by Pat Brown
Octavian was in Egypt prior to the Nile inundation. Now Cleopatra’s position had become dire. Yet all hope was not lost, even if her odds of success were increasingly bleak. Cleopatra still saw a glimmer on the horizon, and that was carrying out Plan C by staging Actium Two at Alexandria. By using the strategy that allowed Antony and Cleopatra to escape Actium with a good portion of their fleet, Cleopatra hoped a replay of that maneuver might allow her to sail to the canal and out of Egypt.
While Cleopatra was waiting in Alexandria for the floodwaters to rise and Octavian was almost at the eastern border of Egypt, Antony had rushed over to the western border, to the fort of Paraetonium (today’s Marsa Matrouh), 149 miles west of Alexandria, to try to keep his legions from defecting and to prevent Roman general Cornelius Gallus from entering the country.
Gallus afterwards accompanied Octavianus [Octavian] to the battle of Actium, B.C. 31 when he commanded a detachment of the army. After the battle, when Octavianus was obliged to go from Samos to Italy, to suppress the insurrection among the troops, he sent Gallus with the army to Egypt, in pursuit of Antony. In the neighbourhood of Cyrene, Pinarius Scarpus, one of Antony’s lieutenants, in despair, surrendered, with four legions, to Gallus, who then took possession of the island of Pharus, and attacked Paraetonium. When this town and all its treasures had fallen into the hands of Gallus, Antony hastened thither, hoping to recover what was lost, either by bribery or by force; but Gallus thwarted his schemes, and, in an attack which he made on Antony’s fleet in the harbour of Paraetonium, he sunk and burnt many of the enemy’s ships, whereupon Antony withdrew.2
The battle didn’t go well for Antony, so he returned to Alexandria to do what he could to protect the city and implement Plan C’s Actium reenactment. It’s important to point out, however, that Suetonius’s description of Gallus’s sinking or burning many of Antony’s ships is not repeated anywhere else nor is there any particular number of ships documented as having been destroyed. This detail is important because if Cleopatra and Antony’s Plan C was to work, a combined Roman and Egyptian fleet would have to confront Octavian’s ships as they did at the first battle of Actium. Antony’s ships had to engage Octavian’s while Cleopatra’s ships waited to sail off when the battle was at its height. Without evidence to the contrary, and recalling the fact that Gallus possessed some two hundred ships to attack Arabia a few years later, I speculate that Antony may have lost some ships in his attempt to stop Cornelius Gallus at Paraetonium, but he did not lose his entire fleet. In fact, there is some corroboration of this in Plutarch’s description of the final Alexandrian battle. He writes: “At daybreak, Antony in person posted his infantry on the hills in front of the city, and watched his ships as they put out and attacked those of the enemy.”3
His ships. Not Cleopatra’s. Of course, this could just be poor writing on the part of Plutarch, but then the very next description of what those ships did seems to validate that he was indeed speaking very specifically of Antony’s fleet:
. . . and as he expected to see something great accomplished by them, he remained quiet. But the crews of his ships, as soon as they were near, saluted Caesar’s crews with their oars, and on their returning the salute changed sides, and so all the ships, now united into one fleet, sailed up towards the city prows on.4
Now, just a bit further on in Plutarch’s rendition of that day, he does have Antony suspecting Cleopatra of stabbing him in the back and ordering the surrender of her navy in the Alexandria harbor, but I find it rather interesting that, if this were true, shouldn’t we have Plutarch saying that Antony saw Cleopatra’s ships go out toward the enemy and Cleopatra’s ships salute Caesar’s crews with their oars? No, Plutarch specifically states that they were Antony’s ships, which is one reason he was so shocked; his ships would be under his command and his command was to engage Octavian’s fleet in battle.
