The legionaries who had followed the man decided to surrender to Caesar without even fighting, and the girl ordered that Cato be captured and brought to her.
When the man was taken to Caesar's tent he was untied by order of her.
"So then?" he asked with a look full of contempt. "Won't you kill me?"
"I should?" Caesar sat down and poured herself some wine into a cup.
"You should. I'm a dangerous man, Caesar, I will never bow to you and I will not let you ruin the splendid Republic that made Rome powerful."
"Splendid? For you. You're privileged, Cato, you always have been. People treat you as a man of virtue but I know you, I know who you are. You are a common aristocrat, you are nothing special. Like all the others aristocrats you always treated me as an inferior creature, you always despised me and you always insulted me. And I grant you this, Cato, you have always been two steps ahead of me in philosophy, yet I have always been ten steps ahead of you in politics. And this is the proof."
"Yes, it is proof that I was right: you are like Sulla. You only crave power."
"You're wrong, I'm not like Sulla. I don't want to emulate that man. It's you who see the same thing in me, but I'm not him. I don't want power for myself, but for Rome. Rome needs me, it needs to change, it needs to modernize, and I will give Rome everything it needs. And what will become of you, Cato? You will be just a speck. A memory of a past that no longer exists."
"Then do it. Kill me."
"No," she replied, setting her glass down. "I'm not Sulla. I'm not going to kill you. He would have done it, I won't. I don't want to kill my enemies, I want to forgive them, I want to be able to trust them. I want to give you a second chance. I will grant you my grace and we will return to Rome as allies, as friends, and thus we will end this ridiculous civil war. What do you think?"
Cato was silent. He smiled. He laughed. That man laughed as if he had just heard a joke. He laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. When he stopped, it took him a while to catch his breath and then, with that smile still imprinted on his face, he replied:
"You're crazy. You are crazy and you don't respect me. I have no intention of submitting to you. I have no intention of accepting your grace. I don't do anything with the grace of a woman who wants to destroy the values of Rome." He took a dagger out of his toga. Caesar feared for her life but the man pointed the weapon at himself. "I'd rather die than submit to you."
With these words he stabbed himself and forcefully cut his belly. He fell to the ground leaving a stream of blood.
Caesar had not moved. Her face was stained with the blood of her rival. Her face had remained calm, almost indifferent. The girl stood up, looked at that lifeless body, and she uttered these last words:
"Cato ... I only feel a grudge for your death, because you have taken away from me the possibility of saving your life. But I respect that. However I will not let your martyrdom spur others like you."
