The palaces and citadels which Caesar occupied were supplied with water by means of numerous subterranean aqueducts, which conveyed the water from the Nile to vast cisterns built under ground, whence it was raised by buckets and hydraulic engines for use.

In reflecting upon this circumstance, Ganymede conceived the design of secretly digging a canal, so as to turn the waters of the sea by means of it into these aqueducts.

This plan he carried into effect.

The consequence was, that the water in the cisterns was gradually changed.

It became first brackish, then more and more salt and bitter, until, at length, it was wholly impossible to use it.