Cleopatra as Queen, and Rome--that is Caesar, the dictator, her friend, as guardian--meant their removal from power, their destruction, and they resisted violently.
"The Egyptians and even the Alexandrians supported them.

The young King hated nothing more than the yoke of the unloved sister, who was so greatly his superior.

Caesar had come with a force by no means equal to theirs, and it might be possible to draw the mighty general into a snare.

They fought with all the power at their command, with such passionate eagerness, that the dictator had never been nearer succumbing to peril.

But Cleopatra certainly did not paralyze his strength and cautious deliberation.