13
13
0
On September 29, 61 BC, Pompey the Great celebrated his third triumph for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday. From the article:
"Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
Pompey, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir (1) (Classical Latin abbreviation: CN·POMPEIVS·CN·F·SEX·N·MAGNVS (2) , Gnaeus or Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus) (September 29, 106 BC–September 28, 48 BC), was a distinguished military and political leader of the late Roman Republic. Hailing from an Italian provincial background, after military triumphs he established a place for himself in the ranks of Roman nobility, and was given the cognomen of Magnus–the Great–by Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Pompey was a rival of Marcus Licinius Crassus and an ally to Gaius Julius Caesar. The three politicians would dominate the Late Roman republic through a political alliance called the First Triumvirate. After the death of Crassus, Pompey and Caesar became rivals, disputing the leadership of the entire Roman state in what is now called Caesar's civil war. Pompey fought on the side of the Optimates, the conservative traditionalist faction in the Roman Senate, and was ultimately defeated by Caesar. He sought refuge in Egypt and was assassinated there.
Early life and political debut
His father Pompeius Strabo was an extremely wealthy man from the Italian region of Picenum but his family was not a part of the ancient families who had dominated Roman politics. Nevertheless, his father had climbed through the traditional cursus honorum being quaestor in 104 BC, praetor in 92 BC, and consul in 89 BC. Pompey had scarcely left school before he was summoned to serve under his father in the Social war. He fought under him in 89 against the Italians, at the age of seventeen, fully involved in his father's military and political affairs, and he would continue with his father until Strabo's death two years afterward. According to Plutarch, who was sympathetic to Pompey, he was very popular, and considered a look–alike of Alexander the Great.
His father died in 87 BC, in the conflicts between Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, leaving young Pompey in control of his family affairs and fortune. For the next few years the Marian party had possession of Italy; and accordingly Pompey, who adhered to the aristocratic party, was obliged to keep in the background. Returning to Rome he was prosecuted for misappropriation of plunder but quickly acquitted. His acquittal was certainly helped by the fact that he was betrothed to the judge's daughter, Antistia. When it became known in 84 BC that Sulla was on the point of returning from the First Mithridatic War to Italy, Pompey hastened into Picenum, where he raised an army of three legions inherited from his father. Pompey sided with Sulla after his return from Greece in 83 BC. Sulla was expecting trouble with Gnaeus Papirius Carbo's regime and found the 23–year–old Pompey and the three veteran legions very useful. When Pompey (displaying great military abilities in opposing the Marian generals by whom he was surrounded) succeeded in joining Sulla, he was saluted by the latter with the title of Imperator. This political alliance boosted Pompey's career greatly and Sulla, now the Dictator in absolute control of the Roman world, persuaded Pompey to divorce his wife and marry his stepdaughter Aemilia Scaura, who was pregnant by her current husband, in order to bind his young ally more closely to him.
Sicily and Africa
Although his young age kept him a privatus (a man holding no political office of–or associated with–the cursus honorum), Pompey was a very rich man and a talented general in control of three veteran legions. Moreover, he was ambitious for glory and power. During the remainder of the war in Italy Pompey distinguished himself as one of the most successful of Sulla's generals; and when the war in Italy was brought to a close, Sulla sent Pompey against the Marian party in Sicily and Africa. Happy to acknowledge his wife's son–in–law's wishes, and to clear his own situation as dictator, Sulla first sent Pompey to recover Sicily from the Marians.
Pompey easily made himself master of the island in 82 BC. Sicily was strategically very important, since the island held the majority of Rome's grain supply. Without it, the city population would starve and riots would certainly ensue. Pompey dealt with the resistance with a harsh hand, executing Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and his supporters. When the citizens complained about his methods he replied with one of his most famous quotations: "Won't you stop citing laws to us who have our swords by our sides?" Pompey routed the opposing forces in Sicily and then in 81 BC he crossed over to the Roman province of Africa, where he defeated Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and the Numidian king Hiarbas, after a hard–fought battle.
After this continued string of unbroken victories, Pompey was proclaimed Imperator by his troops on the field in Africa. He earned the nickname adulescentulus carnifex ("teenage butcher") at this time due to his savagery in dealing with the remnant Marians. On his return to Rome in the same year, he was received with enthusiasm by the people, and was greeted by Sulla with the cognomen Magnus, (meaning "the Great"), with most commentators suspecting that Sulla gave it as a cruel and ironic joke; it was some time before Pompey made widespread use of it.
Pompey, however, not satisfied with this distinction, demanded a triumph for his African victories, which Sulla at first refused; Pompey himself refused to disband his legions and appeared with his demand at the gates of Rome where, amazingly, Sulla gave in, overcome by Pompey's importunity, and allowing him to have his own way. However, in an act calculated to cut Pompey down to size, Sulla had his own triumph first, then allowed Metellus Pius to triumph, relegating Pompey to a third triumph in quick succession, on the assumption that Rome would become bored by the third one. Accordingly, Pompey attempted to enter Rome in triumph towed by an elephant. As it happened, it would not fit through the gate and some hasty re–planning was needed, much to the embarrassment of Pompey and amusement of those present.
Quintus Sertorius and Spartacus
Pompey's reputation for military genius, and occasional bad judgment, continued when, after suppressing the revolt by Lepidus (whom he had initially supported for consul, against Sulla's wishes), he demanded proconsular imperium (although he had not yet served as Consul) to go to Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) to fight against Quintus Sertorius, a Marian general. The aristocracy, however, now beginning to fear the young and successful general, was reluctant to provide him with the needed authority. Pompey countered by refusing to disband his legions until his request was granted. However in Hispania Sertorius had for the last three years successfully opposed Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, one of the ablest of Sulla's generals, and ultimately it became necessary to send the latter some effectual assistance. As a result, the senate, with considerable lack of enthusiasm, determined to send Pompey to Hispania against Sertorius, with the title of proconsul, and with equal powers to Metellus.
Pompey remained in Hispania between five and six years 76–71 BC; but neither he nor Metellus was able to achieve a clean victory or gain any decisive advantage on the battlefield over Sertorius. But when Sertorius was treacherously murdered by his own officer Marcus Perperna Vento in 72, the war was speedily brought to a close. Perperna was easily defeated by Pompey in their first battle, and the whole of Hispania was subdued by the early part of the following year 71.
In the months after Sertorius' death, however, Pompey revealed one of his most significant talents; a genius for the organization and administration of a conquered province. Fair and generous terms extended his patronage throughout Hispania and into southern Gaul. While Crassus was facing Spartacus late in the Third Servile War in 71 BC, Pompey returned to Italy with his army. In his march toward Rome he came upon the remains of the army of Spartacus and captured five thousand Spartacani who had survived Crassus and were attempting to flee. Pompey cut these fugitives to pieces, and therefore claimed for himself, in addition to all his other exploits, the glory of finishing the revolt. His attempt to take credit for ending the Servile war was an act that infuriated Crassus.
Disgruntled opponents, especially Crassus, said he was developing a talent for showing up late in a campaign and taking all the glory for its successful conclusion. This growing enmity between Crassus and Pompey would not be resolved for over a decade. Back in Rome, Pompey was now a candidate for the consulship; and although he was ineligible by law, inasmuch as he was absent from Rome, had not yet reached the legal age, and had not held any of the lower offices of the state, still his election was certain. His military glory had charmed people, admirers saw in Pompey the most brilliant general of the age; and as it was known that the aristocracy looked upon Pompey with jealousy, many people ceased to regard him as belonging to this party, and hoped to obtain, through him, a restoration of the rights and privileges of which they had been deprived by Sulla.
Pompey on December 31, 71 BC, entered the city of Rome in his triumphal car, a simple eques, celebrating his second extralegal triumph for the victories in Hispania. In 71 BC, at only 35 years of age (see cursus honorum), Pompey was elected Consul for the first time, serving in 70 BC as partner of Crassus, with the overwhelming support of the Roman population.
Rome's new frontier on the East
In his consulship (70 BC), Pompey openly broke with the aristocracy, and became the great popular hero. By 69 BC, Pompey was the darling of the Roman masses, although many Optimates were deeply suspicious of his intentions. He proposed and carried a law, restoring to the tribunes the power of which they had been deprived by Sulla. He also afforded his all–powerful aid to the Lex Aurelia, proposed by the praetor Lucius Aurelius Cotta, by which the judices were to be taken in future from the senatus, equites, and tribuni aerarii, instead of from the senators exclusively, as Sulla had ordained. In carrying both these measures Pompey was strongly supported by Caesar, with whom he was thus brought into close connection. For the next two years (69 and 68 BC) Pompey remained in Rome. His primacy in the State was enhanced by two extraordinary proconsular commands, unprecedented in Roman history.
Campaign against the Pirates
In 67 BC, two years after his consulship, Pompey was nominated commander of a special naval task force to campaign against the pirates that controlled the Mediterranean. This command, like everything else in Pompey's life, was surrounded with polemic. The conservative faction of the Senate was most suspicious of his intentions and afraid of his power. The Optimates tried every means possible to avoid it. Significantly, Caesar was again one of a handful of senators who supported Pompey's command from the start. The nomination was then proposed by the Tribune of the Plebs Aulus Gabinius who proposed the Lex Gabinia, giving Pompey command in the war against the Mediterranean pirates, with extensive powers that gave him absolute control over the sea and the coasts for 50 miles inland, setting him above every military leader in the East. This bill was opposed by the aristocracy with the utmost vehemence, but was carried.
The pirates were at this time masters of the Mediterranean, and had not only plundered many cities on the coasts of Greece and Asia, but had even made descents upon Italy itself. As soon as Pompey received the command, he began to make his preparations for the war, and completed them by the end of the winter. His plans were crowned with complete success. Pompey divided the Mediterranean into thirteen separate areas, each under the command of one of his legates. In forty days he cleared the Western Sea of pirates, and restored communication between Hispania, Africa, and Italy. He then followed the main body of the pirates to their strongholds on the coast of Cilicia; and after defeating their fleet, he induced a great part of them, by promises of pardon, to surrender to him. Many of these he settled at Soli, which was henceforward called Pompeiopolis.
