Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/286

272 her out of the kingdom. She raised an army in Syria and Palestine, and went to war with him.

At this juncture, Julius Cæsar, in pursuit of Pompey, sailed into Egypt, and came to Alexandria. Here he employed himself in hearing the controversy between Ptolemy and his sister Cleopatra, as an arbitrator appointed by the will of Auletes, the power of the Romans being then vested in him as their dictator. The cause was accordingly brought to a hearing, and advocates appointed on both'sides to plead it. But Cleopatra, knowing Cæsar was a great admirer of beauty, laid a plot to make him of her side: sending therefore to him, she complained, that her cause was betrayed by those who managed it for her, and prayed that she might be permitted herself to plead before him. This being granted, she came secretly into the port of Alexandria, in a small skiff, in the dusk of the evening; and, to facilitate her passage to Cæsar, without fear of her brother's party, who then commanded the place, she caused herself to be tied up in her bedding, and carried to his apartment on the back of one of her servants.

Cæsar was too sensible of female charms to resist those of Cleopatra. She was then about twenty, and one of those perfect beauties, whose every feature has its particular charm, and was possessed of wit, a commanding address, and a voice singularly harmonious and insinuating. In short, Cæsar soon after sent for Ptolemy, and pressed him to receive his sister again upon her own terms. But, perceiving that, instead of her judge, he was her advocate, Ptolemy appealed to the people, and put the whole city in an uproar. A war commenced, which was soon terminated by a battle, in which Cæsar overcame, and Ptolemy, attempting to escape over the Nile in a boat, was drowned.