Caesar, Julius (d. 44 b. c.e.)

Caesar, Julius (d. 44 b. c.e.) Roman military and political leader who was one of the most powerful men in the world

He established cleopatra vii as sole ruler of Egypt c. 48 B. C.E. while in ALEXANDRIA and altered the course of Egyptian history Julius Caesar was born in 100 b. c.e. and rose steadily in Rome, becoming a hero because of his military successes in the Gallic Wars.

A rival of pompey the Great, Caesar followed him to Egypt after defeating Pompey’s legions at the battle of Pharsalus in 48. Once in Egypt, Caesar extricated himself from a precarious military position in Alexandria and then conducted campaigns against ptolemy xiii and the Alexandrians in the battle of the Nile. He placed Cleopatra VII on the throne as sole ruler and recognized her child, ptolemy xv caesarion, as his own son.

Leaving Egypt, Caesar continued to hunt down Pompey’s allies and returned victorious to Rome. There he became dictator and held consulships. He also instituted a new calendar. Marc ANTONY, one of his companions, offered him a crown, but he refused it. Republicans, however, conspired against him and assassinated him on the Ides of March 44 b. c.e.

One of the finest orators of Rome, Caesar also wrote commentaries on his wars, as well as poetry and works on grammar. Caesar laid the foundation for the Roman Empire. His heir was his nephew, Gaius octavian, whom he adopted and who became the first emperor of Rome, AUGUSTUS.

Suggested Readings: Bradford, Ernle. Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power London: H. Hamilton, 1984; Dodge,

Theodore. Caesar: A History of the Art of War Among the Romans Down to the End of the Roman Empire, With a Detailed Account of the Campaigns of Gaius Julius Caesar. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997; Ferrero, Guglielmo. The Life of Caesar. Trans. A. E. Zimmern. New York: G. P Putnam’s Sons, 1933; Gelzer, Matthias, and Needham, Peter, trans. Caesar: Politician and Statesman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1985; Grant, Michael. Caesar. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974; Grant, Michael. The Twelve Caesars. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975; Julius Caesar. The Civil War New York: Penguin, 1967; Julius Caesar. The Conquest of Gaul. New York: Penguin, 1982; Meier, Christian. Caesar New York: HarperCollins, 1997; Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Trans. Robert Graves. New York: Penguin, 1979.

Caesareum A shrine in Alexandria, erected by CLEOPATRA VII (r. 51-30 b. c.e.), starting with an altar for cultic ceremonies honoring Marc ANTONY, who became her lover, the historian Philo visited the shrine in 40 B. C.E. A great sanctuary was part of the design, and two OBELISKS of TUTHMOSIS III (r. 1479-1425 b. c.e.) were brought from Heliopolis to adorn the site. When Cleopatra VII committed suicide after the battle of actium, Octavian (later the first emperor of Rome, Augustus), completed the Caesareum for his own cultic ceremonies as the new ruler of Egypt.

Caesarion See ptolemy xv

Cairo Calendar An astrological text that dates to the reign of ramesses ii (1290-1224 b. c.e.) of the Nineteenth

Dynasty, this was a calendar of lucky and unlucky days of the year. The good or bad potential fortune of a single day was determined by past events connected to that particular date, mainly concerning the gods, omens, battles, or prophecies recorded for that specific time period.

The start of a journey, the planning of a marriage or business transaction, and especially days of birth were studied in relationship to the calendar and its lucky or unlucky connotations. People born on unlucky days were doomed to a bad end according to Egyptian traditions. In the case of royal princes, children on whom the fate of Egypt depended, such birth dates were critical. If such a royal heir was born on a day of ill fortune, the SEVEN HATHORS, divine beings, arrived on the scene and changed the child, substituting one born on a propitious day. In that way calamities were avoided, not only for the royal family but for the nation. In time the Seven Hathors were thought to provide that service for all children, even commoners. The calendar was used by the literate or upper-class Egyptians in much the same way that horoscopes are used in modern times. This calendar bears the name of Egypt’s capital, Cairo, but that city was not founded until decades after Rome assumed power in 30 B. C.E.

