was followed by Pompey, who suffered
himself to be influenced by the overconfident senators to risk a battle.
Near the town of Old Pharsalus he attacked Caesar but was defeated and his
army dispersed. He himself sought refuge in Egypt and there he was put to
death by order of the king whose father he had protected in the days of
his power. Pompey's great weakness was that his resolution did not match
his ambition. His ambition led him to seek a position incompatible with
the constitution; but his lack of resolution did not permit him to
overthrow the constitution. The Optimates had sided with him only because
they held him less dangerous than Caesar and had he been victorious they
would have sought to compass his downfall.

*Caesar in the East, 48-47 B. C.* After Pharsalus Caesar had set out in
pursuit of Pompey, but arrived in Egypt after the murder of his foe. His
ever pressing need of money probably induced Caesar to intervene as
arbiter in the name of Rome in the dynastic struggle then raging in Egypt
between the twenty-year-old Cleopatra and her thirteen-year-old brother,
Ptolemy XIV Dionysus, who was also, following the Egyptian custom, her
husband. Caesar got the young king in his power and brought back
Cleopatra, whom the people of Alexandria had driven out. Angered thereat,
and resenting his exactions, the Alexandrians rose in arms and from
October, 48, to March, 47 B. C., besieged Caesar in the royal quarter of
the city. Having but few troops with him Caesar was in dire straits and
was only able to maintain himself through his control of the sea which
enabled him to eventually receive reinforcements. His relief was effected
by a force raised by Mithradates of Pergamon who invaded Egypt from Syria.
In co-operation with him Caesar defeated the Egyptians in battle; Ptolemy
Dionysus perished in flight; and Alexandria submitted. Cleopatra was
married to a still younger brother and put in possession of the kingdom of
Egypt. Caesar had succumbed to the charms of the Egyptian queen and
tarried in her company for the rest of the winter. He was called away to
face a new danger in Pharnaces, son of Mithradates Eupator, who had taken
advantage of the civil war to recover Pontus and overrun Lesser Armenia,
Cappadocia and Bithynia. Hastening through Syria Caesar entered Pontus and
defeated Pharnaces at Zela. After settling affairs in Asia Minor he
proceeded with all speed to the West, where his presence was urgently
needed.