Cæsar, continuing his pursuit without stopping, hastened with a few followers to Egypt; another great piece of daring! On his arrival, they brought him the head and ring of Pompey: history has not forgotten his tears. I will not deny that this death saved him from some anxiety; for how could he have made peace with Pompey?—the war could not end in any other way, but with his destruction;—yet for all that, judging from the disposition of Cæsar’s heart, I believe that his tears were sincere. He buried Pompey: to have erected a monument would have looked like a farce; but his family raised a small, humble monument over him. The name of the Pompeii still existed to the time of Tiberius; then it disappears. The emperor Hadrian found the statue taken away, and set up in a neighbouring temple, the monument itself being nearly buried in the sand; and he had it restored. An epigram on the subject, consisting of two distichs, is one of the most beautiful left us from antiquity: it is certainly genuine, although the second half has been called in question. Marmoreo tumulo Licinus[13] jacet, at Cato nullo, Pompeius parvo: credimus esse Deos? Saxa premunt Licinum, levat altum fama Catonem, Pompeium tituli: credimus esse Deos. Cæsar now went to Alexandria whither his troops were to follow him; but his orders could not be carried across to Rhodes, as in the Mediterranean the Etesian gales blow from the north-west for about fifty or sixty days, until the dogdays, and the ships could not work their way against the wind. In the meanwhile, Cæsar had to stay in Alexandria among the most insolent and licentious populace in the world, one in which the vices of the east and the west were combined: the Macedonian Greek population had been mostly exterminated in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon, and the Alexandrine-Egyptians only remained, who were a detestable race. This rabble now became bold: as Cæsar had only so few with him, the eunuch Pothinus, the regent at that time, resolved to overpower him. Cæsar was in possession of the royal palace, where he entrenched himself as Ferdinand Cortez did in Mexico. An insurrection broke out; and the palace was set fire to, on which occasion the library of Ptolemy Philadelphus was burnt: the struggle in the streets was terrific. The account of how Cæsar then maintained himself,—making head against the immense danger which assailed him; destroying the entrance to the harbour to the dismay of the Alexandrians; taking the island of Pharos, and holding his ground there until he got reinforcements;—is given by Hirtius in a most graphic and attractive style. At last, Cæsar succeeded in making himself master of Alexandria, and the elder Ptolemy was accidentally drowned in the Nile: in short, the Alexandrians surrendered, and Cæsar, glad to have done with the war, declared Cleopatra queen, by whose arts he had been enslaved, and bestowed upon her the whole of the country.