Arsinoe IV was an ambitious daughter of King Ptolemy XII of Egypt (r. 80-51 BCE). Her ambition was mirrored by her sisters, Berenice IV and Cleopatra VII. The eldest sister, Berenice, usurped power from her father in 58 BCE, but she was ultimately executed when he seized back control of Egypt in 55 BCE. As for Cleopatra VII, the next eldest daughter, she was the famous Cleopatra who tied her fate to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She and Arsinoe, additionally, had two younger brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, who had their own supporters in the Ptolemaic capital of Alexandria. When their father died in 51 BCE, the will of the late king was interpreted as directing the oldest living son and daughter, Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra, to rule as a pair. This succession was implemented, but the two co-rulers and their aides quickly proved incompatible, resulting in a succession war by 50 BCE. Young Ptolemy XIII and his faction of supporters held the initial advantage, forcing Cleopatra to flee Alexandria. Yet, while she was in exile, Cleopatra recruited an army and began pushing back against her brother’s supporters. Meanwhile, the Roman general, Pompey, fled to Egypt in 48 BCE after suffering a decisive defeat in his Roman Civil War, but he was assassinated by agents of Ptolemy XIII. Pompey’s opponent, Julius Caesar, then arrived in Egypt, injected himself into the Egyptian succession crisis, and placed Ptolemy XIII under house arrest in the palace quarter of Alexandria while the Romans wintered in the city. By this point, open war broke out between the Romans and the Egyptian forces at Alexandria. Cleopatra, sensing an opportunity, also appeared and submitted herself to Caesar’s mercy. It was at this time—during Ptolemy XIII’s house imprisonment and when Cleopatra was courting Roman support—that Arsinoe began her own bid for power.
Arsinoe, unlike her siblings, escaped the palace quarter and united with the Alexandrine forces that had begun besieging the Romans back when Ptolemy XIII was taken hostage. Arsinoe brought along her talented guardian and mentor, a eunuch named Ganymedes, who turned out to be a skilled strategist. They joined with Ptolemy’s general, Achillas, who was leading the forces of Alexandria against the Romans. Yet, the general and the princess became rivals instead of partners. Julius Caesar, in his war commentaries, observed, “King Ptolemy [XII’s] younger daughter [Arsinoe], hoping to take unencumbered possession of the throne, went over from the palace to Achillas and began to direct the war in co-operation with him. But very soon they fell out over the leadership…” (Julius Caesar, The Civil War, III.112). A power struggle ensued, where both Arsinoe and Achillas attempted to buy or leverage support for their side among the troops. In the end, Arsinoe and Ganymedes came out on top and Achillas was assassinated. Curiously, despite the death of a major general, the Alexandrian campaign did not lose momentum. Whereas Achillas had mobilized the Alexandrine garrison for war and had set the urban battle lines, Arsinoe and Ganymemdes, for their part, began implementing tactics and strategies that increased pressures on the Romans and made the siege more effective. Arsinoe and Ganymedes’ plans would pose a challenge even for a man of Julius Caesar’s brilliance.
At the time when Arsinoe and Ganymedes took over the assault on Caesar’s entrenched army, the battle in Alexandria was at a standstill. Julius Caesar, in the opening moves of the conflict against Achillas, had occupied the palace quarter, the harbor, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Caesar also burned the docked Alexandrian fleet. To set up a defensive perimeter in the city, Roman forces rammed their way through the walls of buildings to reach their desired destinations, and they demolished structures at the periphery of the battle lines that did not fit the battle scheme. Arsinoe and Ganymedes, rather than continue Achillas’ costly house-by-house urban assault against the Roman positions, instead pivoted their own approach to target Caesar’s supplies and to possibly open another front in the battle against the Romans. On the supply sabotage angle, Arsinoe and Ganymedes concocted a plan to divert the sea into Caesar’s drinking water. This was detailed in a text known as The Alexandrian War, attributed to Aulus Hirtius (c. 90 BCE—43 CE), which served as an expanded continuation of Caesar’s war commentaries. The text reported:
“Almost the whole of Alexandria has galleries beneath it and conduits extending to the Nile by which water is brought to private houses. After a while this water gradually becomes clear and settles, and is habitually used by houseowners and their households because…there is not a single spring in the city. However, the watercourse was in the portion of the town which was under Alexandrian control. This circumstance gave Ganymedes the idea that it was possible to deprive our forces of water, because in order to protect their fortifications our men were distributed over various quarters of the city and used water taken from the conduits and wells of private houses. This plan was approved, and he embarked on a huge and difficult task. He drove tunnels to intercept the conduits, and after isolating all the areas of the city which he himself controlled, strove to raise an enormous quantity of water from the sea, using water-wheels; and this he endlessly poured into Caesar’s area from the higher levels” (The Alexandrian War, chapters 5-6).