Ultimately it took Pompey all of a summer to clear the Mediterranean of the danger of pirates. In three short months (67–66 BC), Pompey's forces had swept the Mediterranean clean of pirates, showing extraordinary precision, discipline, and organizational ability; so that, to adopt the panegyric of Cicero: (3)
"Pompey made his preparations for the war at the end of the winter, entered upon it at the commencement of spring, and finished it in the middle of the summer."
The quickness of the campaign showed that he was as talented a general at sea as on land, with strong logistic abilities. Pompey was the hero of the hour.
Pompey in the East
Pompey was employed during the remainder of this year and the beginning of the following in visiting the cities of Cilicia and Pamphylia, and providing for the government of the newly–conquered districts. During his absence from Rome (66 BC), Pompey was nominated to succeed Lucius Licinius Lucullus in the command, take charge of the Third Mithridatic War and fight Mithridates VI of Pontus in the East. Lucullus, a well–born patrician, made it known that he was incensed at the prospect of being replaced by a "new man" such as Pompey. Pompey responded by calling Lucullus a "Xerxes in a toga." Lucullus shot back by calling Pompey a "vulture" because he was always fed off the work of others, referring to his new command in the present war, as well as Pompey's actions at the climax of the war against Spartacus. The bill conferring upon him this command was proposed by the tribune Gaius Manilius, and was supported by Cicero in an oration which has come down to us (pro Lege Manilia). Like the Gabinian law, it was opposed by the whole weight of the aristocracy, but was carried triumphantly. The power of Mithridates had been broken by previous victories of Luculus, and it was only left to Pompey to bring the war to a conclusion. This command essentially entrusted Pompey with the conquest and reorganization of the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Also, this was the second command that Caesar supported in favor of Pompey.
On the approach of Pompey, Mithridates retreated towards Armenia, but he was defeated; and as Tigranes the Great now refused to receive him into his dominions, Mithridates resolved to plunge into the heart of Colchis, and thence make his way to his own dominions in the Cimmerian Bosporus. Pompey now turned his arms against Tigranes; but the Armenian king submitted to him without a contest, and was allowed to conclude a peace with the republic. In 65 BC Pompey set out in pursuit of Mithridates, but he met with much opposition from the Iberians and Albanians; and after advancing as far as the River Phasis (now Fax or Rioni River), he resolved to leave these districts. He accordingly retraced his steps, and spent the winter at Pontus, which he made into a Roman province. In 64 BC he marched into Syria, deposed the king Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, and made that country also a Roman province. In 63 BC, he advanced further south, in order to establish the Roman supremacy in Phoenicia, Coele–Syria, and Palestine. After that he captured Jerusalem. At the time Judaea was racked by civil war between two Jewish brothers who created religious factions: Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. The civil war was causing instability, and it exposed Pompey's unprotected flank. He felt that he had to act. Both sides gave money to Pompey for assistance, and a picked delegation of Pharisees went in support of Hyrcanus. Pompey decided to link forces with the good–natured Hyrcanus, and their joint army of Romans and Jews besieged Jerusalem for three months, after which it was taken from Aristobulus. Aristobulus was crafty, though, and later succeeded in temporarily usurping the throne from Hyrcanus. Subsequently, King Herod I executed Hyrcanus in 31 BC. The Jewish historian Josephus has provided many details of this period.
Pompey entered the Holy of Holies; this was only the second time that someone had dared to penetrate into this sacred spot. He went to the Temple to satisfy his curiosity about stories he had heard about the worship of the Jewish people. He made it a priority to find out whether or not the Jews had no physical statue or image of God in their most sacred place of worship. To Pompey, it was inconceivable to worship a God without portraying him in a type of physical likeness, like a statue. What Pompey saw was unlike anything he had seen on his travels. He found no physical statue, religious image, or pictorial description of the Hebrew God. Instead, he saw the Torah scrolls, and was thoroughly confused.
It was during the war in Judea that Pompey heard of the death of Mithridates.
With Tigranes as a friend and ally of Rome, the chain of Roman protectorates now extended as far east as the Black Sea and the Caucasus. The amount of tribute and bounty Pompey brought back to Rome was almost incalculable: Plutarch lists 20,000 talents in gold and silver added to the treasury, and the increase in taxes to the public treasury rose from 50 million to 85 million drachmas annually. His administrative brilliance was such that his dispositions endured largely unchanged until the fall of Rome.
Pompey conducted the campaigns of 65 to 62 BC and Rome annexed much of Asia firmly under its control. He imposed an overall settlement on the kings of the new eastern provinces, which took intelligent account of the geographical and political factors involved in creating Rome's new frontier on the East.
Pompey's return to Rome
His third Triumph took place on the 29 September 61 BC, on Pompey's 45th birthday, celebrating the victories over the pirates and in the Middle East, and was to be an unforgettable event in Rome. Two entire days were scheduled for the enormous parade of spoils, prisoners, army and banners depicting battle scenes to complete the route between Campus Martius and the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. To conclude the festivities, Pompey offered an immense triumphal banquet and made several donations to the people of Rome, enhancing his popularity even further.
Although now at his zenith, by this time Pompey had been largely absent from Rome for over 5 years and a new star had arisen. Pompey had been busy in Asia during the consternation of the Catiline Conspiracy, when Caesar pitted his will against that of the Consul Cicero and the rest of the Optimates. His old colleague and enemy, Crassus, had loaned Caesar money. Cicero was in eclipse, now hounded by the ill–will of Publius Clodius and his factional gangs. New combinations had been made and the conquering hero had been out of touch.
Back in Rome, Pompey deftly dismissed his armies, disarming worries that he intended to spring from his conquests into domination of Rome as Dictator. Pompey sought new allies and pulled strings behind the political scenes. The Optimates had fought back to control much of the real workings of the Senate; in spite of his efforts, Pompey found their inner councils were closed to him. His settlements in the East were not promptly confirmed. The public lands he had promised his veterans were not forthcoming. From now on, Pompey's political maneuverings suggest that, although he toed a cautious line to avoid offending the conservatives, he was increasingly puzzled by Optimate reluctance to acknowledge his solid achievements. Pompey's frustration led him into strange political alliances.
Caesar and the First Triumvirate
Although Pompey and Crassus distrusted each other, by 61 BC their grievances pushed them both into an alliance with Caesar. Crassus' tax farming clients were being rebuffed at the same time Pompey's veterans were being ignored. Thus entered Caesar, 6 years younger than Pompey, returning from service in Hispania, and ready to seek the consulship for 59 BC. Caesar somehow managed to forge a political alliance with both Pompey and Crassus (the so–called First Triumvirate). Pompey and Crassus would make him Consul, and he would use his power as Consul to force their claims. Plutarch quotes Cato the Younger as later saying that the tragedy of Pompey was not that he was Caesar's defeated enemy, but that he had been, for too long, Caesar's friend and supporter.
Caesar's tempestuous consulship in 59 brought Pompey not only the land and political settlements he craved, but a new wife: Caesar's own young daughter, Julia. Pompey was supposedly besotted with his bride. After Caesar secured his proconsular command in Gaul at the end of his consular year, Pompey was given the governorship of Hispania Ulterior, yet was permitted to remain in Rome overseeing the critical Roman grain supply as curator annonae, exercising his command through subordinates. Pompey efficiently handled the grain issue, but his success at political intrigue was less sure.
The Optimates had never forgiven him for abandoning Cicero when Publius Clodius forced his exile. Only when Clodius began attacking Pompey was he persuaded to work with others towards Cicero's recall in 57 BC. Once Cicero was back, his usual vocal magic helped soothe Pompey's position somewhat, but many still viewed Pompey as a traitor for his alliance with Caesar. Other agitators tried to persuade Pompey that Crassus was plotting to have him assassinated. Rumor (quoted by Plutarch) also suggested that the aging conqueror was losing interest in politics in favor of domestic life with his young wife. He was occupied by the details of construction of the mammoth complex later known as Pompey's Theater on the Campus Martius; not only the first permanent theater ever built in Rome, but an eye–popping complex of lavish porticoes, shops, and multi–service buildings.
Caesar, meanwhile, was gaining a greater name as a general of genius in his own right. By 56 BC, the bonds between the three men were fraying. Caesar called first Crassus, then Pompey, to a secret meeting in the northern Italian town of Lucca to rethink both strategy and tactics. By this time, Caesar was no longer the amenable silent partner of the trio. At Lucca it was agreed that Pompey and Crassus would again stand for the consulship in 55 BC. At their election, Caesar's command in Gaul would be extended for an additional five years, while Crassus would receive the governorship of Syria, (from which he longed to conquer Parthia and extend his own achievements). Pompey would continue to govern Hispania in absentia after their consular year. This time, however, opposition to the three men was electric, and it took bribery and corruption on an unprecedented scale to secure the election of Pompey and Crassus in 55 BC. Their supporters received most of the important remaining offices. The violence between Clodius and other factions were building and civil unrest was becoming endemic.
Confrontation to war
The triumvirate was about to end, its bonds snapped by death: first, Pompey's wife (and at that time Caesar's only child), Julia, died in 54 BC in childbirth; later that year, Crassus and his army were annihilated by the Parthian armies at the Battle of Carrhae. Caesar's name, not Pompey's, was now firmly before the public as Rome's great new general. The public turmoil in Rome resulted in whispers as early as 54 that Pompey should be made dictator to force a return to law and order. After Julia's death, Caesar sought a second matrimonial alliance with Pompey, offering a marital alliance with his grandniece Octavia (future emperor Augustus's sister). This time, Pompey refused. In 52 BC, he married Cornelia Metella, daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar's greatest enemies, and continued to drift toward the Optimates. It can be presumed that the Optimates had deemed Pompey the lesser of two evils.
In that year, the murder of Publius Clodius and the burning of the Curia (the Senate House) by an inflamed mob led the Senate to beg Pompey to restore order, which he did with ruthless efficiency. The trial of the accused murderer, Titus Annius Milo, is notable in that Cicero, counsel for the defense, was so shaken by a Forum seething with armed soldiers that he was unable to complete his defense. After order was restored, the suspicious Senate and Cato, seeking desperately to avoid giving Pompey dictatorial powers, came up with the alternative of entitling him sole Consul without a colleague; thus his powers, although sweeping, were not unlimited.
