in greece, caesar and pompey's forces engaged each other at the decisive battle of pharsalus on 9 august 48 bc, leading to the destruction of most of pompey's army and his forced flight to tyre, lebanon. given his close relationship with the ptolemies, he ultimately decided that egypt would be his place of refuge, where he could replenish his forces. ptolemy xiii's advisers, however, feared the idea of pompey using egypt as his base of power in a protracted roman civil war. they also wanted to ensure that none of the gabiniani would leave their campaign against cleopatra to join pompey's forces instead. in a scheme devised by theodotos, pompey arrived by ship near pelousion after being invited by written message, only to be ambushed and stabbed to death on 28 september 48 bc. ptolemy xiii believed he had demonstrated his power and simultaneously defused the situation by having pompey's severed head sent to caesar, who arrived in alexandria by early october and resided at the royal palace. theodotos presented caesar with his son-in-law pompey's embalmed head, which caesar retrieved and planned to bury properly along the shores of alexandria. caesar expressed grief and outrage over the killing of pompey, and called on both ptolemy xiii and cleopatra vii to disband their forces and reconcile.