Cæfar, upon his atrival in Egypt, finds Ptolemy engaged in a quarrel with his fifter Cleopatra; whom, at the inftigation of Photinus, and his other evil counfellors, he had deprived of her share in the kingdom, and imprifoned: fhe finds means to escape, comes privately to Cæfar, and puts herfelf under his protection. Cæfar interpofes in the quarrel, and reconciles them. They in return entertain him with great magnificence and luxury at the Royal Palace in Alexandria. At this feaft Cæfar, who at his firft arrival had visited the tomb of Alexander the Great, and whatever elfe was curious in that city, enquires of the chief priest Achoreus, and is by him informed of the course of the Nile, its ftated increafe and decrease, with the several causes that had been till that time affigned for it. In the mean time Photinus writes privately to Achillas, to draw the army to Alexandria, and furprize Cæfar; this he immediately performs, and befieges the palace. But Cæfar, having fet the city and many of the Ægyptian fhips on fire, escapes to the island and tower of Pharos, carrying the young king and Photinus, whom he ftill kept in his power with him; there having discovered the treachery of Photinus, he puts him to death. At the fame time Arfinoë, Ptolemy's younger fifter, having by the advice of her tutor, the eunuch Ganymedes, affumed the regal authority, orders Achillas to be killed likewife, and renews the war against Cæfar.
Upon the mole between Pharos and Alexandria he is encompaffed by the enemy, and very near being flain, but at length breaks through, leaps into the fea, and with his ufual courage and good fortune fwims in fafety to his own fleet.
QON as the victor reach'd the guilty fhore,
Yet red with ftains of murder'd Pompey's gore,
New toils his ftill prevailing fortune met,
By impious Egypt's genius hard befet.
The ftrife was now, if this detefted land
Should own imperial Rome's fupreme command,
Or Cæfar bleed beneath fome Pharian hand.
But thou, oh Pompey! thy diviner fhade,
Came timely to this cruel father's aid;
Thy influence the deadly fword withstood,
Nor fuffer'd Nile, again, to blush with Roman blood.
Safe in the pledge of Pompey, flain so late,
Proud Cæfar enters Alexandria's gate :
Enfigns on high the long proceffion lead;
The warrior and his armed train fucceed.
Meanwhile, loud-murmuring, the moody throng
Behold his Fafces borne in ftate along :
Of innovations fiercely they complain,
And fcornfully reject the Roman reign.
Soon faw the chief th' untoward bent they take,
And found that Pompey fell not for his fake.
Wifely, howe'er, he did his fecret fear,
And held his way, with well-diffembled chear.
Careless, he runs their gods and temples o'er,
The monuments of Macedonian power;
But neither god, nor fhrine, nor mystic rite,
Their city, nor her walls, his foul delight:
Their caves beneath his fancy chiefly led,
To search the gloomy mansions of the dead:
Thither with fecret pleasure he defcends,
And to the guide's recording tale attends.
There the vain youth who made the world his prize,
That profperous robber, Alexander, lies.
When pitying death, at length, had freed mankind,
To facred reft his bones were here confign'd:
His bones, that better had been tofs'd and hurl'd,
With just contempt, around the injur'd world.
But Fortune fpar'd the dead; and partial Fate,
For ages, fix'd his Pharian empire's date.
If e'er our long-loft liberty return,
That carcafe is referv'd for public scorn :
Now, it remains a monument confeft,
How one proud man could lord it o'er the rest.
To Macedon, a corner of the earth,
The vaft ambitious spoiler ow'd his birth:
There, foon, he fcorn'd his father's humbler reign,
And view'd his vanquish'd Athens with disdain.
Driv'n headlong on, by Fate's refiftlefs force,
Through Afia's realms he took his dreadful courfe:
His ruthless fword laid Human Nature wafte,
And defolation follow'd where he pafs'd.
Red Ganges blush'd, and fam'd Euphrates' flood,
With Perfian this, and that with Indian blood.
Such is the bolt which angry Jove employs,
When, undistinguishing, his wrath destroys :
Such to mankind, portentous meteors rife,
Trouble the gazing earth, and blast the skies.
Nor flame, nor flood, his reftless rage withstand,
Nor Syrts unfaithful, nor the Libyan fand:
O'er waves unknown he meditates his way,
And feeks the boundless empire of the sea;
Ev'n to the utmost west he would have gone,
Where Tethys' lap receives the setting sun;
Around each pole his circuit would have made,
And drunk from fecret Nile's remotest head,
When nature's hand his wild ambition stay'd.
With him, that power his pride had lov'd so well,
His monftrous univerfal empire, fell:
No heir, no juft fucceffor left behind,
Eternal wars he to his friends affign'd,
To tear the world, and fcramble for mankind.
Yet ftill he dy'd the mafter of his fame,
And Parthia to the laft rever'd his name:
The haughty Eaft from Greece receiv'd her doom,
With lower homage than fhe pays to Rome.
Though from the frozen pole our empire run,
Far as the journeys of the fouthern fun;
In triumph though our conquering eagles fly,
Where-e'er foft Zephyrs fan the western sky;
Still to the haughty Parthian must we yield,
And mourn the lofs of Carre's dreadful field:
Still fhall the race untam'd their pride avow,
And lift thofe heads aloft which Pella taught to bow.
From Cafium now the beardlefs monarch came,
To quench the kindling Alexandriaa's flame.
Th' unwarlike rabble foon the tumult cease,
And he, their king, remains the pledge of peace;
When, veil'd in fecrecy, and dark disguise,
To mighty Cæfar, Cleopatra flies.
Won by perfuafive gold, and rich reward,
Her keeper's hand her prifon gates unbarr'd,
And a light galley for her flight prepar'd.
Oh, fatal form! thy native Egypt shame!
Thou lewd perdition of the Latian name!
How wert thou doom'd our furies to increase,
And be what Helen was to Troy and Greece!
When with an hoft, from vile Canopus led,
Thy vengeance aim'd at great Auguftus' head;
When thy fhrill timbrel's found was heard from far,
And Rome herself fhook at the coming war;
When doubtful fortune, near Leucadia's ftrand,
Sufpended long the world's fupreme command,
And almost gave it to a woman's hand.
Such daring courage fwells her wanton heart,
While Roman lovers Roman fires impart :
Glowing alike with greatness and delight,
She rofe ftill bolder from each guilty night.
Then blame me, hapless, Antony, no more,
Loft and undone by fatal beauty's power;
If Cæfar, long inur'd to rage and arms,
Submits his ftubborn heart to those foft charms;
If, reeking from Emathia's dreadful plain,
And horrid with the blood of thoufands flain,
He finks lafcivious in a lewd embrace,
While Pompey's ghafly spectre haunts the place. 115
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