Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/316

 308 CESAR. small boat, to assist his soldiers who were in danger, and when the Egyptians pressed him on every side, he threw himself into the sea, and with much difficulty swam off. This was the time when, according to the story, he had a number of manuscripts in his hand, which, though he Avas continually darted at, and forced to keep his head often under water, yet he did not let go, but held them up safe from wetting in one hand, whilst he swam with the other. His boat, in the mean time, was quickly sunk. At last, the king having gone off to Achillas and his party, Caesar engaged and conquered them. Many fell in that battle, and the king himself was never seen after. Upon this, he left Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who soon after had a son by him, whom the Alexandrians called CaBsarion, and then departed for Syria. Thence he passed to Asia, where he heard that Domi- tius was beaten by Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, and had fled out of Pontus with a handful of men ; and that Pharnaces pursued the victory so eagerly, that though he was already master of Bithynia and Cappadocia, he had a further design of attempting the Lesser Armenia, and was inviting all the kings and tetrarchs there to rise. Caesar immediately marched against him with three legions, fought him near Zela, drove him out of Pontus, and totally defeated his army. When he gave Aman- tius, a friend of his at Kome, an account of this action, to express the promptness and rapidity of it, he used three words, I came, saw, and conquered, which in Latin* hav- ing all the same cadence, carry with them a very suitable air of brevity. Hence he crossed into Italy, and came to Rome at the end of that year, for which he had been a second time this inscription was displayed in name. It has been corrected into the triumph which was afterwards Caius Matius, a well-known friend celebrated for this war. Amantius of Cassar's.
 * Veni, Vidi, Vici. A tablet with does not seem to be a true Roman