While Caesar was fighting against Vercingetorix in Gaul, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda for Rome, which revealed that he was now covertly allied with Caesar's enemies. While instituting legal and military reorganization and reform, Pompey also passed a law making it possible to be retroactively prosecuted for electoral bribery–an action correctly interpreted by Caesar's allies as opening Caesar to prosecution once his imperium was ended. Pompey also prohibited Caesar from standing for the consulship in absentia, although this had frequently been allowed in the past, and in fact had been specifically permitted in a previous law. This was an obvious blow at Caesar's plans after his term in Gaul expired. Finally, in 51 BC, Pompey made it clear that Caesar would not be permitted to stand for Consul unless he turned over control of his armies. This would, of course, leave Caesar defenseless before his enemies. As Cicero sadly noted, Pompey had begun to fear Caesar. Pompey had been diminished by age, uncertainty, and the harassment of being the chosen tool of a quarreling Optimate oligarchy. The coming conflict was inevitable. (4)
Civil War and assassination
In the beginning, Pompey claimed he could defeat Caesar and raise armies merely by stamping his foot on the soil of Italy, but by the spring of 49 BC, with Caesar crossing the Rubicon and his invading legions sweeping down the peninsula, Pompey ordered the abandonment of Rome. His legions retreated south towards Brundisium, where Pompey intended to find renewed strength by waging war against Caesar in the East. In the process, almost unbelievably, probably thinking that Caesar would not dare, neither Pompey nor the Senate thought of taking the vast treasury with them, which was left conveniently in the Temple of Saturn when Caesar and his forces entered Rome.
Escaping Caesar by a hair in Brundisium, Pompey regained his confidence during the siege of Dyrrhachium, in which Caesar lost 1000 men. Yet, by failing to pursue at the critical moment of Caesar's defeat, Pompey threw away the chance to destroy Caesar's much smaller army. As Caesar himself said, "Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner" (Plutarch, 65). According to Suetonius, it was at this point that Caesar said that "that man (Pompey) does not know how to win a war." With Caesar on their backs, the conservatives led by Pompey fled to Greece. Caesar and Pompey had their final showdown at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. The fighting was bitter for both sides but eventually was a decisive victory for Caesar. Like all the other conservatives, Pompey had to run for his life. He met his wife Cornelia and his son Sextus Pompeius on the island of Mytilene. He then wondered where to go next. The decision of running to one of the eastern kingdoms was overruled in favor of Egypt.
After his arrival in Egypt, Pompey's fate was decided by the counselors of the young king Ptolemy XIII. While Pompey waited offshore for word, they argued the cost of offering him refuge with Caesar already en route for Egypt. It was decided to murder Caesar's enemy to ingratiate themselves with him. On September 29, his 58th birthday, the great Pompey was lured toward a supposed audience on shore in a small boat in which he recognized two old comrades–in–arms from the glorious, early battles. They were to be his assassins. While he sat in the boat, studying his speech for the king, they stabbed him in the back with sword and dagger. After decapitation, the body was left, contemptuously unattended and naked, on the shore. His freedman, Philipus, organized a simple funeral pyre and cremated the body on a pyre of broken ship's timbers.
Caesar arrived a short time afterwards. As a welcoming present he received Pompey's head and ring in a basket. However, he was not pleased in seeing his rival, once his ally and son–in–law, murdered by traitors. When a slave offered him Pompey's head, "he turned away from him with loathing, as from an assassin; and when he received Pompey's signet ring on which was engraved a lion holding a sword in his paws, he burst into tears" (Plutarch, Life of Pompey 80). He deposed Ptolemy XIII, executed his regent Pothinus, and elevated Ptolemy's sister Cleopatra VII to the throne of Egypt. Caesar gave Pompey's ashes and ring to Cornelia, who took them back to her estates in Italy.
Historic view
To the historians of his own and later Roman periods, the life of Pompey was simply too good to be true. No more satisfying historical model existed than the great man who, achieving extraordinary triumphs through his own efforts, yet fell from power and influence and, in the end, was murdered through treachery.
He was a hero of the Republic, who seemed once to hold the Roman world in his palm only to be brought low by his own weak judgment and Caesar. Pompey was idealized as a tragic hero almost immediately after Pharsalus and his murder: Plutarch portrayed him as a Roman Alexander the Great, pure of heart and mind, destroyed by the cynical ambitions of those around him.
Marriages and offspring
First wife, Antistia
Second wife, Aemilia Scaura (Sulla's stepdaughter)
Third wife, Mucia Tertia (whom he divorced for adultery, according to Cicero's letters)
Gnaeus Pompeius, executed in 45 BC, after the Battle of Munda
Pompeia, married to Faustus Cornelius Sulla
Sextus Pompeius, who would rebel in Sicily against Augustus
Fourth wife, Julia (daughter of Caesar)
Fifth wife, Cornelia Metella (daughter of Metellus Scipio)
Chronology of Pompey's life and career
106 BC September 29 – born in Picenum
83 BC – aligns with Sulla, after his return from the Mithridatic War against king Mithridates IV of Pontus; marriage to Aemilia Scaura
82–81 BC – defeats Gaius Marius's allies in Sicily and Africa
76–71 BC – campaign in Hispania against Sertorius
71 BC – returns to Italy and participates in the suppression of a slave rebellion lead by Spartacus; second triumph
70 BC – first consulship (with M. Licinius Crassus)
67 BC – defeats the pirates and goes to Asia province
66–61 BC – defeats king Mithridates of Pontus; end of the Third Mithridatic War
64–63 BC – Pompey's March through Syria, the Levant, and Palestine
61 BC September 29 – third triumph
59 BC April – the first triumvirate is constituted; Pompey allies to Julius Caesar and Licinius Crassus; marriage to Julia (daughter of Julius Caesar)
58–55 BC – governs Hispania Ulterior by proxy, construction of Pompey's Theater
55 BC – second consulship (with M. Licinius Crassus)
54 BC – Julia, dies; the first triumvirate ends
52 BC – third consulship with Metellus Scipio; marriage to Cornelia Metella
51 BC – forbids Caesar (in Gaul) to stand for consulship in absentia
49 BC – Caesar crosses the Rubicon River and invades Italy; Pompey retreats to Greece with the conservatives
48 BC – led by Pompey, the conservatives lose the battle of Pharsalus; Pompey runs away to Egypt, where he is killed on September 29
Pompey in literature and the arts
The historical character of Pompey plays a prominent role in several books from the Masters of Rome series of historical novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough.
Pompey's entry into Jerusalem and the desecration of the Temple is depicted in the opening scene of Nicholas Ray's biblical epic King of Kings. Pompey is played by Conrado San Martín.
Pompey is one of the key antagonists in the fourth season of Xena: Warrior Princess, portrayed by Australian actor Jeremy Callaghan. In the series, Pompey is beheaded by Xena in battle who then gives the head to Brutus to return to Julius Caesar, telling Brutus to claim Pompey's death for himself without mentioning her role.
The greatest opera seria composed during the baroque era, Händel's Julio Cesare, is based on Cesare's reaction to Pompey's assassination (since the opera begins after the murder has occurred, Pompey never actually appears as a character––only his severed head when presented to the horrified Cesare). Typically, works composed in the genre of opera seria were intended to present lessons of morality while depicting aristocracy in a flattering light. In the case of Händel's Julio Cesare, the Roman emperor prevails in the administration of justice against the evil Tolomeo (Ptolemy).
Notes
(1) William Smith, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography, 1851. (Under the tenth entry of Pompeius).
(2) Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, son of Gnaeus, grandson of Sextus
(3) pro Lege Manilia, 12 or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Manilian Law on the command of Pompey), 66 BC.
(4) Many historians have suggested that Pompey was, in spite of everything, politically unaware of the fact that the Optimates, including Cato, were merely using him against Caesar so that, with Caesar destroyed, they could then dispose of him."
"Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
Pompey, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir (1) (Classical Latin abbreviation: CN·POMPEIVS·CN·F·SEX·N·MAGNVS (2) , Gnaeus or Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus) (September 29, 106 BC–September 28, 48 BC), was a distinguished military and political leader of the late Roman Republic. Hailing from an Italian provincial background, after military triumphs he established a place for himself in the ranks of Roman nobility, and was given the cognomen of Magnus–the Great–by Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Pompey was a rival of Marcus Licinius Crassus and an ally to Gaius Julius Caesar. The three politicians would dominate the Late Roman republic through a political alliance called the First Triumvirate. After the death of Crassus, Pompey and Caesar became rivals, disputing the leadership of the entire Roman state in what is now called Caesar's civil war. Pompey fought on the side of the Optimates, the conservative traditionalist faction in the Roman Senate, and was ultimately defeated by Caesar. He sought refuge in Egypt and was assassinated there.
Early life and political debut
His father Pompeius Strabo was an extremely wealthy man from the Italian region of Picenum but his family was not a part of the ancient families who had dominated Roman politics. Nevertheless, his father had climbed through the traditional cursus honorum being quaestor in 104 BC, praetor in 92 BC, and consul in 89 BC. Pompey had scarcely left school before he was summoned to serve under his father in the Social war. He fought under him in 89 against the Italians, at the age of seventeen, fully involved in his father's military and political affairs, and he would continue with his father until Strabo's death two years afterward. According to Plutarch, who was sympathetic to Pompey, he was very popular, and considered a look–alike of Alexander the Great.
His father died in 87 BC, in the conflicts between Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, leaving young Pompey in control of his family affairs and fortune. For the next few years the Marian party had possession of Italy; and accordingly Pompey, who adhered to the aristocratic party, was obliged to keep in the background. Returning to Rome he was prosecuted for misappropriation of plunder but quickly acquitted. His acquittal was certainly helped by the fact that he was betrothed to the judge's daughter, Antistia. When it became known in 84 BC that Sulla was on the point of returning from the First Mithridatic War to Italy, Pompey hastened into Picenum, where he raised an army of three legions inherited from his father. Pompey sided with Sulla after his return from Greece in 83 BC. Sulla was expecting trouble with Gnaeus Papirius Carbo's regime and found the 23–year–old Pompey and the three veteran legions very useful. When Pompey (displaying great military abilities in opposing the Marian generals by whom he was surrounded) succeeded in joining Sulla, he was saluted by the latter with the title of Imperator. This political alliance boosted Pompey's career greatly and Sulla, now the Dictator in absolute control of the Roman world, persuaded Pompey to divorce his wife and marry his stepdaughter Aemilia Scaura, who was pregnant by her current husband, in order to bind his young ally more closely to him.