Calcite An opaque, white stone commonly called alabaster, calcite was popular in all building programs throughout Egyptian history. The stone was quarried at a remote site called hatnub, to the east of ’amarna, and was believed to have solar connections in a mythical sense. The calcite was revered as part of the solar traditions of Egypt, as the stone was deemed an essential part of the universe. Vessels and sarcophagi were made out of calcite for royal or aristocratic tombs, but it was never used as a common building material.

See also Egyptian natural resources; solar cult.

Calendar A timekeeping system of annual designations in use in Egypt as far back as predynastic times, before 3000 B. C.E. Lunar in origin, the calendar was designed to meet the agricultural demands of the nation and evolved over the centuries until recognized as inaccurate in real time. The calendar that developed in the Early Dynastic Period (2920-2575 b. c.e.) had 12 months of 30 days. The inaccuracy of this calendar was self-evident almost immediately The lunar calculations made by the priests and the actual rotation of the earth around the sun did not coincide, and very rapidly Egyptians found themselves celebrating festivals out of season. The calendar was then revised by adding five days at the end of each year, called epagomenal days (connected to the goddess nut), which provided some stability to the calendar calculations.

The calendar contained three seasons of four months each. AKHET was the season of the inundation, the first third of a year, starting at the end of modern August and followed by PROYET and SHOMU. Proyet was the time in which the land emerged from the floodwaters, and shomu was the time of harvest.

As the calendar veered from the true year, the Egyptians invented a corrected calendar and used it side by side with the one dating to predynastic times. They would not set aside something so venerable, preferring to adjust their enterprises to the new calendar, while maintaining the old.

In the reign of Djer (c. 2900 b. c.e.) a formative calendar was inscribed on an ivory tablet, that included the image of Sirius. The goddess sopdu, depicted as a sacred cow bearing the symbol of the year (a young plant) between her horns, is also portrayed. Egyptian astronomers had established the link between the helical rising and the beginning of a year: the solar calendar.

The rising of a star called sopdu or sopdet by the Egyptians, and known in modern times as sirius, the Dog star, started each new year on the revised calendar around July 19th. The arrival of Sopdu at a given time was due to the fact that the star appears just above the horizon at dawn about the same time of year that Akhet began. This calendar was inaccurate, as the solar year was longer than the calendar year.

PRIESTS used their own measurements, based on lunar months of around 29.5 days, to conduct feasts. In the Ptolemaic Period (304-30 b. c.e.) a leap year was added, along with astrological aspects, planetary houses, and other innovations used by the Greeks and Romans.

See also sothic cycle.

Callias of Sphetlus (d. c. 265 b. c.e.) Greek military commander who served Ptolemy I Soter (r 304-284 b. c.e.) Callias entered ptolemy I’s service after being exiled from Athens. He was from sphetlus and was involved in political affairs. In 287 b. c.e., Callias returned to Athens with Egyptian mercenaries to aid his brother, Phaedrus, in bringing in a harvest and represented Athens in negotiations with other states, remaining, however, in the service of Ptolemy I. As a result of his role in the negotiations, Athens voted Callias full civic honors before he died c. 265 B. C.E.

Callimachus of Cyrene (fl. third century b. c.e.) Poet deemed a master of the Alexandrian style Callimachus achieved his fame in the reign of ptolemy ii PHILADELPHUS (285-246 b. c.e.). He aided in the evolution of the traditional epics, defending the form against criticism by Apollonius of Rhodes. He also provided ALEXANDRIA with remarkable examples of the epic form and wrote 120 books, giving biographical details about literary figures. Callimachus may have served briefly as the director of the library of Alexandria.

He was born in Gyrene but was welcomed by the Ptolemaic court, where he wrote the Aelia, “Causes,” a narrative in four books. Callimachus was also famous for his Iambi, a compilation of 13 short poems, for his Hecole, a narrative poem, and for Hymns and epigrams.

Cambyses (d. 522 b. c.e.) Persian king who ruled Egypt from 525 to 522 b. c.e.

He was the son of Cyrus the Great and probably Queen AMYTIS. In 538 B. C.E., Cambyses who reportedly murdered his brother to gain the throne, was named the ruler of Babylon but was dethroned a year later because of his behavior. He was returned to the throne in 530 b. c.e. Cambyses accompanied Cyrus to the Persian campaigns in the east and then returned to the capital. He was also given the task of conquering Egypt and defeated psam-METICHUS iii (r. 526-525 b. c.e.) at the battle of pelusium, starting the Twenty-seventh Dynasty in 526 b. c.e. Cambyses’ consort was Queen Atossa.

