Chapter 442 Cleopatra

Maximus heard the hint of respect implicit in Akago's words, and immediately smiled contemptuously: "Fighting bravely is a quality that soldiers and low-level officers should possess. As the commander of this Roman army, he is calm, wise, and leading." Winning the army is what Antony should do, but he was careless and easily ruined the lives of countless Roman soldiers... I really hope there will be more Roman commanders like this in the future.

Ake nodded thoughtfully.

Maximus sighed softly: "After all, this man is also the leader of an army. Let's cremate him and bury him alone."

"yes."

Maximus turned around and asked, "Is Gelicus here?"

Someone in the group of officials following Maximus immediately shouted: "My lord, I am here!"

"Your Military Intelligence Department needs to take action!" Maximus said sternly: "Next, not only must we preach among the Roman nobles and civilians in the North Italian Province, 'We provoked the war because Caesar massacred our compatriots in Gaul. Man, if the Romans don't kill Caesar to apologize, this war will never stop'.

You also want to preach that the reason why the Roman army suffered a disastrous defeat in this war was that Caesar, despite the dissuasion of many of his subordinates, forcibly appointed his unlearned confidant Antony as commander-in-chief. And this Antony made a series of stupid mistakes, which led to countless rich and powerful people. Roman soldiers with war experience and strong combat effectiveness died in vain...'"

Gelicus said knowingly: "Your Majesty, I understand. In short, the failure of this war is attributed to Caesar, making the Romans hate and hate him."

Maximus nodded and said meaningfully: "Yes, because the civil war in Rome is not over yet."

Then he looked around at the officials of various departments in the kingdom and said solemnly: "Starting from tomorrow, our army will march south and west, occupy the entire northern Italian province, and expel all Roman nobles and civilians in the province...

Then it is your turn to perform your duties, manage each occupied town, absorb slaves and poor people, allocate them land and houses, guide them to farm... and finally turn these occupied lands into territories that truly belong to the kingdom, and strive for Before the next war comes, the food harvested in the North Italian Province alone can basically meet the food needs of the army! "

……………………………………………………………………………………

After the Battle of Pharsalus, Pompey abandoned his army and fled the battlefield with his closest men.

Suffering such a disastrous defeat for the first time in his long military career was undoubtedly a major blow to Pompey, known as "the greatest general in Rome". For a time, he fell into despair, not knowing where to go, and even considered escaping. Go to Parthia to seek help from the enemies of Rome.

With the comfort of his wife and the persuasion of his men, he finally cheered up and decided to flee to Egypt first.

Because there was civil strife in Egypt, Ptolemy XII went into exile in Rome, and it was Pompey who sent troops to help him recover. The two established a deep friendship, so after the civil war began, Egypt provided Pompey with considerable military support. Aid, and Egypt was very wealthy, so in Pompey's view it was a good place worthy of his trust to make a comeback.

So Pompey took his wife and his closest men by ship to Egypt.

But he never imagined that the young pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, who had just succeeded to the throne, had decided to kill him to please Caesar, the victor of the Roman Civil War.

Pompey's wife and his men on the ship watched helplessly as Pompey landed in Alexandria and was killed and beheaded.

After the victory at Pharsalus, Caesar pursued the victory with his usual swiftness and energy. In order to speed up, he even brought only a small number of troops. As a result, he encountered Pompey's fleet at sea, which was far superior in number to him.

Caesar was so confident that he personally persuaded the other party to surrender.

The fleet generals who had already learned about Pompey's defeat were panicking, so they followed the trend and surrendered with the fleet.

With the help of his new fleet, Caesar arrived in Alexandria three days after Pompey's death, and received Pompey's head from the Egyptian Pharaoh.

He burst into tears, angry and saddened by Pompey's death.

In the past, apart from being political allies, he and Pompeo did have a sincere friendship. Even though they became competitors, Caesar never thought about killing Pompey. He just wanted to make his achievements and merits surpass those of the other party, so that the greatest general in Rome would admit that he was better than him, and now Pompey But he was killed, which made him very dissatisfied!

But in any case, the Egyptians killed Pompey to show that they wanted to please Caesar.

So Caesar simply led about 4,000 soldiers who followed him to the port of Alexandria, occupied a palace in the palace area, and settled down.

Caesar had never arrived in Egypt before. When he found out that his law enforcers and soldiers followed the usual practice of arrogantly opening a way for him to enter the city of Alexandria, which aroused the hostility of the Egyptian people, he regretted it too late.

In the following days, the Romans were ridiculed and insulted by the Egyptian people in the city, and some lone soldiers were even attacked and killed by mobs.

