Duane W. Roller

importance. But this latter point argues in favor of the trip, and it would
have fi t in with Caesar’s geographical interests and Cleopatra’s political
needs. It is impossible to be certain, yet the fi rst to report in detail on
the tale, Suetonius, may have been led by reading Lucan to search the
Roman archives for evidence and to fi nd it.
As reported in the sources, the Nile cruise of Cleopatra and Caesar
was a grandiose expedition employing more than 400 ships and using
Cleopatra’s thalamegos. Th is was the opulent state boat of the Ptolemies,
fi rst constructed by Ptolemy IV, half a stadion (perhaps 300 feet) long
and 40 peches high (perhaps 80 feet), fi tted with dining rooms, staterooms,
and promenades around the outside on two decks. In fact the
entire boat resembled a grand villa, elaborately decorated with precious
woods, ivory, and gold, and including architectural entablatures and
sculpted reliefs. Shrines to Dionysos, Aphrodite, and the royal family
were also on board. 61 Presumably Cleopatra’s version, 200 years later,
was no less lavish, although the thalamegos was a type of boat, not a
specifi c vessel, and there are no details about hers. In fact Strabo wrote
generically about them, noting that they were housed at Schedia, a
dockyard just southeast of Alexandria on the Kanobic mouth of the
Nile. 62 Cleopatra’s thalamegos would fi gure again in another notable
and mythic event of her career, her visit to Antonius at Tarsos (see
p. 77). Th e journey up the Nile went some distance, almost to Ethiopia,
when the accompanying troops insisted that it turn back. Th e voyage
should not be seen merely as a pleasure cruise, for Caesar was unusually
geographically astute and familiar with the latest scholarship of his
day. He had used Eratosthenes’ Geographika in his expeditions in northwestern
Europe, and he was aware of the seminal work of Pytheas and
Poseidonios. 63 His surviving treatises all show a particular interest in
geography. Th e Ptolemies had sent expeditions far up the Nile into the
northern parts of central Africa, and the reports of these journeys were
easily available to Caesar in Alexandria. It is possible that he wanted to
fi nd the source of the Nile, not an unreasonable goal, as it had long been
an issue in Greco-Roman culture. 64 At the very least, he would want to
visit Syene at the First Cataract, the point from which Eratosthenes had
been able to measure the entire known world. Cleopatra herself would
wish to see more of the kingdom that she fi nally controlled. Th e Nile
cruise was as much geographical reconnaissance as vacation.
Caesar also used his remaining time in Alexandria to initiate a
building program in the city, making him the fi rst Roman to do so. He
66 Cleopatra