Sicily and Africa
Although his young age kept him a privatus (a man holding no political office of–or associated with–the cursus honorum), Pompey was a very rich man and a talented general in control of three veteran legions. Moreover, he was ambitious for glory and power. During the remainder of the war in Italy Pompey distinguished himself as one of the most successful of Sulla's generals; and when the war in Italy was brought to a close, Sulla sent Pompey against the Marian party in Sicily and Africa. Happy to acknowledge his wife's son–in–law's wishes, and to clear his own situation as dictator, Sulla first sent Pompey to recover Sicily from the Marians.
Pompey easily made himself master of the island in 82 BC. Sicily was strategically very important, since the island held the majority of Rome's grain supply. Without it, the city population would starve and riots would certainly ensue. Pompey dealt with the resistance with a harsh hand, executing Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and his supporters. When the citizens complained about his methods he replied with one of his most famous quotations: "Won't you stop citing laws to us who have our swords by our sides?" Pompey routed the opposing forces in Sicily and then in 81 BC he crossed over to the Roman province of Africa, where he defeated Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and the Numidian king Hiarbas, after a hard–fought battle.
After this continued string of unbroken victories, Pompey was proclaimed Imperator by his troops on the field in Africa. He earned the nickname adulescentulus carnifex ("teenage butcher") at this time due to his savagery in dealing with the remnant Marians. On his return to Rome in the same year, he was received with enthusiasm by the people, and was greeted by Sulla with the cognomen Magnus, (meaning "the Great"), with most commentators suspecting that Sulla gave it as a cruel and ironic joke; it was some time before Pompey made widespread use of it.
Pompey, however, not satisfied with this distinction, demanded a triumph for his African victories, which Sulla at first refused; Pompey himself refused to disband his legions and appeared with his demand at the gates of Rome where, amazingly, Sulla gave in, overcome by Pompey's importunity, and allowing him to have his own way. However, in an act calculated to cut Pompey down to size, Sulla had his own triumph first, then allowed Metellus Pius to triumph, relegating Pompey to a third triumph in quick succession, on the assumption that Rome would become bored by the third one. Accordingly, Pompey attempted to enter Rome in triumph towed by an elephant. As it happened, it would not fit through the gate and some hasty re–planning was needed, much to the embarrassment of Pompey and amusement of those present.
Quintus Sertorius and Spartacus
Pompey's reputation for military genius, and occasional bad judgment, continued when, after suppressing the revolt by Lepidus (whom he had initially supported for consul, against Sulla's wishes), he demanded proconsular imperium (although he had not yet served as Consul) to go to Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) to fight against Quintus Sertorius, a Marian general. The aristocracy, however, now beginning to fear the young and successful general, was reluctant to provide him with the needed authority. Pompey countered by refusing to disband his legions until his request was granted. However in Hispania Sertorius had for the last three years successfully opposed Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, one of the ablest of Sulla's generals, and ultimately it became necessary to send the latter some effectual assistance. As a result, the senate, with considerable lack of enthusiasm, determined to send Pompey to Hispania against Sertorius, with the title of proconsul, and with equal powers to Metellus.
Pompey remained in Hispania between five and six years 76–71 BC; but neither he nor Metellus was able to achieve a clean victory or gain any decisive advantage on the battlefield over Sertorius. But when Sertorius was treacherously murdered by his own officer Marcus Perperna Vento in 72, the war was speedily brought to a close. Perperna was easily defeated by Pompey in their first battle, and the whole of Hispania was subdued by the early part of the following year 71.
In the months after Sertorius' death, however, Pompey revealed one of his most significant talents; a genius for the organization and administration of a conquered province. Fair and generous terms extended his patronage throughout Hispania and into southern Gaul. While Crassus was facing Spartacus late in the Third Servile War in 71 BC, Pompey returned to Italy with his army. In his march toward Rome he came upon the remains of the army of Spartacus and captured five thousand Spartacani who had survived Crassus and were attempting to flee. Pompey cut these fugitives to pieces, and therefore claimed for himself, in addition to all his other exploits, the glory of finishing the revolt. His attempt to take credit for ending the Servile war was an act that infuriated Crassus.
Disgruntled opponents, especially Crassus, said he was developing a talent for showing up late in a campaign and taking all the glory for its successful conclusion. This growing enmity between Crassus and Pompey would not be resolved for over a decade. Back in Rome, Pompey was now a candidate for the consulship; and although he was ineligible by law, inasmuch as he was absent from Rome, had not yet reached the legal age, and had not held any of the lower offices of the state, still his election was certain. His military glory had charmed people, admirers saw in Pompey the most brilliant general of the age; and as it was known that the aristocracy looked upon Pompey with jealousy, many people ceased to regard him as belonging to this party, and hoped to obtain, through him, a restoration of the rights and privileges of which they had been deprived by Sulla.
Pompey on December 31, 71 BC, entered the city of Rome in his triumphal car, a simple eques, celebrating his second extralegal triumph for the victories in Hispania. In 71 BC, at only 35 years of age (see cursus honorum), Pompey was elected Consul for the first time, serving in 70 BC as partner of Crassus, with the overwhelming support of the Roman population.
Rome's new frontier on the East
In his consulship (70 BC), Pompey openly broke with the aristocracy, and became the great popular hero. By 69 BC, Pompey was the darling of the Roman masses, although many Optimates were deeply suspicious of his intentions. He proposed and carried a law, restoring to the tribunes the power of which they had been deprived by Sulla. He also afforded his all–powerful aid to the Lex Aurelia, proposed by the praetor Lucius Aurelius Cotta, by which the judices were to be taken in future from the senatus, equites, and tribuni aerarii, instead of from the senators exclusively, as Sulla had ordained. In carrying both these measures Pompey was strongly supported by Caesar, with whom he was thus brought into close connection. For the next two years (69 and 68 BC) Pompey remained in Rome. His primacy in the State was enhanced by two extraordinary proconsular commands, unprecedented in Roman history.
Campaign against the Pirates
In 67 BC, two years after his consulship, Pompey was nominated commander of a special naval task force to campaign against the pirates that controlled the Mediterranean. This command, like everything else in Pompey's life, was surrounded with polemic. The conservative faction of the Senate was most suspicious of his intentions and afraid of his power. The Optimates tried every means possible to avoid it. Significantly, Caesar was again one of a handful of senators who supported Pompey's command from the start. The nomination was then proposed by the Tribune of the Plebs Aulus Gabinius who proposed the Lex Gabinia, giving Pompey command in the war against the Mediterranean pirates, with extensive powers that gave him absolute control over the sea and the coasts for 50 miles inland, setting him above every military leader in the East. This bill was opposed by the aristocracy with the utmost vehemence, but was carried.
The pirates were at this time masters of the Mediterranean, and had not only plundered many cities on the coasts of Greece and Asia, but had even made descents upon Italy itself. As soon as Pompey received the command, he began to make his preparations for the war, and completed them by the end of the winter. His plans were crowned with complete success. Pompey divided the Mediterranean into thirteen separate areas, each under the command of one of his legates. In forty days he cleared the Western Sea of pirates, and restored communication between Hispania, Africa, and Italy. He then followed the main body of the pirates to their strongholds on the coast of Cilicia; and after defeating their fleet, he induced a great part of them, by promises of pardon, to surrender to him. Many of these he settled at Soli, which was henceforward called Pompeiopolis.
Ultimately it took Pompey all of a summer to clear the Mediterranean of the danger of pirates. In three short months (67–66 BC), Pompey's forces had swept the Mediterranean clean of pirates, showing extraordinary precision, discipline, and organizational ability; so that, to adopt the panegyric of Cicero: (3)
"Pompey made his preparations for the war at the end of the winter, entered upon it at the commencement of spring, and finished it in the middle of the summer."
The quickness of the campaign showed that he was as talented a general at sea as on land, with strong logistic abilities. Pompey was the hero of the hour.
Pompey in the East
Pompey was employed during the remainder of this year and the beginning of the following in visiting the cities of Cilicia and Pamphylia, and providing for the government of the newly–conquered districts. During his absence from Rome (66 BC), Pompey was nominated to succeed Lucius Licinius Lucullus in the command, take charge of the Third Mithridatic War and fight Mithridates VI of Pontus in the East. Lucullus, a well–born patrician, made it known that he was incensed at the prospect of being replaced by a "new man" such as Pompey. Pompey responded by calling Lucullus a "Xerxes in a toga." Lucullus shot back by calling Pompey a "vulture" because he was always fed off the work of others, referring to his new command in the present war, as well as Pompey's actions at the climax of the war against Spartacus. The bill conferring upon him this command was proposed by the tribune Gaius Manilius, and was supported by Cicero in an oration which has come down to us (pro Lege Manilia). Like the Gabinian law, it was opposed by the whole weight of the aristocracy, but was carried triumphantly. The power of Mithridates had been broken by previous victories of Luculus, and it was only left to Pompey to bring the war to a conclusion. This command essentially entrusted Pompey with the conquest and reorganization of the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Also, this was the second command that Caesar supported in favor of Pompey.
On the approach of Pompey, Mithridates retreated towards Armenia, but he was defeated; and as Tigranes the Great now refused to receive him into his dominions, Mithridates resolved to plunge into the heart of Colchis, and thence make his way to his own dominions in the Cimmerian Bosporus. Pompey now turned his arms against Tigranes; but the Armenian king submitted to him without a contest, and was allowed to conclude a peace with the republic. In 65 BC Pompey set out in pursuit of Mithridates, but he met with much opposition from the Iberians and Albanians; and after advancing as far as the River Phasis (now Fax or Rioni River), he resolved to leave these districts. He accordingly retraced his steps, and spent the winter at Pontus, which he made into a Roman province. In 64 BC he marched into Syria, deposed the king Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, and made that country also a Roman province. In 63 BC, he advanced further south, in order to establish the Roman supremacy in Phoenicia, Coele–Syria, and Palestine. After that he captured Jerusalem. At the time Judaea was racked by civil war between two Jewish brothers who created religious factions: Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. The civil war was causing instability, and it exposed Pompey's unprotected flank. He felt that he had to act. Both sides gave money to Pompey for assistance, and a picked delegation of Pharisees went in support of Hyrcanus. Pompey decided to link forces with the good–natured Hyrcanus, and their joint army of Romans and Jews besieged Jerusalem for three months, after which it was taken from Aristobulus. Aristobulus was crafty, though, and later succeeded in temporarily usurping the throne from Hyrcanus. Subsequently, King Herod I executed Hyrcanus in 31 BC. The Jewish historian Josephus has provided many details of this period.