It is important to establish that Antony did still have enough of a fleet to at least attempt to engage Octavian’s fleet and that it was his fleet that was heading out to meet with Octavian’s. So where was Cleopatra’s fleet? It may have been positioned behind Antony’s, closer to the shore, and simply isn’t mentioned because her ships never moved out of place. I will return to that last battle of Alexandria in a bit. For now, I simply want to establish that Antony had failed at the western border and returned to Alexandria with what remained of his fleet. Meanwhile, Octavian had just taken over Pelusium, and the month of July was not starting off well for Cleopatra.
She needed four more weeks, at least, to get her ships to the canal. At that point in time, the ships were likely with her in Alexandria, because if they were down in Memphis in the harbor waiting for the canal to fill, it wouldn’t make sense that Cleopatra was in Alexandria when Octavian arrived there, and he would have seen her fleet while making his way to the city.
We really do not know, however, exactly by what method Octavian arrived at Alexandria or how long it took him. Since he entered the city on August 1, one can guess that he might have taken four weeks or more to march his army through the Nile delta. What little is written about these events comes, again, from Plutarch, who states that “at the same time [whilst Cleopatra was repeatedly sending him messages asking for mercy and likely determining his progress in her direction] that [Octavian] advanced with his army against the city.”5
One might think that Octavian didn’t need to have that big of an army, and he didn’t need a fleet since he moved in from the east along the coast. But I think there is good reason to believe he at least had a reasonable number of legions with him and likely a fleet, or at least part of his fleet, to bring along food and water, especially since they traversed the Sinai Peninsula from Gaza to Pelusium. This is a rather unpleasant and treacherous stretch for an army to cover, but it would have been foolish to embark upon such a march without having a way to supply the soldiers with food and drink. A good description of how Octavian likely proceeded with his legions comes from the description of Alexander the Great’s own travels along this route:
Thus, the army will have journeyed from Gaza to Pelusium sometime in October, if not earlier. Of all the months of the year, September and October, are absolutely the worst to travel in the Sinai. Rains do not begin here until November, and the few wells along the coast, which are often too brackish to drink in any case, would be dry or virtually dry just before the onset of the rains. The coast of Sinai from Gaza to Pelusium is entirely covered with sand dunes, and the army would have to march along the shore wet by the ocean lest the horses and wagons sink in the sand. There is no vegetation along the coast from Raphia to the Bitter Lakes. Even if supplies were collected at Gaza, the rations would not last more than four days. The fleet sailed alongside the army by the coast, and they undoubtedly set up magazines of provisions before sailing on to Pelusium. Notably, the march passed without incident, and Alexander covered the 127 miles in only seven days—undoubtedly to conserve provisions.6
It makes sense that Octavian also would have his fleet alongside him to carry provisions for his men as they traveled to Gaza and then Pelusium. The next question is, after Pelusium fell, by which route did Octavian proceed to bring his army to Alexandria? Although there is some possibility that he somehow went due west across all the Nile branches, using bridges and whatever roads existed, there is nothing in the literature that speaks of any particularly direct route straight to Alexandria (at the Canobic mouth) from Pelusium (at the Pelusiac mouth). According to the description by Strabo of the delta area between Pelusium and Alexandria, during the Nile inundation the land would be comprised of a marshy mishmash of elevated land areas and small canals to navigate from one area to the other.
These then are two mouths of the Nile, one of which is called the Pelusiac, the other the Canobic and Heracleiotic mouth. Between these are five other outlets, some of which are considerable, but the greater part are of inferior importance. For many others branch on from the principal streams, and are distributed over the whole of the island of
the Delta, and form many streams and islands; so that the whole Delta is accessible to boats, one canal succeeding another, and navigated with so much ease, that some persons make use of rafts floated on earthen pots, to transport them from place to place. But at the time of the rising of the Nile, the whole country is covered, and resembles a sea, except the inhabited spots, which are situated upon natural hills or mounds; and considerable cities and villages appear like islands in the distant prospect.7
Composed of a mass of rivers, lakes, and canals, it isn’t the easiest region in which to travel, especially if the waters are rising well in a good Nile inundation season. The more suitable route to Alexandria for Octavian to take in the summer would be from Pelusium, down the eastern branch of the Nile to Memphis, and then up the western branch of the Nile to Alexandria. Following this route, the army would have a far easier march, and the ships could float alongside them until they reached their destination. Alexander himself marched his troops along this 250-mile route. No general with knowledge of the Egyptian delta and the Nile inundations would take his army due east in the summer from Pelusium if he wanted his forces to reach Alexandria successfully.