Cambyses also planned a campaign against Carthage, Ethiopia, and the Oasis of SIWA in the Libyan Desert. The Persian expedition to the Oasis of Siwa, a shrine area for the Egyptian god amun, was a disaster and a mystery Cambyses sent out a large unit of Persians, hoping to plunder the temples in the oasis, but all of his troops vanished. Not one staggered out of the desert to describe the calamity that must have overtaken the forces. The Persians were never seen or heard of again. A modern expedition into the desert, however, uncovered human skeletons and armor. An investigation is being carried out to see if these are the remains of Cambyses’ army units. The Carthage expedition was delayed as a result of this disaster.

Egyptian records call Cambyses a “criminal lunatic,” but not all of the charges leveled against him are substantiated. When Cambyses conquered Egypt, he officiated over the burial of a sacred apis bull in 526 b. c.e. and then honored the goddess neith (1) at SAIS. Cambyses also forged links with nomarchs or clan chiefs of the Egyptian provinces and adopted ceremonial titles and rituals. The Egyptians claimed that he struck at an Apis bull, wounding the sacred animal in the thigh and then slaying the animal in an act of sacrilege. He also reportedly whipped the Apis cult priests. Cambyses did have the mummy of amasis (r. 570-526 b. c.e.) dug up and mutilated. Amasis had aided the enemies of the Persians during his reign. The Egyptians would have been outraged by such sacrilege.

The Magi, a remarkable clan suppressed by Camby-ses in a region of modern Syria, revolted against Persian rule, and he returned to that area to put down the rebel forces. He died there in the summer of 522 b. c.e., either by accident or by his own hand, and was buried in Takt-i-Rustan, near Persepolis (modern Iran). When Cambyses departed from Egypt, an aide, aryandes, was left in control of the Nile Valley as governor. Within a year, however, Aryandes was executed on charges of treason by Cambyses’ successor, darius i.

Canaan The name applied by the Egyptians to the entire western region of Syria and Palestine, it was actually “the Land of the Purple,” a name resulting from the popularity of a rich purple dye used in the territory in the manufacture of materials. Canaan extended from Acre northward on the coast. Egypt had control of Canaanite cities from c. 1550 to 1200 b. c.e.

Canal of Necho II A connective waterway leading from the NILE to the Red Sea, through the wadi timulat to the BITTER LAKES and then into the sea and called “the Sweet Water Canal” by the Egyptians, this canal was opened by necho ii (r. 610-595 b. c.e.) and maintained by later dynasties. The Persians of the Twenty-seventh (525-404 b. c.e.) and the Thirty-first (343-332 b. c.e.) Dynasties repaired and deepened the canal. During the Ptolemaic Period (304-30 b. c.e.), the canal was maintained yearly.

Canal of Sehel This was a passage on the nile River that dates to the Sixth Dynasty (2323-2150 b. c.e.), dug alongside the first cataract of the Nile at the island of SEHEL in order to allow Egyptians easy access to the territories below. In the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1783 b. c.e.), SENWOSRET II (r. 1897-1878 b. c.e.) cleared the canal and mounted an inscription on the rocks of the island to commemorate the event. He claimed that he was in the process of making a new entranceway into nubia and returned several years later to repair it. The goddess ANUKIS was the patroness of Sehel, serving as well as part of KHNUM’s triad at ASWAN. Later pharaohs maintained the canal throughout many eras.

Cannibal Hymn A text used as part of the pyramid TEXTS in the pyramid of unis (2356-2323 b. c.e.) in SAQQARA, in this funerary utterance, Unis is described as rising from the grave in a divine form to feast upon his ancestors and the gods themselves. He was aided by other divine beings, including khons (1), in catching his victims and slaying them. sheshmu, an ancient deity of the olive and grape presses, then proceeded to cook them and to resurrect Unis. As with most forms of archaic cannibalism, Unis performed these terrible acts to gain the HEKA, the magical powers innate to the gods.