The Romans made way as Caesar entered the building. It took him ten minutes to climb the many staircases to the top. He walked out at the base of the huge flames. The city was sprawled out to the East. He felt the sun on the back of his neck and he turned to face it. There were thin strips of red cloud in the distance. The sunrise was perfect. He could see his three ships still beached and the many ships in the harbour. His own fleet still in the royal harbour and the temple of Osiris and the tomb of Alexander. The morning was beautiful. Caesar took a long deep breath and held it until his lungs were aching.
The sound of another horn drifted across to him. His eyes searched for the source. He had been smiling to himself. Then the smile vanished, replaced with a frown.
A flotilla of ships was heading for Alexandria. On their sails the enemy’s symbol. Caesar turned at shouts from below. He leaned over the edge and looked down. He saw his men running back towards his ships. He looked up. Hundreds of the enemy were running across the sand towards his beached galleys.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Julius Caesar was sitting at his writing desk on board his ship writing reports. It had been a month since his arrival in Alexandria. A long and difficult time for the Roman dictator.
It had been a long and troubling week since the water supply was sabotaged and then fixed easily in one night by his men digging down to the fresh supply. That night had been dangerous, Caesar was sure, on the point of mutiny.
Then the Romans had conquered the island of Pharos with just over a hundred men, defeating a force of three times that number. They had re-floated their three beached ships and without fighting men on board they had rowed the five miles along the coast to Calvinius, linked up with him and towed his supply ships back to the royal harbour to a raucous applause from the Romans watching.
It had been a great victory for Caesar. Another in a long line of triumphs. At daybreak their elation was short lived. They had seen Achillas’ fleet blockading the harbour. The Roman ships under protection from the island now only able to seek safe passage in the royal harbour. The Romans had enjoyed a brief victory on that day when they had returned. News had soon got out that Caesar’s ships were seriously undermanned and the Alexandrian fleet had awaited them. On that first day of battle at sea Caesar had managed to sink one Egyptian ship and damage many others.
Now today news had reached Julius that the Alexandrians had begun a new fleet and in four days had constructed twenty seven new warships. The Alexandrians driven by the knowledge that they were, indeed, masters of the sea.
“Twenty seven in four days,” Caesar said to himself.
He read on.
In addition to the twenty seven the locals were also dragging rotten hulls from the seabed and mud and were even tearing down rafters from public buildings to create their new navy. Julius knew in the safety of the calm water of the harbour that this was a formidable force.
Then just one hour ago Caesar had received a report that a reserve fleet from Rhodes and Turkey flying the Roman eagle had been sighted off the coast and news that Mithridates’ great army had entered Egypt. Now nothing could stop the mighty Roman war machine. Could it?
“And what about Cleopatra?” Julius asked himself, feeling his heart flutter at the thought of her.
“Ah! My love I haven’t seen you for a week.”
“BALLISTA!”
Caesar heard the shout come through his window.
“BALLISTA!” the voice shouted again.
Julius heard the whoosh of the huge stone as it flew past and hit the water, sending up a spume of spray.
In the next instant Julius was up out of his seat and running for the stairs. He burst out into the afternoon sunlight just as another huge stone flashed past and crashed into the sea. He dashed across the deck and into cover against the side next to Admiral Agrippa.
Agrippa didn’t bother with the usual expected greeting or pleasantries but just blurted out.
“They suddenly attacked without warning Caesar!”
“Must have known our men were taking a break.”
“Yes. The Alexandrians have spies all along the rooftops. It would be very easy for them to spot our limited numbers.”
Another stone hit the water with a heavy splash. This one so