Pompey entered the Holy of Holies; this was only the second time that someone had dared to penetrate into this sacred spot. He went to the Temple to satisfy his curiosity about stories he had heard about the worship of the Jewish people. He made it a priority to find out whether or not the Jews had no physical statue or image of God in their most sacred place of worship. To Pompey, it was inconceivable to worship a God without portraying him in a type of physical likeness, like a statue. What Pompey saw was unlike anything he had seen on his travels. He found no physical statue, religious image, or pictorial description of the Hebrew God. Instead, he saw the Torah scrolls, and was thoroughly confused.
It was during the war in Judea that Pompey heard of the death of Mithridates.
With Tigranes as a friend and ally of Rome, the chain of Roman protectorates now extended as far east as the Black Sea and the Caucasus. The amount of tribute and bounty Pompey brought back to Rome was almost incalculable: Plutarch lists 20,000 talents in gold and silver added to the treasury, and the increase in taxes to the public treasury rose from 50 million to 85 million drachmas annually. His administrative brilliance was such that his dispositions endured largely unchanged until the fall of Rome.
Pompey conducted the campaigns of 65 to 62 BC and Rome annexed much of Asia firmly under its control. He imposed an overall settlement on the kings of the new eastern provinces, which took intelligent account of the geographical and political factors involved in creating Rome's new frontier on the East.
Pompey's return to Rome
His third Triumph took place on the 29 September 61 BC, on Pompey's 45th birthday, celebrating the victories over the pirates and in the Middle East, and was to be an unforgettable event in Rome. Two entire days were scheduled for the enormous parade of spoils, prisoners, army and banners depicting battle scenes to complete the route between Campus Martius and the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. To conclude the festivities, Pompey offered an immense triumphal banquet and made several donations to the people of Rome, enhancing his popularity even further.
Although now at his zenith, by this time Pompey had been largely absent from Rome for over 5 years and a new star had arisen. Pompey had been busy in Asia during the consternation of the Catiline Conspiracy, when Caesar pitted his will against that of the Consul Cicero and the rest of the Optimates. His old colleague and enemy, Crassus, had loaned Caesar money. Cicero was in eclipse, now hounded by the ill–will of Publius Clodius and his factional gangs. New combinations had been made and the conquering hero had been out of touch.
Back in Rome, Pompey deftly dismissed his armies, disarming worries that he intended to spring from his conquests into domination of Rome as Dictator. Pompey sought new allies and pulled strings behind the political scenes. The Optimates had fought back to control much of the real workings of the Senate; in spite of his efforts, Pompey found their inner councils were closed to him. His settlements in the East were not promptly confirmed. The public lands he had promised his veterans were not forthcoming. From now on, Pompey's political maneuverings suggest that, although he toed a cautious line to avoid offending the conservatives, he was increasingly puzzled by Optimate reluctance to acknowledge his solid achievements. Pompey's frustration led him into strange political alliances.
Caesar and the First Triumvirate
Although Pompey and Crassus distrusted each other, by 61 BC their grievances pushed them both into an alliance with Caesar. Crassus' tax farming clients were being rebuffed at the same time Pompey's veterans were being ignored. Thus entered Caesar, 6 years younger than Pompey, returning from service in Hispania, and ready to seek the consulship for 59 BC. Caesar somehow managed to forge a political alliance with both Pompey and Crassus (the so–called First Triumvirate). Pompey and Crassus would make him Consul, and he would use his power as Consul to force their claims. Plutarch quotes Cato the Younger as later saying that the tragedy of Pompey was not that he was Caesar's defeated enemy, but that he had been, for too long, Caesar's friend and supporter.
Caesar's tempestuous consulship in 59 brought Pompey not only the land and political settlements he craved, but a new wife: Caesar's own young daughter, Julia. Pompey was supposedly besotted with his bride. After Caesar secured his proconsular command in Gaul at the end of his consular year, Pompey was given the governorship of Hispania Ulterior, yet was permitted to remain in Rome overseeing the critical Roman grain supply as curator annonae, exercising his command through subordinates. Pompey efficiently handled the grain issue, but his success at political intrigue was less sure.
The Optimates had never forgiven him for abandoning Cicero when Publius Clodius forced his exile. Only when Clodius began attacking Pompey was he persuaded to work with others towards Cicero's recall in 57 BC. Once Cicero was back, his usual vocal magic helped soothe Pompey's position somewhat, but many still viewed Pompey as a traitor for his alliance with Caesar. Other agitators tried to persuade Pompey that Crassus was plotting to have him assassinated. Rumor (quoted by Plutarch) also suggested that the aging conqueror was losing interest in politics in favor of domestic life with his young wife. He was occupied by the details of construction of the mammoth complex later known as Pompey's Theater on the Campus Martius; not only the first permanent theater ever built in Rome, but an eye–popping complex of lavish porticoes, shops, and multi–service buildings.
Caesar, meanwhile, was gaining a greater name as a general of genius in his own right. By 56 BC, the bonds between the three men were fraying. Caesar called first Crassus, then Pompey, to a secret meeting in the northern Italian town of Lucca to rethink both strategy and tactics. By this time, Caesar was no longer the amenable silent partner of the trio. At Lucca it was agreed that Pompey and Crassus would again stand for the consulship in 55 BC. At their election, Caesar's command in Gaul would be extended for an additional five years, while Crassus would receive the governorship of Syria, (from which he longed to conquer Parthia and extend his own achievements). Pompey would continue to govern Hispania in absentia after their consular year. This time, however, opposition to the three men was electric, and it took bribery and corruption on an unprecedented scale to secure the election of Pompey and Crassus in 55 BC. Their supporters received most of the important remaining offices. The violence between Clodius and other factions were building and civil unrest was becoming endemic.
Confrontation to war
The triumvirate was about to end, its bonds snapped by death: first, Pompey's wife (and at that time Caesar's only child), Julia, died in 54 BC in childbirth; later that year, Crassus and his army were annihilated by the Parthian armies at the Battle of Carrhae. Caesar's name, not Pompey's, was now firmly before the public as Rome's great new general. The public turmoil in Rome resulted in whispers as early as 54 that Pompey should be made dictator to force a return to law and order. After Julia's death, Caesar sought a second matrimonial alliance with Pompey, offering a marital alliance with his grandniece Octavia (future emperor Augustus's sister). This time, Pompey refused. In 52 BC, he married Cornelia Metella, daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar's greatest enemies, and continued to drift toward the Optimates. It can be presumed that the Optimates had deemed Pompey the lesser of two evils.
In that year, the murder of Publius Clodius and the burning of the Curia (the Senate House) by an inflamed mob led the Senate to beg Pompey to restore order, which he did with ruthless efficiency. The trial of the accused murderer, Titus Annius Milo, is notable in that Cicero, counsel for the defense, was so shaken by a Forum seething with armed soldiers that he was unable to complete his defense. After order was restored, the suspicious Senate and Cato, seeking desperately to avoid giving Pompey dictatorial powers, came up with the alternative of entitling him sole Consul without a colleague; thus his powers, although sweeping, were not unlimited.
While Caesar was fighting against Vercingetorix in Gaul, Pompey proceeded with a legislative agenda for Rome, which revealed that he was now covertly allied with Caesar's enemies. While instituting legal and military reorganization and reform, Pompey also passed a law making it possible to be retroactively prosecuted for electoral bribery–an action correctly interpreted by Caesar's allies as opening Caesar to prosecution once his imperium was ended. Pompey also prohibited Caesar from standing for the consulship in absentia, although this had frequently been allowed in the past, and in fact had been specifically permitted in a previous law. This was an obvious blow at Caesar's plans after his term in Gaul expired. Finally, in 51 BC, Pompey made it clear that Caesar would not be permitted to stand for Consul unless he turned over control of his armies. This would, of course, leave Caesar defenseless before his enemies. As Cicero sadly noted, Pompey had begun to fear Caesar. Pompey had been diminished by age, uncertainty, and the harassment of being the chosen tool of a quarreling Optimate oligarchy. The coming conflict was inevitable. (4)
Civil War and assassination
In the beginning, Pompey claimed he could defeat Caesar and raise armies merely by stamping his foot on the soil of Italy, but by the spring of 49 BC, with Caesar crossing the Rubicon and his invading legions sweeping down the peninsula, Pompey ordered the abandonment of Rome. His legions retreated south towards Brundisium, where Pompey intended to find renewed strength by waging war against Caesar in the East. In the process, almost unbelievably, probably thinking that Caesar would not dare, neither Pompey nor the Senate thought of taking the vast treasury with them, which was left conveniently in the Temple of Saturn when Caesar and his forces entered Rome.
Escaping Caesar by a hair in Brundisium, Pompey regained his confidence during the siege of Dyrrhachium, in which Caesar lost 1000 men. Yet, by failing to pursue at the critical moment of Caesar's defeat, Pompey threw away the chance to destroy Caesar's much smaller army. As Caesar himself said, "Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner" (Plutarch, 65). According to Suetonius, it was at this point that Caesar said that "that man (Pompey) does not know how to win a war." With Caesar on their backs, the conservatives led by Pompey fled to Greece. Caesar and Pompey had their final showdown at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. The fighting was bitter for both sides but eventually was a decisive victory for Caesar. Like all the other conservatives, Pompey had to run for his life. He met his wife Cornelia and his son Sextus Pompeius on the island of Mytilene. He then wondered where to go next. The decision of running to one of the eastern kingdoms was overruled in favor of Egypt.
