The (in English: Gabinians) were 2000 Roman

legionaries The ancient Rome, Roman legionary (in Latin ''legionarius''; : ''legionarii'') was a citizen soldier of the Roman army. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Republic and ...

and 500 cavalrymen stationed in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

by the Roman general Aulus Gabinius after he had reinstated the Pharaoh

Ptolemy XII Auletes Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus ( – 51 BC) was a king of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, Egypt who ruled from 80 to 58 BC and then again from 55 BC until his death in 51 BC. He was commonly known as Auletes (, "the Flautist"), referring to ...

on the Egyptian throne in 55 BC. The soldiers were left to protect the King, but they soon adopted the manners of their new country and became completely alienated from the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. After the death of Auletes in 51 BC, they helped his son

Ptolemy XIII Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator (, ''Ptolemaĩos''; c. 62 BC – 13 January 47 BC) was Pharaoh of Egypt from 51 to 47 BC, and one of the last members of the Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC). He was the son of Ptolemy XII and the brother of and co ...

in his power struggle against his sister

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

and even involved

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

, the supporter of Cleopatra, during

Caesar's Civil War Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was a civil war during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Julius Caesar and Pompey. The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the Republic on his expected ret ...

up to the siege of Alexandria (48–47 BC) in violent battles.

Protecting power of Ptolemy XII in Egypt

In 58 BC, Pharaoh Ptolemy XII "Auletes" had to leave Egypt and went into political exile in Rome due to a popular revolt, and his daughter Berenice IV seized the throne. Three years later, Aulus Gabinius, the Roman

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

Roman Syria Roman Syria was an early Roman province annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War following the defeat of King of Armenia Tigranes the Great, who had become the protector of the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria. ...

, restored the king to the throne after a short campaign. Then he left a part of his army, called after him the ''Gabiniani'', in Egypt for the king's protection. These Roman troops also included Gallic and Germanic horsemen. Because Egypt was nominally independent, the ''Gabiniani'' were not a Roman occupying army but mercenaries of Ptolemy XII. According to

, they soon adopted the dissipated way of life of the

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

ns, while they neglected Roman discipline. Nevertheless they still possessed a great fighting strength because Caesar described them as very dangerous enemies in the Alexandrinian war. They married Egyptian women and had already fathered children with them before the arrival of Caesar in Egypt (48 BC). Over time, they lost their connection with Rome and became a loyal protecting power of Ptolemy XII, who used them in fights against rebellious subjects.

Conflict with Cleopatra VII

After the death of Ptolemy XII (51 BC), his two oldest surviving children,

and

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

, were supposed to succeed jointly on the throne as husband and wife, but the young queen soon ousted her brother and husband and ruled alone. She quickly came into a serious conflict with the ''Gabiniani''. In 53 BC the powerful Parthians had inflicted a devastating defeat on the Romans in the

Battle of Carrhae The Battle of Carrhae () was fought in 53 BC between the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire near the ancient town of Carrhae (present-day Harran, Turkey). An invading force of seven Roman legion, legions of Roman heavy infantry under Marcus ...

, and three years later – at the beginning of the year 50 BC – the governor of Syria, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, sent two of his sons to Egypt to recruit the ''Gabiniani'' for the war against the Parthians. The Gabiniani, however, did not want to give up their comfortable life in the Ptolemaic Empire to fight against the Parthians so they killed Bibulus's sons. Cleopatra continued the pro-Roman policies of her father. She immediately had the murderers arrested and handed over in chains to Bibulus. This action turned the Gabiniani into bitter enemies of the queen as Cleopatra wanted to maintain good relations with Rome. The Roman historian,

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' or ''Facta et dicta memorabilia''). He worke ...

, claimed that the Syrian proconsul sent the murderers back to Egypt because the senate in Rome, not he, was responsible for the punishment of the criminals, who were still Roman citizens. The German historian Christoph Schäfer did not believe this version and pointed out that the proconsul probably punished the killers instead, since he had the legal authority and had he believed that the murderers could only be judged by the Senate he would not have returned them to Egypt anyway, but to Rome. Schäfer believes that Cleopatra's break with the Gabiniani was the main cause of her subsequent loss of power because her actions led to the mercenaries joining those who supported Ptolemy XIII and his three influential guardians and advisors, Pothinus, Achillas, and Theodotus of Chios. In the spring of 49 BC Gnaeus Pompeius, the oldest son of the triumvir,

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

, came to Egypt to ask for military aid in the civil war against Julius Caesar that had just broken out. At this time Ptolemy XIII had regained equal power with Cleopatra, and both rulers complied with the petition. Among other things, they sent 500 ''Gabiniani'' horsemen to Pompey. This time the ''Gabiniani'' did not refuse to go to war. At the end of 49 BC Cleopatra was driven out of Alexandria at the instigation of Pothinus. Probably in connection with this action, Caesar accused the ''Gabiniani'' of being so much used to the old customs of the Alexandrinian soldiers that they demanded the execution of friends of kings, they tried to raise their pay by besieging the palace, and they deposed kings and brought other men to power. After Pompey's decisive defeat in the Battle of Pharsalus, he fled to the coast of Egypt and demanded help and support from the Ptolemaic government. The advisors of Ptolemy XIII were not willing to get involved in the Roman civil war and decided to murder Pompey in an attempt to please the victorious Caesar. Pothinus and his companions allegedly also feared that Pompey would try to incite the former Roman soldiers in the Ptolemaic army – who had earlier fought under his command – so that he could gain control over Egypt. It is considered unlikely that the ''Gabiniani'' could have been convinced to take part in such an action given their close connection to the Egyptian monarchy and community. Indeed two leading members of the ''Gabiniani'', the former

tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...

Lucius Septimius and the

centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

Salvius, participated in the assassination of Pompey (25 July 48 BC according to the Julian calendar).

War against Caesar

Caesar arrived in Egypt a few days after the assassination of Pompey. In spite of the elimination of his enemy, he did not leave the country and supported the expelled Cleopatra in the Ptolemaic power struggle. Pothinus organized military opposition against Caesar. In the Alexandrinian war that followed, the ''Gabiniani'' played an important role: they were the core divisions of Achillas' army that comprised 20,000 infantrymen and 2000 cavalrymen. The forces of Caesar were one-fifth the size of his opponent's. Caesar relates in his ''

Commentarii de Bello Civili '' Commentarii de Bello Civili'' (''Commentaries on the Civil War''), or ''Bellum Civile'', is an account written by Julius Caesar of his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Roman Senate. It consists of three books covering the events of 49– ...

'' that fugitive criminals and exiles from the neighbouring Roman provinces had joined the ''Gabiniani'' because the government recruited them to swell the ranks of their army.Caesar, ''Commentarii de Bello Civili'' 3.110.1-4 After the successful conclusion of the Alexandrinian war, Caesar replaced the ''Gabiniani'' with three reliable legions, the XXVII, XXVIII and XXIX. These served as the Roman occupying army of Egypt and were tasked with protecting Cleopatra but also to ensure the queen's loyalty to Rome.

Notes

References

* Michael Grant, ''Cleopatra'', 1972 and 1974 (here used a German edition of 1998), , pp. 35–36, 74-75, 78, 86, 102. * Christoph Schäfer, ''Kleopatra'', Darmstadt 2006, , pp. 28, 41-43, 50-51. {{italic title Ancient Celtic warfare Early Germanic warfare Military history of the Ptolemaic Kingdom Military units and formations of the Roman Republic Military units and formations established in the 1st century BC