Chapter 11, Pacifying Caesar, The Last Gasps of Republican Rome, 48-45 B.C. Summary and Analysis

Cicero was not able to return to Rome, not due to Caesar but because Marc Antony wanted to review his collaboration with Pompey. Cicero had to wait for Caesar's return. Pompey had fled to Egypt but Pharaoh's royal advisers had Pompey killed before he reached land to ingratiate themselves to Caesar. When Caesar received his severed and pickled head, he cried. In the meanwhile, Quintus and his son blamed Cicero for their siding with Pompey; Cicero wrote to Caesar to confirm this out of a spirit of reconciliation.

After Pompey's death, Caesar withdrew from view for months, caught up in a war with the Egyptian Court. Cleopatra was, at this time, in her late teens and would seduce first...