After his arrival in Egypt, Pompey's fate was decided by the counselors of the young king Ptolemy XIII. While Pompey waited offshore for word, they argued the cost of offering him refuge with Caesar already en route for Egypt. It was decided to murder Caesar's enemy to ingratiate themselves with him. On September 29, his 58th birthday, the great Pompey was lured toward a supposed audience on shore in a small boat in which he recognized two old comrades–in–arms from the glorious, early battles. They were to be his assassins. While he sat in the boat, studying his speech for the king, they stabbed him in the back with sword and dagger. After decapitation, the body was left, contemptuously unattended and naked, on the shore. His freedman, Philipus, organized a simple funeral pyre and cremated the body on a pyre of broken ship's timbers.
Caesar arrived a short time afterwards. As a welcoming present he received Pompey's head and ring in a basket. However, he was not pleased in seeing his rival, once his ally and son–in–law, murdered by traitors. When a slave offered him Pompey's head, "he turned away from him with loathing, as from an assassin; and when he received Pompey's signet ring on which was engraved a lion holding a sword in his paws, he burst into tears" (Plutarch, Life of Pompey 80). He deposed Ptolemy XIII, executed his regent Pothinus, and elevated Ptolemy's sister Cleopatra VII to the throne of Egypt. Caesar gave Pompey's ashes and ring to Cornelia, who took them back to her estates in Italy.
Historic view
To the historians of his own and later Roman periods, the life of Pompey was simply too good to be true. No more satisfying historical model existed than the great man who, achieving extraordinary triumphs through his own efforts, yet fell from power and influence and, in the end, was murdered through treachery.
He was a hero of the Republic, who seemed once to hold the Roman world in his palm only to be brought low by his own weak judgment and Caesar. Pompey was idealized as a tragic hero almost immediately after Pharsalus and his murder: Plutarch portrayed him as a Roman Alexander the Great, pure of heart and mind, destroyed by the cynical ambitions of those around him.
Marriages and offspring
First wife, Antistia
Second wife, Aemilia Scaura (Sulla's stepdaughter)
Third wife, Mucia Tertia (whom he divorced for adultery, according to Cicero's letters)
Gnaeus Pompeius, executed in 45 BC, after the Battle of Munda
Pompeia, married to Faustus Cornelius Sulla
Sextus Pompeius, who would rebel in Sicily against Augustus
Fourth wife, Julia (daughter of Caesar)
Fifth wife, Cornelia Metella (daughter of Metellus Scipio)
Chronology of Pompey's life and career
106 BC September 29 – born in Picenum
83 BC – aligns with Sulla, after his return from the Mithridatic War against king Mithridates IV of Pontus; marriage to Aemilia Scaura
82–81 BC – defeats Gaius Marius's allies in Sicily and Africa
76–71 BC – campaign in Hispania against Sertorius
71 BC – returns to Italy and participates in the suppression of a slave rebellion lead by Spartacus; second triumph
70 BC – first consulship (with M. Licinius Crassus)
67 BC – defeats the pirates and goes to Asia province
66–61 BC – defeats king Mithridates of Pontus; end of the Third Mithridatic War
64–63 BC – Pompey's March through Syria, the Levant, and Palestine
61 BC September 29 – third triumph
59 BC April – the first triumvirate is constituted; Pompey allies to Julius Caesar and Licinius Crassus; marriage to Julia (daughter of Julius Caesar)
58–55 BC – governs Hispania Ulterior by proxy, construction of Pompey's Theater
55 BC – second consulship (with M. Licinius Crassus)
54 BC – Julia, dies; the first triumvirate ends
52 BC – third consulship with Metellus Scipio; marriage to Cornelia Metella
51 BC – forbids Caesar (in Gaul) to stand for consulship in absentia
49 BC – Caesar crosses the Rubicon River and invades Italy; Pompey retreats to Greece with the conservatives
48 BC – led by Pompey, the conservatives lose the battle of Pharsalus; Pompey runs away to Egypt, where he is killed on September 29
Pompey in literature and the arts
The historical character of Pompey plays a prominent role in several books from the Masters of Rome series of historical novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough.
Pompey's entry into Jerusalem and the desecration of the Temple is depicted in the opening scene of Nicholas Ray's biblical epic King of Kings. Pompey is played by Conrado San Martín.
Pompey is one of the key antagonists in the fourth season of Xena: Warrior Princess, portrayed by Australian actor Jeremy Callaghan. In the series, Pompey is beheaded by Xena in battle who then gives the head to Brutus to return to Julius Caesar, telling Brutus to claim Pompey's death for himself without mentioning her role.
The greatest opera seria composed during the baroque era, Händel's Julio Cesare, is based on Cesare's reaction to Pompey's assassination (since the opera begins after the murder has occurred, Pompey never actually appears as a character––only his severed head when presented to the horrified Cesare). Typically, works composed in the genre of opera seria were intended to present lessons of morality while depicting aristocracy in a flattering light. In the case of Händel's Julio Cesare, the Roman emperor prevails in the administration of justice against the evil Tolomeo (Ptolemy).
Notes
(1) William Smith, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography, 1851. (Under the tenth entry of Pompeius).
(2) Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, son of Gnaeus, grandson of Sextus
(3) pro Lege Manilia, 12 or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Manilian Law on the command of Pompey), 66 BC.
(4) Many historians have suggested that Pompey was, in spite of everything, politically unaware of the fact that the Optimates, including Cato, were merely using him against Caesar so that, with Caesar destroyed, they could then dispose of him."
pompey.html
Posted from mindserpent.com
Ancient History
World History
Military History
Combat
Warfare
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 4
8
8
0
Pompey the Great,was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic. He came from a wealthy Italian provincial background, and his father had bee...
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on September 29, 61 BC, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great celebrated his third triumph for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday..
Pompey the Great in the East
"Pompey the Great,was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic. He came from a wealthy Italian provincial background, and his father had been the first to establish the family among the Roman nobility. Pompey's immense success as a general while still very young enabled him to advance directly to his first consulship without meeting the normal requirements for office. His success as a military commander in Sulla's second civil war resulted in Sulla bestowing the nickname Magnus, "the Great", upon him. He was consul three times and celebrated three triumphs."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L12uc15hLU
Images
1. Pompey the Great statue head.
2. A coin depicting Roman general and statesman Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey the Great. The reverse side shows Neptune. (c. 40 BCE)
3. Pompey the Great 'Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons.'
4. Pompey the Great sketch.
Background from ancient.eu/pompey/
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a military leader and politician during the fall of the Roman Republic. He was born in 106 BCE and died on 28th September 48 BCE. His father was Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo.
Pompey’s life can be easily split into four phases: his early career (106- 71 BCE), his consulship until the triumvirate (70- 60 BCE), his later career in Rome (59- 50 BCE) and the Civil War (49-48 BCE).
Early Career
Pompey’s military career started in the Social Wars (91- 89 BCE) when he served under his father’s army at Asculum (89 BCE). In 83 BCE Pompey procured a private army of three legions, taken from his father’s veterans and clients, in order to fight for Sulla. After this Pompey was sent as pro praetor (a magistrate sent in place of a praetor) to Sicily and then Africa to put down dissidents. It was in 81 BCE that Sulla gave Pompey a triumph, on the 12th March, despite the fact that Pompey was still only an equites, and as such, not officially eligible for a triumph, it was also around this time that Pompey took the name Magnus, Great, which clearly echoed the great Macedonian general, Alexander the Great. After the death of his first wife Aemilia, Pompey married Sulla’s step daughter Mucia Tertia, which like most marriages of the time, was probably a political move. Despite this fact, Sulla still felt it necessary to remove Pompey from his will when in 78 BCE and he supported Lepidus for the consulship; it seems that by the next year Pompey had learnt his lesson, and instead supported Quintus Lutatius Catulus, this was also because Lepidus now spoke of revoking the Sullan laws. In 77 BCE Pompey was sent pro consule in order to assist in the struggle against Sertorius in Spain. Sertorius was an opponent of Sulla who had been active in that area since c. 83 BCE. Pompey returned from there in 71 BCE, wiping out the scattered bands of slaves who had fought under the now defeated Spartacus. In doing so, Pompey tried to take credit for ending the Slave War, when in fact it was Crassus who had been the main Roman protagonist in the war. As a result of Pompey’s victories he was granted his second triumph on the 29th December 71 BCE.
From Consul to the Triumvirate
Pompey, an experienced man by 70 BCE, was, however, illegible for the consulship since he was too young and had not held the positions of quaestor or praetor inline with the cursus honorum. Despite this, the rules were waived, and Pompey took the consulship for that year with Crassus. After his consulship Pompey did not take a province under his control, as was standard. Instead, the Gabinian Law of 67 BCE gave Pompey the power and authority to oppose and dispose of the increasing problem of piracy in the Mediterranean, which posed a threat to Rome’s corn supply.
[Q. Lutatius Catulus] speaking against the [Gabinian] law said in an informal harangue that Pompey was certainly an outstanding man, but that he was too eminent for comfort in a free res publica and that all power should not be placed in the hands of one man.
(Velleius II, 32, I)
POMPEY SUCCESSFULLY DEALT WITH THE MEDITERRANEAN PIRATES WITHIN THREE MONTHS.
Pompey successfully dealt with the pirates within his first three months of control, despite the fact that the Gabinian Law granted him command for three years, and in 66 BCE a further law was passed which gave him the command of the Roman army against Mithridates VI of Pontus. This law forms Cicero’s Pro lege Manilia, his first purely political speech which speaks in favour of the law, despite there being strong opposition towards the law from the optimate factions of Rome at the time. After defeating Mithridates VI, Pompey turned Bithynia, Pontus, and Syria into Roman provinces, paving the way for Rome’s later advances into the East. It was in 62 BCE that Pompey returned to Italy, and disbanded his army, finally entering Rome on his birthday, 30th September 61 BCE. Upon returning, Pompey celebrated a triumph the likes of which Rome had never seen before, one that lasted a whole two days!