According to the account, the change in salinity occurred gradually in the Roman water supply. Caesar’s forces reportedly even held taste tests, comparing the flavors of the water from different houses. Curiosity, however, turned to panic once the Romans realized that the fresh water infrastructure in and around all of the structures under their control had been filled with undrinkable seawater. This sabotage shook Roman morale, but Julius Caesar acted quickly to sure up the resolve of his army during this moment of panic. Caesar ordered new wells to be dug, and he also reassured the army that, since the Alexandrian fleet had been burned, the Romans would be able to use their own ships to freely ship in fresh water from outside the city. Arsinoe and Ganymedes, however, wanted to rebuild their sea power and challenge Caesar’s ships. They scoured the region for anything seaworthy, including patrol boats, administrative vessels, and merchant ships in the vicinity of the city that could be commandeered by the Alexandrian army to reform a makeshift navy. On the gathering, repairing and refurbishing of this fleet, The Alexandrian War commentary reported:
“There were guard-ships stationed at all the mouths of the Nile to collect the customs duties, and in secret docks within the palace old ships which had not been sailed for many years: they repaired the latter and recalled the former to Alexandria. There were no oars: so they took the roofs off colonnades, gymnasia, and public buildings, and the rafters became oars; their natural cleverness provided some things, their plentiful resources others…And so within a few days, contrary to what everyone thought possible, they completed twenty-two quadriremes and five quinqueremes. To these they added a fair number of smaller undecked ships…” (The Alexandrian War, chapter 13).
Once a naval force had been pulled together by the Alexandrians, they began to constantly harass Roman ships coming to and from Alexandria, and the Alexandrian navy was also used to launch amphibious assaults on vulnerable Roman positions. Julius Caesar had to personally sail out with his accompanying fleet to challenge Alexandrian ships on at least two or three occasions. Each time Caesar engaged the makeshift Alexandrian fleet, he would sink a few ships, but he could never destroy the naval force, and they would always return to harass the Roman supply lines and fortifications. Caesar, to further fortify against the Alexandrian naval attacks, decided to expand his foothold on the island that housed the Lighthouse of Alexandria, as well as the bridge that connected the island to Alexandria. The Romans used amphibious tactics of their own in their attempt to secure the causeway to the island. Yet, Caesar’s sailors were caught off guard when Alexandrian forces landed troops to counter-attack the disembarked Roman sailors on the causeway. The chaotic battle was described in The Alexandrian War continuation:
“While Caesar was busy with these operations and urging his soldiers on, a large number of rowers and marines poured on to the causeway from our warships…But once a few of the Alexandrians had found the courage to land further out, on their unprotected side, they began to retreat haphazardly to the ships…Encouraged by their flight, more Alexandrians landed and pursued our disordered troops still more vigorously. At the same time, the men who had remained on board our warships hurried to pull up the ladders and push the ships off from land…As long as he could rally his men and keep them at the fortifications and the bridge, Caesar was in the same danger, but when he saw they were all retreating he withdrew to his own vessel. A crowd of men followed him, swarming on board and not allowing any opportunity to work the ship or push off from shore. Guessing what was going to happen, he jumped overboard and swam to the ships which had stopped somewhat further away. From here he sent boats to help his men in difficulties, and saved some, while his own ship did indeed sink under the number of soldiers, and was lost along with them” (The Alexandrian War, chapter 20-21).
After that battle, the stalemate between the Romans and the Alexandrians resumed. Yet, Arsinoe would not be able to enjoy her side’s successes for much longer. Curiously, Julius Caesar entered into negotiations with the Egyptians and arranged for Ptolemy XIII to be released in exchange for the surrender of Arsinoe. Unfortunately for Arsinoe, her forces accepted the deal, and the Egyptians agreed to replace her with her younger brother. Ptolemy XIII resumed hostilities against Caesar after he was released, but he was not as effective as his sister and Ganymedes. The Alexandrian War stretched into early 47 BCE, when the arrival of Roman reinforcements pushed the balance of power into Julius Caesar’s favor. Ptolemy XIII mobilized his forces to confront the Romans in one last unsuccessful battle, but the king drowned, prompting the Egyptians to surrender. Cleopatra, as the only adult royal who had not fought against Caesar, was allowed to ascend to the Ptolemaic throne in Egypt. Contrastingly, Arsinoe—still in Roman custody—was paraded through the streets of Rome as part of Julius Caesar’s triumphal celebration in 46 BCE. Despite this humiliation, Caesar ultimately spared Arsinoe and let her go into exile in Ephesus, where she lived at the city’s temple of Artemis. Yet, Caesar’s protection ended when he was killed in 44 BCE. Following Julius Caesar’s death, Cleopatra began a relationship with Caesar’s violent right-hand man, Mark Antony, and they had Arsinoe assassinated in 41 BCE.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Marble Bust of Hellenistic Queen Arsinoe III of Egypt, 220-210 BC, photographed by Gary Todd at the Altes Museum in Berlin, [Public Domain] via WorldHistoryPics.com and Flickr, atop an illustration of Siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar, by Louis Poyet (1846–1913), [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons).
Sources:
- The Civil War by Julius Caesar: with the Anonymous Alexandrian, African, and Spanish Wars, translated by John Carter. Oxford University Press, 1997, 1998, 2008.
- Roman Lives by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World Classics), 1999, 2008.
- [Cassius Dio] http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/cassius_dio/42*.html
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cleopatra-queen-of-Egypt
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arsinoe-IV
- https://www.livius.org/articles/person/arsinoe-iv/
