Lucullus

From thence he set sail for Egypt, but was attacked by pirates, and lost most of his vessels. He himself, however, escaped in safety, and entered the port of Alexandria in splendid style. The entire Egyptian fleet came to meet him, as it was wont to do when a king put into port, in resplendent array, and the youthful Ptolemy, besides showing him other astonishing marks of kindness, gave him lodging and sustenance in the royal palace, whither no foreign commander had ever been brought before.

The allowance which the king made for his expenses was not the same as others had received, but four times as much, and yet he accepted nothing beyond what was actually necessary, and took no gift, although he was offered the worth of eighty talents. It is also said that he neither went up to Memphis, nor sought out any other of the famous wonders of Egypt; this he held to be the privilege of a leisurely and luxurious sight-seer, not of one who, like himself, had left his commander-in-chief encamped under the open sky alongside the battlements of the enemy.