If Octavian took the Nile route, he would have prevented Cleopatra’s early departure from Alexandria. If she took her ships on the Nile from Alexandria down to Memphis and then up to Bubastis to the canal, she would surely run into Octavian. Alternately, she could sail straight to Pelusium, which would take her only a few days, but then there she would be marooned with no way to enter the canal until the Nile inundated properly. We don’t know if Octavian left some of his fleet at Pelusium to prevent any of her ships from passing eastward or entering the Nile at the Pelusiac mouth, but it makes sense for him to set up a blockade at that location. We don’t know if he did have some of his fleet come directly against the wind toward Alexandria, but there is nothing written of an early arrival of any ships before Octavian entered the city with his troops. Certainly, Antony went that exact westerly direction in order to get to Paraetonium in late June, so it is hard to say what military decisions might have been made necessary, even if they were not the preferred method of operation.
I want to note, for those who might question the ability of Cleopatra to take her fleet in the Pelusiac mouth or the Canobic mouth, that either was equally possible. The Nile had seven major arms reaching the Mediterranean in ancient days, but it was these two that had mouths that were wide enough for large ships to pass through. There were harbors at Memphis and Koptos, locations where ships were built and stationed. And it is written that along with much trafficking of goods between the Red Sea and the Nile ports, naval ships also moved from those locations to the Mediterranean, and invading armies moved their ships from that sea down the Nile. In his travels down to Heliopolis, fifth-century BCE Greek historian Herodotus noted this at the mouth of the Nile:
First when you are still approaching it in a ship and are distant a day’s run from the land, if you let down a sounding-line you will bring up mud and you will find yourself in eleven fathoms. This then so far shows that there is a silting forward of the land.8
Suffice it to say, Cleopatra was in Alexandria, apparently with her fleet. Octavian was coming her way from the east with his troops and fleet, and Gallus was converging from the west with his troops and fleet and might already have been in Alexandria blocking the port. The Nile inundation, however, was about four weeks away, which meant that Octavian would be arriving in Alexandria just about the time the waters reached a high-enough level to open the canal for business. Cleopatra had only one option—Plan C’s Actium Two. She would have to duplicate the maneuvers of Actium, have Antony’s fleet engage Octavian’s, and then, hoisting their sails, her fleet would move out quickly. Her fleet would sail through or behind the line of battle to the east, and then turn down the western branch of the Nile, the one Octavian had just come up. She would sail her fleet through the Canobic mouth and move quickly down to Memphis and up to Bubastis, a trip that would take about four or five days (based on the recorded travels of Herodotus). As her fleet veered to the east behind the lines of battle, her flagship at the front, she could only hope that as many ships as possible would make it out of the harbor and follow her, those in the back giving battle if necessary to allow those at the front to make their escape. The same would be true on the Nile and in the canal; the ships in the rear, if necessary, could stop and block the route and protect the fleet, allowing the ships at the front more time to put distance between themselves and any pursuers. With the element of surprise, the advantage of a head start, and the likelihood that Octavian would think she would sail down to Koptos or Thebes and move overland toward Berenice or south into Nubia rather than turning north toward the canal (which she would hope he was not aware had been cleared), she might make it to the Red Sea with the majority of her fleet and men and make a successful run for India.