Caesar was angry about this. He believed that Ptolemy XIII was secretly instigating it, so he announced that he would recover the huge sum of money that Ptolemy XII had owed to Rome.

He also announced that since he and Pompey helped Ptolemy XII obtain recognition from the Roman Republic, he would now arbitrate the Egyptian throne succession dispute.

Caesar had a wishful thinking: he could not only obtain a large sum of money to feed the thousands of Pompeian soldiers who surrendered to him; he could also beat Ptolemy XIII into submission, thus bringing the wealthy Egypt under his control. among.

The eunuch Pothinius, who served as Ptolemy XIII's auxiliary minister, did not openly express his opposition, but secretly summoned Achillas, who was also a minister of orders, to lead his army into the city.

The army led by Achillas numbered 20,000 men and soon besieged Caesar in the palace.

Although Caesar led his soldiers to repulse Achillas' attacks many times, the people in the city who were hostile to them were also ready to move. Caesar had sent messengers to summon reinforcements, but it would take some time for the reinforcements to arrive. Now he and his men are in a It's a very dangerous situation, and you may be defeated and killed at any time.

At this time, Cleopatra, the sister of Ptolemy XIII, who once ruled Egypt with him and was later expelled by the ministers, sneaked into the palace and appeared in front of Caesar.

Cleopatra already knew that Caesar was a romantic man, so she dressed up carefully.

Although Cleopatra was not very beautiful (she had an overly prominent aquiline nose), she was smart, young, witty, lively, and very attractive in Caesar's eyes, just like Cyrus in her youth. Like Velia, she was quickly attracted to him and took him as her lover.

Then, he announced to Ptolemy XIII that his father's will was clear, and he should rule jointly with his sister Cleopatra.

Check out the 16-9 book bar to see the correct version!

Ptolemy XIII realized that his sister and Caesar had colluded together, so he became ruthless and incited the people in the city to launch a riot, and even tried to send someone to assassinate Caesar.

Caesar retaliated in kind by capturing Pothinius, Ptolemy XIII's auxiliary minister and the executor of the conspiracy, and executed him to shock the young pharaoh.

Ptolemy XIII, who was under Caesar's control, felt that his life was threatened and secretly instigated the Egyptian army outside the city to step up the attack.

After repeatedly attacking the palace guarded by Caesar's army and failing, the Egyptian army turned to seize the port occupied by the Romans, thus completely cutting off Caesar's connection with the outside world.

Caesar's warships had the upper hand in the naval battle, but he suffered a disastrous defeat in a land battle he personally initiated to capture the island of Pharos (the location of the Pharos Lighthouse).

At the critical moment, Caesar jumped into the sea and escaped, but this did not affect his fighting spirit. He continued to lead his army to repel the enemy's attacks many times.

The fighting continued until January of the following year (47 BC, the 25th year of the founding of the Nyx tribe) when the people of Alexandria sent a delegation to implore Caesar to release Ptolemy XIII.

Caesar agreed, but urged the young pharaoh to stop the war as soon as possible and remember his due loyalty to Caesar and Rome.

The young pharaoh shed tears and nodded in agreement.

But when he left the area controlled by the Romans and joined his sister Arsinoe, who now commanded the Egyptian army, he began to incite the Egyptian army to work hard to destroy the Roman invaders.

Caesar was prepared, and the Egyptian army's attack failed to make any progress.

On the contrary, the reinforcements that Caesar expected have arrived one after another. He quickly launched a counterattack and defeated the Egyptian army. Ptolemy XIII drowned and Arsinoe was captured. Egypt fell under Caesar's control. middle. He then fulfilled his promise and restored his lover, Cleopatra, to the throne of Pharaoh.

Cleopatra quickly repaid the huge sum of money Caesar had demanded from Egypt, allowing Caesar to appease the returning Pompeian soldiers.

In the history of the previous life, Caesar continued to stay in Egypt for nearly three months. For most of the time, he and Cleopatra took a luxury cruise ship to cruise the Nile River, followed by four hundred warships and all the troops arriving one after another. , to show the Egyptian people Cleopatra's status as ruler and the power of Rome that supported her.

In addition, the young, wise, and exotic Cleopatra had a special attraction for the aging Caesar. For his own ambitions, Caesar, who had been running around on the battlefield and in the political arena for many years, took a rare break. Enjoyed a belated and unforgettable love.

Of course, Caesar in his previous life was able to have this free time because the overall situation of the civil war had been decided and he had become the controller of Rome and even the entire Mediterranean.