He celebrated the triumph in honour of all his wars at once, including in it many trophies beautifully decked out to represent each of his achievements, even the smallest; and after them all came one huge one, decked out in costly fashion and bearing an inscription stating that it was a trophy of the inhabited world. (Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.21.2)
He was awarded a triumph exceeding in brilliance any that had gone before… it occupied two successive days, and many nations were represented in the procession from Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia and all Syria, besides Albanians, Heniochi, Achaeans of Scythia, and Eastern Iberians. (Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 116)
Among these peoples no less than 1,000 strongholds had been captured, according to the inscriptions, and cities not much under 900 in number, besides 800 piratical ships, while 39 cities had been founded… but that which most enhanced his glory and had never been the lot of any roman before, was that he celebrated third triumph over the third continent. For others before had celebrated three triumphs; but he celebrated his first over Libya, his second over Europe, and this his last over Asia, so that he seemed in a way to have included the whole world in his three triumphs. (Plutarch, Life of Pompey the Great, 45.1-5)
However, not all was as Pompey had hoped for, the senate denied his proposals for land-grants for his disbanded army and they denied ratification of Pompey’s eastern settlements too; this decision was headed by Cato the Younger (the great grandson of Cato the Elder). Then, with Caesar’s return from Spain in 60 BCE, Pompey formed the first triumvirate (which in itself is a modern, rather than ancient term) with Caesar and Crassus, arguably the three most politically influential and powerful men in Rome (especially when their efforts were combined).
Later Career
In 59 BCE Caesar was appointed consul, with the support of Crassus and Pompey, which enabled Pompey to fulfil the land-grants to his veteran soldiers and to also have his settlement in the east ratified. One of the most obviously political motivated events of Pompey’s life was the divorce of his wife Marcia in order to marry Caesar’s daughter, Julia. However, despite the political motivation of this marriage, Pompey did come to love Julia, and this is mentioned by contemporaries. Despite Caesar putting in place what Pompey had wanted, and the political marriage, Pompey's success was beginning to decline and in 58/7 BCE he was attacked by Publius Clodius Pulcher. In 57 BCE Pompey both managed to secure Cicero’s return from exile and secured the control of Rome’s corn supply (a very important role, that lasted for five-years and granted him proconsular imperium and fifteen legates, but no army was provided). It is interesting to note Pompey’s sudden shift to matters public and civilian, considering that he was primarily a military man; however, what this might suggest is his logistical skills as a general had been transferred to the organisation of corn supplies. However, also in this year, Pompey failed to restore the father of Cleopatra VII, Ptolemy XII Auletes, to power in Egypt. Nevertheless, the triumvirate seemed to work both ways for Pompey, and in 55 BCE, after the three men’s agreement had been reaffirmed at Luca, both Pompey and Crassus were appointed consuls again. It is interesting to note, that despite being given the two Spanish provinces to govern over, Pompey chose to have them governed by legates, so that he could stay at Rome. What becomes apparent is the sheer wealth that Pompey’s campaigns had brought to him and Rome, and this is embodied with the creation of the Theatre of Pompey just outside Rome, at the Campus Martius, which was opened with extravagant games. The theatre itself also consisted of a Temple to Venus Victrix, and a statue of Pompey himself.
Inscriptions show that whereas in the past the proceeds to that state treasury from taxation were some 50,000,000 drachmae, Pompey’s additions to the empire were now bringing in 85,000,000; and that he was adding to the state treasury in coined money and gold and silver plate 20,000 talents, and this apart from the money he had given to his soldiers, each of whom had received at least 15,000 drachmae. (Plutarch, Life of Pompey the Great, 45.3-4)
However, the next two years saw tensions build within the triumvirate, firstly Pompey dropped out from any sort of further political marriage links with Julius Caesar after Julia died in childbirth in 54 BCE, and in 53 BCE Crassus was killed in Parthia, both of these events served to increase the tension between Caesar and Pompey that would eventually spark into Civil War. When Clodius was murdered in 62 BCE, Pompey was elected sole consul for the year, and was even backed by Cato. Pompey then went on to put Titus Annius Milo on trial and created new legislation with regards to violence, bribery, and the nature of magistracies. Whilst these actions would not have perhaps been seen favourably by Caesar; that is not to say that they were not directly enacted so as to do so. However, when Pompey increased his own imperium for another five years, he seismically affected the status quo. It was also around this time that Pompey married Cornelia, his political ally Quintus Caecilius Mettelus Piso Scipio’s daughter; again, as with Julia before her, whilst being a political marriage, it was by no means a loveless marriage. There were calls for Pompey to recall Caesar, and this led to Gaius Scribonius Curio in 50 BCE calling for either both of the men, or neither of them, to put aside their command. Cicero sums up the situation succinctly:
It is a struggle between two kings, in which defeat has overtaken the more moderate king [Pompey], the one who is more upright and honest, the one whose failure means that the very name of the Roman people must be wiped out, though if he wins the victory, he will use it after the manner and example of Sulla. (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 10.7.1)
Civil War
Pompey was unable to come to terms with this situation and took over the command of the Republic’s armies in Italy in 49 BCE, the year that Caesar crossed the Rubicon and uttered the famous words, alea iacta est (the dice are thrown). He then moved the army from Brundisium to Macedonia, where he mobilised his forces. In 48 BCE Caesar arrived, and, knowing that Caesar’s force was greater than his, Pompey retreated when Caesar tried to blockade him in Dryrrachium. The passage below from Plutarch helps to make sense of this, whilst Caesar already had an experienced, battle-hardened army, Pompey had to mobilise one from scratch, one that would be less experienced than Caesar’s:
When some said that if Caesar should march upon Rome, they did not see any forces with which to defend it from him, with a smiling face and calm manner Pompey told them not to fear: “For,” he said, “in whatever part of Italy I stamp upon the ground, there will spring up armies of infantry and cavalry.” (Plutarch, Life of Pompey the Great, 57.5)
On the 9th August (the reason why he was persuaded to do so is unclear) Pompey met Caesar in pitched battle at Pharsalus in Thessaly and suffered terrible losses and a cruel defeat. Caesar had become a formidable general, having gained much valuable experience from his campaigns in Gaul. Pompey then fled to Egypt, but was stabbed to death as he disembarked at Alexandria on the 28th September 48 BCE. With the defeat of Pompey and the victory of Julius Caesar, the foundations of Imperial Rome were dug and any sentiment of a ‘democratic’ Rome was buried with it.
Sincere belief in Rome’s freedom died long ago, when Marius and Sulla were admitted within the walls; but now, when Pompey has been removed from the world, even the sham belief is dead.
(M. Annaeus Lucanus, On the Civil War, 9.204-6)
Pompey’s career was to some extent typical of a new type of Roman statesman that came to the fore in the late Republic, that of the ‘military dynast’, which could be seen to have had its origins in the careers of Marius and Sulla. However, in the end, Pompey tends to be seen by history as one of the great losers, which tends not to give true credit to his earlier career and what he achieved during it.
RELATED CONTENT BOOKS CITE THIS WORK LICENSE
Bibliography
Howatson, M.C. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. (Oxford, OUP, 1991).
Champion, C.B. Roman Imperialism, readings and sources. (Blackwell Publishers, 2003), 138-9, 294-5.
Crawford, M. The Roman Republic. (Harvard University Press, 1993), 154- 186.
Pollard, N. & Berry, J. The Complete Roman Legions. (Thames & Hudson, 2012), 26- 27."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) 1stSgt Eugene Harless SCPO Morris Ramsey SSgt Robert Marx Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Robert Ruck CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke MSgt David Hoffman LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Robert Thornton SGT Philip RoncariCWO3 Dennis M. SFC William Farrell TSgt Joe C.]
Pompey the Great in the East
"Pompey the Great,was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic. He came from a wealthy Italian provincial background, and his father had been the first to establish the family among the Roman nobility. Pompey's immense success as a general while still very young enabled him to advance directly to his first consulship without meeting the normal requirements for office. His success as a military commander in Sulla's second civil war resulted in Sulla bestowing the nickname Magnus, "the Great", upon him. He was consul three times and celebrated three triumphs."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L12uc15hLU
Images
1. Pompey the Great statue head.
2. A coin depicting Roman general and statesman Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey the Great. The reverse side shows Neptune. (c. 40 BCE)
3. Pompey the Great 'Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons.'
4. Pompey the Great sketch.
Background from ancient.eu/pompey/
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a military leader and politician during the fall of the Roman Republic. He was born in 106 BCE and died on 28th September 48 BCE. His father was Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo.
Pompey’s life can be easily split into four phases: his early career (106- 71 BCE), his consulship until the triumvirate (70- 60 BCE), his later career in Rome (59- 50 BCE) and the Civil War (49-48 BCE).
Early Career
Pompey’s military career started in the Social Wars (91- 89 BCE) when he served under his father’s army at Asculum (89 BCE). In 83 BCE Pompey procured a private army of three legions, taken from his father’s veterans and clients, in order to fight for Sulla. After this Pompey was sent as pro praetor (a magistrate sent in place of a praetor) to Sicily and then Africa to put down dissidents. It was in 81 BCE that Sulla gave Pompey a triumph, on the 12th March, despite the fact that Pompey was still only an equites, and as such, not officially eligible for a triumph, it was also around this time that Pompey took the name Magnus, Great, which clearly echoed the great Macedonian general, Alexander the Great. After the death of his first wife Aemilia, Pompey married Sulla’s step daughter Mucia Tertia, which like most marriages of the time, was probably a political move. Despite this fact, Sulla still felt it necessary to remove Pompey from his will when in 78 BCE and he supported Lepidus for the consulship; it seems that by the next year Pompey had learnt his lesson, and instead supported Quintus Lutatius Catulus, this was also because Lepidus now spoke of revoking the Sullan laws. In 77 BCE Pompey was sent pro consule in order to assist in the struggle against Sertorius in Spain. Sertorius was an opponent of Sulla who had been active in that area since c. 83 BCE. Pompey returned from there in 71 BCE, wiping out the scattered bands of slaves who had fought under the now defeated Spartacus. In doing so, Pompey tried to take credit for ending the Slave War, when in fact it was Crassus who had been the main Roman protagonist in the war. As a result of Pompey’s victories he was granted his second triumph on the 29th December 71 BCE.
From Consul to the Triumvirate
Pompey, an experienced man by 70 BCE, was, however, illegible for the consulship since he was too young and had not held the positions of quaestor or praetor inline with the cursus honorum. Despite this, the rules were waived, and Pompey took the consulship for that year with Crassus. After his consulship Pompey did not take a province under his control, as was standard. Instead, the Gabinian Law of 67 BCE gave Pompey the power and authority to oppose and dispose of the increasing problem of piracy in the Mediterranean, which posed a threat to Rome’s corn supply.