Meanwhile, she would not want Octavian to catch wind of her plans or have any suspicions that she might flee. If he got the notion that she might have some sort of escape plan, it is possible he would investigate and take extra precautions to block any exit from the country. There is a chance that this is why Plutarch has her sending messages back and forth to Octavian, begging for his mercy, and then threatening to burn all the treasure while hiding in her tomb in Alexandria:
She had a tomb and monument built surpassingly lofty and beautiful, which she had erected near the temple of Isis, collected there the most valuable of the royal treasures, gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, ivory, and cinnamon; and besides all this she put there great quantities of torch-wood and tow, so that Caesar was anxious about the reason, and fearing lest the woman might become desperate and burn up and destroy this wealth, kept sending on to her vague hopes of kindly treatment from him, at the same time that he advanced with his army against the city.9
Cleopatra may have created this “desperate plan” as a distraction so she could move portions of the Lagide treasury to Berenice or Memphis—to be picked up on the way to India—without Octavian realizing what she was doing. Since Cleopatra was still in Alexandria when Octavian arrived, we must surmise that the inundation was slow in coming. Clearly, the most she succeeded in accomplishing with her messages, if there was any truth to their existence, was to appear not to be planning to flee Alexandria.
It would be a bold plan, a desperate plan, and it could work if all the breaks fell her way. Cleopatra surely hadn’t had much good luck since Octavian came on the scene, but luck can always change. It even seemed that a good omen occurred the night before her plan would have to be enacted. Plutarch might have been indulging in his usual dramatic overkill, but his description of Antony’s successful defense of Alexandria on July 31, 30 BCE, if it were true, might have given Cleopatra a dash of hope: “But when [Octavian] had taken up position near the hippodrome, Antony sallied forth against him and fought brilliantly and routed his cavalry, and pursued them as far as their camp.”10
Unfortunately, what little luck she might have had in her favor seemed to run out on the morning of August 1.
I found myself a seat on Saad Zaghloul Square underneath the statue of the early twentieth-century Egyptian statesman and nationalist, which had a soaring base with his figure on top and was built on the exact spot where Cleopatra’s great Caesarium once stood. It was later known as the Temple of Augustus because Octavian completed the unfinished structure after the death of Cleopatra. The statue rests near the shore of the Mediterranean with the royal docks and palace nearby. Once Cleopatra’s Needles, three fine red-granite obelisks that she had moved from Heliopolis to adorn her grand temple, stood here overlooking the great harbor (until 1877, when they were transported across the sea to London, Paris, and New York). No doubt two of the obelisks stood on either side of the entranceway to the Caesarium just as two obelisks stood guard at the doors of the temples of Luxor, Karnak, and Dendera.
The first major building to be completed under the Romans was the Caesareum. On the sea-fron
t between the Emporium and the little promontory on which Antony built the Timoneion, Cleopatra had started building a splendid temple in honour of Julius Caesar. She did not live to finish it, and it was completed by Octavius and known as the Caesareum. At the entrance, facing the sea, were two obelisks, brought from Upper Egypt.1
The description of the Caesareum is of a magnificent temple:
It stands situate [sic] over against a most commodious harbour, wonderfully high and large in proportion, an eminent seamark full of choice paintings and statues, with donatives and oblations in abundance, and beautiful all over with gold and silver, curious and regular in the dispositions of the parts, with galleries, libraries, porches, courts, halls, walks, groves, as glorious as expense and art could make them, the hope and comfort of sea-faring men coming in or going out.2
It is extremely important to discern whether Cleopatra was holed up in a tomb or a temple because that location’s very architecture can indicate where it was located and what Cleopatra saw as its purpose for August 1, 30 BCE. Before the days of the Ptolemies, in the Old and New Kingdoms of Egypt, two types of temples were built, cult temples and funerary temples (a fancy name for tombs). The cult temples were massive complexes located in town, in locations where the people could visit them regularly to worship their gods and their pharaohs; Luxor, Karnak, Dendera, Philae, and downtown Alexandria were homes to these lavish complexes. Tombs (funerary temples) were usually off in the desert, built into mountains or hills outside of town, so it took effort to reach them (and since they were sealed once the body was ensconced in them, the tombs rarely served much purpose).