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24 - Caesar Saved by the Jews

from PART III - THE LONG CIVIL WAR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

Luciano Canfora
Affiliation:
University of Bari
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Summary

Caesar owed his salvation to the Jews, and this he never forgot. The decisive battle that lifted the siege in which he was trapped in Alexandria was the battle of Pelusium, followed immediately by that of the Jewish Camp. Here Antipater decided the battle against the Egyptians in Caesar's favour, after the Egyptians had overwhelmed the flanking force commanded by Mithridates. According to Josephus Flavius it was Antipater who forced the surrender of Pelusium and entered the city first. Brandishing the directives of Hyrcanus he secured the support of the Jews from the Memphis area. In the battle of the Jewish Camp (in the Nile Delta) Antipater, with his Jewish troops, not only saved those who survived the battle, but lost scarcely fifty men, compared with Mithridates' 800 killed. There is a letter from Mithridates to Caesar acknowledging Antipater's decisive role in the battle and in the whole campaign. It is clear that Josephus is quoting a document, a letter to Caesar which he knew of directly.

The author of the Alexandrian War also says – admittedly by hints – that the battle of the Delta was the decisive moment. According to that account, Ptolemy dispatched a great army to face Mithridates in the Delta, convinced that his best option would be to defeat him, but adding that it would suffice (satis habebat) if he could prevent Mithridates from linking up with Caesar (interclusum a Caesare a se retinere).

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Chapter
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Julius Caesar
The People's Dictator
, pp. 209 - 217
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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