uppressed all
outward expressions of discontent, made incessant efforts in secret to
organize a party, and to form plans for overthrowing the influence of
Caesar, and making Ptolemy again the sole and exclusive sovereign.

Pothinus represented to all whom he could induce to listen to him that
Caesar's real design was to make Cleopatra queen alone, and to depose
Ptolemy, and urged them to combine with him to resist a policy which
would end in bringing Egypt under the dominion of a woman. He also
formed a plan, in connection with Achillas, for ordering the army back
from Pelusium. The army consisted of thirty thousand men. If that army
could be brought to Alexandria and kept under Pothinus's orders, Caesar
and his three thousand Roman soldiers would be, they thought, wholly at
their mercy.

There was, however, one danger to be guarded against in ordering the
army to march toward the capital, and that was, that Ptolemy, while
under Caesar's influence, might open communication with the officers, and
so obtain command of its movements, and thwart all the conspirators'
designs. To prevent this, it was arranged between Pothinus and Achillas
that the latter should make his escape from Alexandria, proceed
immediately to the camp at Pelusium, resume the command of the troops
there, and conduct them himself to the capital; and that in all these
operations, and also subsequently on his arrival, he should obey no
orders unless they came to him through Pothinus himself.

Although sentinels and guards were probably stationed at the gates and
avenues leading from the city Achillas contrived to effect his escape
and to join the army. He placed himself at the head of the forces, and
commenced his march toward the capital. Pothinus remained all the time
within the city as a spy, pretending to acquiesce in Caesar's decision,
and to be on friendly terms with him, but really plotting for his
overthrow, and obtaining all the information which his position enabled
him to command, in order that he might co-operate with the army and
Achillas when they should arrive.

All these things were done with the utmost secrecy, and so cunning and
adroit were the conspirators in forming and executing their plots, that
Caesar seems to have had no knowledge of the measures which his enemies
were taking, until he suddenly heard that the main body of Ptolemy's
army was approaching the city, at least twenty thousand strong. In the
mean time, however, the fo