[Q. Lutatius Catulus] speaking against the [Gabinian] law said in an informal harangue that Pompey was certainly an outstanding man, but that he was too eminent for comfort in a free res publica and that all power should not be placed in the hands of one man.
(Velleius II, 32, I)
POMPEY SUCCESSFULLY DEALT WITH THE MEDITERRANEAN PIRATES WITHIN THREE MONTHS.
Pompey successfully dealt with the pirates within his first three months of control, despite the fact that the Gabinian Law granted him command for three years, and in 66 BCE a further law was passed which gave him the command of the Roman army against Mithridates VI of Pontus. This law forms Cicero’s Pro lege Manilia, his first purely political speech which speaks in favour of the law, despite there being strong opposition towards the law from the optimate factions of Rome at the time. After defeating Mithridates VI, Pompey turned Bithynia, Pontus, and Syria into Roman provinces, paving the way for Rome’s later advances into the East. It was in 62 BCE that Pompey returned to Italy, and disbanded his army, finally entering Rome on his birthday, 30th September 61 BCE. Upon returning, Pompey celebrated a triumph the likes of which Rome had never seen before, one that lasted a whole two days!
He celebrated the triumph in honour of all his wars at once, including in it many trophies beautifully decked out to represent each of his achievements, even the smallest; and after them all came one huge one, decked out in costly fashion and bearing an inscription stating that it was a trophy of the inhabited world. (Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.21.2)
He was awarded a triumph exceeding in brilliance any that had gone before… it occupied two successive days, and many nations were represented in the procession from Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia and all Syria, besides Albanians, Heniochi, Achaeans of Scythia, and Eastern Iberians. (Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 116)
Among these peoples no less than 1,000 strongholds had been captured, according to the inscriptions, and cities not much under 900 in number, besides 800 piratical ships, while 39 cities had been founded… but that which most enhanced his glory and had never been the lot of any roman before, was that he celebrated third triumph over the third continent. For others before had celebrated three triumphs; but he celebrated his first over Libya, his second over Europe, and this his last over Asia, so that he seemed in a way to have included the whole world in his three triumphs. (Plutarch, Life of Pompey the Great, 45.1-5)
However, not all was as Pompey had hoped for, the senate denied his proposals for land-grants for his disbanded army and they denied ratification of Pompey’s eastern settlements too; this decision was headed by Cato the Younger (the great grandson of Cato the Elder). Then, with Caesar’s return from Spain in 60 BCE, Pompey formed the first triumvirate (which in itself is a modern, rather than ancient term) with Caesar and Crassus, arguably the three most politically influential and powerful men in Rome (especially when their efforts were combined).
Later Career
In 59 BCE Caesar was appointed consul, with the support of Crassus and Pompey, which enabled Pompey to fulfil the land-grants to his veteran soldiers and to also have his settlement in the east ratified. One of the most obviously political motivated events of Pompey’s life was the divorce of his wife Marcia in order to marry Caesar’s daughter, Julia. However, despite the political motivation of this marriage, Pompey did come to love Julia, and this is mentioned by contemporaries. Despite Caesar putting in place what Pompey had wanted, and the political marriage, Pompey's success was beginning to decline and in 58/7 BCE he was attacked by Publius Clodius Pulcher. In 57 BCE Pompey both managed to secure Cicero’s return from exile and secured the control of Rome’s corn supply (a very important role, that lasted for five-years and granted him proconsular imperium and fifteen legates, but no army was provided). It is interesting to note Pompey’s sudden shift to matters public and civilian, considering that he was primarily a military man; however, what this might suggest is his logistical skills as a general had been transferred to the organisation of corn supplies. However, also in this year, Pompey failed to restore the father of Cleopatra VII, Ptolemy XII Auletes, to power in Egypt. Nevertheless, the triumvirate seemed to work both ways for Pompey, and in 55 BCE, after the three men’s agreement had been reaffirmed at Luca, both Pompey and Crassus were appointed consuls again. It is interesting to note, that despite being given the two Spanish provinces to govern over, Pompey chose to have them governed by legates, so that he could stay at Rome. What becomes apparent is the sheer wealth that Pompey’s campaigns had brought to him and Rome, and this is embodied with the creation of the Theatre of Pompey just outside Rome, at the Campus Martius, which was opened with extravagant games. The theatre itself also consisted of a Temple to Venus Victrix, and a statue of Pompey himself.
Inscriptions show that whereas in the past the proceeds to that state treasury from taxation were some 50,000,000 drachmae, Pompey’s additions to the empire were now bringing in 85,000,000; and that he was adding to the state treasury in coined money and gold and silver plate 20,000 talents, and this apart from the money he had given to his soldiers, each of whom had received at least 15,000 drachmae. (Plutarch, Life of Pompey the Great, 45.3-4)
However, the next two years saw tensions build within the triumvirate, firstly Pompey dropped out from any sort of further political marriage links with Julius Caesar after Julia died in childbirth in 54 BCE, and in 53 BCE Crassus was killed in Parthia, both of these events served to increase the tension between Caesar and Pompey that would eventually spark into Civil War. When Clodius was murdered in 62 BCE, Pompey was elected sole consul for the year, and was even backed by Cato. Pompey then went on to put Titus Annius Milo on trial and created new legislation with regards to violence, bribery, and the nature of magistracies. Whilst these actions would not have perhaps been seen favourably by Caesar; that is not to say that they were not directly enacted so as to do so. However, when Pompey increased his own imperium for another five years, he seismically affected the status quo. It was also around this time that Pompey married Cornelia, his political ally Quintus Caecilius Mettelus Piso Scipio’s daughter; again, as with Julia before her, whilst being a political marriage, it was by no means a loveless marriage. There were calls for Pompey to recall Caesar, and this led to Gaius Scribonius Curio in 50 BCE calling for either both of the men, or neither of them, to put aside their command. Cicero sums up the situation succinctly:
It is a struggle between two kings, in which defeat has overtaken the more moderate king [Pompey], the one who is more upright and honest, the one whose failure means that the very name of the Roman people must be wiped out, though if he wins the victory, he will use it after the manner and example of Sulla. (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 10.7.1)
Civil War
Pompey was unable to come to terms with this situation and took over the command of the Republic’s armies in Italy in 49 BCE, the year that Caesar crossed the Rubicon and uttered the famous words, alea iacta est (the dice are thrown). He then moved the army from Brundisium to Macedonia, where he mobilised his forces. In 48 BCE Caesar arrived, and, knowing that Caesar’s force was greater than his, Pompey retreated when Caesar tried to blockade him in Dryrrachium. The passage below from Plutarch helps to make sense of this, whilst Caesar already had an experienced, battle-hardened army, Pompey had to mobilise one from scratch, one that would be less experienced than Caesar’s:
When some said that if Caesar should march upon Rome, they did not see any forces with which to defend it from him, with a smiling face and calm manner Pompey told them not to fear: “For,” he said, “in whatever part of Italy I stamp upon the ground, there will spring up armies of infantry and cavalry.” (Plutarch, Life of Pompey the Great, 57.5)
On the 9th August (the reason why he was persuaded to do so is unclear) Pompey met Caesar in pitched battle at Pharsalus in Thessaly and suffered terrible losses and a cruel defeat. Caesar had become a formidable general, having gained much valuable experience from his campaigns in Gaul. Pompey then fled to Egypt, but was stabbed to death as he disembarked at Alexandria on the 28th September 48 BCE. With the defeat of Pompey and the victory of Julius Caesar, the foundations of Imperial Rome were dug and any sentiment of a ‘democratic’ Rome was buried with it.
Sincere belief in Rome’s freedom died long ago, when Marius and Sulla were admitted within the walls; but now, when Pompey has been removed from the world, even the sham belief is dead.
(M. Annaeus Lucanus, On the Civil War, 9.204-6)
Pompey’s career was to some extent typical of a new type of Roman statesman that came to the fore in the late Republic, that of the ‘military dynast’, which could be seen to have had its origins in the careers of Marius and Sulla. However, in the end, Pompey tends to be seen by history as one of the great losers, which tends not to give true credit to his earlier career and what he achieved during it.
RELATED CONTENT BOOKS CITE THIS WORK LICENSE
Bibliography
Howatson, M.C. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. (Oxford, OUP, 1991).
Champion, C.B. Roman Imperialism, readings and sources. (Blackwell Publishers, 2003), 138-9, 294-5.
Crawford, M. The Roman Republic. (Harvard University Press, 1993), 154- 186.
Pollard, N. & Berry, J. The Complete Roman Legions. (Thames & Hudson, 2012), 26- 27."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) 1stSgt Eugene Harless SCPO Morris Ramsey SSgt Robert Marx Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Robert Ruck CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke MSgt David Hoffman LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Robert Thornton SGT Philip RoncariCWO3 Dennis M. SFC William Farrell TSgt Joe C.]
(8)
(0)
LTC Stephen F.
FYI SGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCordSGT Jim Arnold PO3 Phyllis Maynard SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Craig Phillips PVT Mark Zehner SSgt Boyd Herrst MAJ Rene De La Rosa SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
(1)
(0)
LTC Stephen F.
FYI LTC Wayne Brandon LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj Robert Thornton CPT Scott Sharon SSG William Jones SSG Donald H "Don" Bates PO3 William Hetrick PO3 Lynn Spalding SPC Mark Huddleston SGT Rick Colburn CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke SP5 Jeannie Carle SCPO Morris Ramsey Sgt Albert Castro
(4)
(0)
LTC Stephen F.
FYI SGT Steve McFarlandCol Carl WhickerSP5 Billy MullinsSFC David XantenSGT Mark AndersonSSG Michael NollSFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTMSFC Jack ChampionA1C Ian WilliamsCpl James R. " Jim" Gossett JrPVT Kenneth Krause SPC Jon O.SP5 Jeannie CarleSPC Chris Bayner-CwikPO1 Jerome NewlandPO1 Robert GeorgeSGT John MelvinISG John FairclothSN Donald HoffmanMAJ Richard Martin
(1)
(0)
3
3
0
3
3
0
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google