Pompey the Great

	Bust of Pompey The Great

Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus, the Triumvir, was born on the 30^th of September BC 106, and was consequently a few months younger than Cicero, who was born on the 3^rd of January in that year, and six years older than Caesar. He fought under his father in 89 against the Italians, when the was only 17 years of age.

When Sulla returned to Italy in 84, Pompey marched to his assistance; and in the war which followed against the Marian party, he distinguished himself as one of Sulla’s most successful generals. In consequence of his victories in Africa over the Marian party, he was greeted by Sulla with the surname Magnus ('The Great'), a name which he bore ever afterwards. He was allowed to enter Rome in triumph in 81, although he was still a simple eques, and had not held any public office.

Pompey continued faithful to the aristocracy after Sulla’s death in 78, and supported the consul Catulus in resisting the attempts of his colleague Lepidus to repeal the laws of Sulla. He was afterwards sent to Spain as proconsul, to assist Metellus against Sertorius, and remained in that country for five years (76-71).

On his return to Rome he was consul with M. Crassus, BC 70. In his consulship he openly broke with the aristocracy, and became the great popular hero. He carried a low, restoring to the tribunes the power of which they had been deprived by Sulla. In 67 the tribune A. Gabinius brought forward a bill, proposing to confer upon Pompey the command of the war against the pirates with extraordinary powers. This bill was carried, and in the course of three months he cleared the Mediterranean of the pirates, who had long been the terror of the Romans. The next year, 66, he was appointed to succeed Lucullus in the command of the war against Mithridates. The bill, conferring upon him this command was proposed by the tribune C. Manilius, and was supported by Cicero in an oration that has come down to us. He easily defeated Mithridates, who fled to the Cimmerian Bosporus. He received the submission of Tigranes, king of Armenia; made Syria a Roman province; took Jerusalem; and, after settling the affairs of Asia, returned to Italy in 62. He disbanded his army after landing at Brundisium, and thus calmed the apprehensions of many, who feared that he would seize upon the supreme power. He entered Rome in triumph on the 30^th of September BC 60.

The senate, however, refused to ratify his acts in Asia; whereupon Pompey entered into a close alliance with Caesar. To be more sure of carrying their plans into execution, they took the wealth Crassus into their counsels. The three agreed to assist one another against their mutual enemies; and thus was formed the first triumvirate. This union of the three most powerful men in Rome crushed the aristocracy for the time. To cement their union more closely, Caesar gave to Pompey his daughter Julia in marriage. The next year, 58, Caesar went to Gaul, but Pompey remarried in Rome.

While Caesar was gaining glory and influence in Gaul, Pompey was gradually loosing influence in Rome. In 55 Pompey was consul a second time with Crassus. Pompey received as his provinces the two Spain’s, which were governed by his legates, L. Afranius and M. Petreius, while he himself remained in the neighbourhood of the city. Caesar’s increasing power and influence at length made it clear to Pompey that a struggle must take place between them, sooner or later. The death of his wife Julia, in 54, to whom he was tenderly attached broke the last link which still connected him to Caesar.

In order to obtain supreme power, Pompey secretly encouraged the civil discord with which the state was torn asunder; and such frightful scenes of anarchy followed the death of Clodius at the beginning of 52, that the senate had no alternative but calling in the assistance of Pompey, who was accordingly made sole consul in 52, and succeeded in restoring order to the state. Soon afterwards Pompey became reconciled to the aristocracy, and was now regarded as their acknowledged head. The history of the civil war which followed is related in the life of Caesar.

After the battle of Pharsalia in 48 Pompey sailed to Egypt, where he was put to death by order of the ministers of the young king Ptolemy. Pompey got into a boat, which the Egyptians sent to bring him to land; but just as the boat reached the shore, and he was stepping on to land, he was stabbed in the back in sight of his wife, who was anxiously watching him from the ship. He was slain on the 29^th of September BC 48 aged 58. His head was cut off, and brought to Caesar when he arrived in Egypt soon afterwards, but turned away at the sight, shed tears at the melancholy death of his rival, and put the murderers to death.

Pompey was married five times. The names of his wives were 1. Antistia, 2. Aemilia 3. Mucia, 4. Juila, 5. Cornelia