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Pompey

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This article refers to the prominent political and military leader of the late Roman republic, who also had descendants named Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. For the ancient Roman city, see Pompeii. Pompey is also a common nickname for the English city of Portsmouth and its football team.
Marble bust of Pompey the Great
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Marble bust of Pompey the Great

Pompey, Pompey the Great or Pompey The Triumvir William Smith, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography, 1851. (Under the tenth entry of Pompeius). (Classical Latin: CN·POMPEIVS·CN·F·SEX·N·MAGNVSGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, son of Gnaeus, grandson of Sextus, Gnaeus or Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus) (September 29 106 BC – September 29 48 BC), was a distinguished military and political leader of the late Roman republic. Hailing from an Italian provincial background, he went on to establish a place for himself in the ranks of Roman nobility, earning the cognomen of Magnus — the Great.

Pompey was a rival and an ally of Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gaius Julius Caesar. The three politicians would dominate the Roman republic through a political alliance called the First Triumvirate. After the death of Crassus, Pompey and Caesar would dispute the leadership of the entire Roman state.

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Early life and political debut

The son of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was born on September 29 106 BC, in the consulship of Atilius Serranus and Servilius Caepio, and was, consequently, a few months younger than Marcus Tullius Cicero, who was born on January 3 in this year, and six years older than Gaius Julius Caesar. His father was an extremely wealthy man from the Italian region of Picenum and 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 will continue with his father till his death two years afterward. Pompey also acquired a protégé of his own, the then young staff officer Cicero. According to Plutarch, 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 familiy affairs and fortune. For the next few years the Marian party had possession of Italy; and accordingly Pompey, who adhered to the aristocratical party, was obliged to keep in the back ground. Returning to Rome he was prosecuted for misappropriation of plunder but quickly acquitted. His acquittal was certainly helped by the fact that he was bethrothed 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, ordered the divorce of his pregnant stepdaughter Aemilia Scaura to marry her to his young ally.

The young Pompey was placed high within Sulla's ranks, even so far as among his private council. In the course of Sulla's campaigns across Italy, Pompey would encounter two individuals that would shape both his and Rome's futures: Crassus and Caesar. Crassus, like Pompey, had been left a small fortune and military force by his father, and sided with Sulla. The two would develop a rivalry that would last for years. Pompey first met Caesar when Sulla brought Caesar before him and demanded he divorce his wife Cornelia, daughter of Cinna. Caesar refused, but Sulla pardoned him. When Pompey commented on his action, Sulla responded saying that he wanted to leave a few enemies alive for later adventures. Pompey viewed Caesar not so much as an enemy, but as a much-respected rival. Some reports of the event suggest that Pompey was inspired by Caesar's refusal to divorce his wife, reminding him of the same scenario that he had faced only two years prior.

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 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.

Sicily

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. He easily made himself master of the island in 82 BC. Sicily was strategically very important, since the island held the majority of the invaluable 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 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?"

Africa

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. On his return to Rome in the same year, he was received with enthusiasm by the people, and was greeted by Sulla with the surname of Magnus, (meaning the Great) a name which he bore ever afterward, and handed down to his children. Legend has it that Sulla himself bestowed it on him, with most commentators suspecting that this cognomen was given as a cruel and ironic joke; it was some time before Pompey made widespread use of it. Pompey, however, not satisfied with this distinction, sued for 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. Accordingly, Pompey, who had not yet held any public office, and was still a simple eques, entered Rome in triumph in September, 81 BC, and before he had completed his twenty-fifth year.

Quintus Sertorius and Spartacus

Pompey continued faithful to the aristocracy after Sulla's death 78 BC, and supported the consul Catulus in resisting the attempts of his colleague Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to repeal the laws of Sulla; and when Lepidus had recourse to arms in the following year 77 BC, Pompey took an active part in the war against him, and succeeded in driving him out of Italy.

Pompey's reputation for military genius, and occasional bad judgment, continued when, after suppressing the revolt by Lepidus, he demanded proconsular imperium (although he had not yet served as Consul) to go to Hispania to fight against Quintus Sertorius, a Marian general who maintained a lone presence there. The aristocracy, however, now beginning to fear the young and successful general, was reluctant to allow him with the needed authority. Pompey countered by refusing to disband his legions until his request was granted. However in Spain 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 Spain against Sertorius, with the title of proconsul, and with equal powers to Metellus.

Pompey remained in Spain 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 the brilliant general Sertorius. But when Sertorius was treacherously murdered by his own officer Perperna in 82, the war was speedily brought to a close. Perperna was easily defeated by Pompey in the first battle, and the whole of Spain 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 fell in with the remains of the army of Spartacus and captured five thousand Spartacani who had survived Crassus and were attempting to flee. Pompey cut to pieces these fugitives, 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 the 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, the population 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.

The 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 notwithstanding 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. In forty days he cleared the Western Sea of pirates, and restored communication between Spain, 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 Ciceropro Lege Manilia, 12 or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Manilian Law on the command of Pompey), 66 BC.,

"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 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), 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. 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 toward Armenia, but he was defeated by the Roman general; and as Tigranes now refused to receive him into his dominions, Mithridates resolved to plunge into the heart of Colchis, and from 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 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 savage districts. He accordingly retraced his steps, and spent the winter at Pontus, which he reduced to the form of a Roman province. In 64 he marched into Syria, deposed the king Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, and made that country also a Roman province. In 63 he advanced further south, in order to establish the Roman supremacy in Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, and Palestine. After that he proceeded to capture Jerusalem. The Jews refused to submit to him, and shut the gates of Jerusalem against him, and it was not till after a siege of three months that the city was taken. Pompey entered the Holy of Holies, the first time that any human being, except the high priest, had dared to penetrate into this sacred spot. It was during the war in Palestine that Pompey received intelligence 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.

In a word, Pompey conducted the campaigns of 65 BC to 62 BC with such military and administrative skill that 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

In December 62 BC, Pompey finally returned to Rome with a dilemma to address. On one hand he wanted his third Triumph; on the other he wanted to run for a second consulship. Roman law stated that a general could not cross the pomerium without losing the right of the Triumph, but an electoral candidate should be in the city in order to apply personally for the election. Pompey tried to use diplomacy and asked the Senate to postpone the consular election for the day after the triumph. The Optimates, led by Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger, strongly opposed this and forced Pompey to choose. He chose the triumph, but did not let go of the consulship. If he could not be elected, at least he could bribe the voters to pick his candidate, Lucius Afranius. According to several sources, it was a huge scandal, with the voters heading in masses to Pompey's house outside the pomerium.

His third Triumph took place on the 29 of 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. Yet Pompey was still a supreme tactician; he simply 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 magnificent 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 would force 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 handled the grain issue with his usual excellent efficiency, 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 the great man 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 him 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. The bonds of the triumvirate were 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 genuinely beneficial legislative agenda for Rome, which also 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 standing for the consulship in absentia, although this had frequently been allowed in the past. 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. In any event, Pompey had been diminished by age, uncertainty, and the harassment of being the chosen tool of a quarreling Optimate oligarchy. As Cicero sadly noted, Pompey had begun to fear Caesar. The coming conflict was inevitable.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.

Civil War

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 nearly lost the war. Yet, by failing to pursue at the critical moment of Caesar's defeat, Pompey threw away the chance to destroy Caesar's armies. As Caesar himself said, "Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner" (Plutarch, 65). 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 would eventually return 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 his estates in Italy.

In late 45 BC, Pompey was deified by the Senate at Caesar's request.

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's indomitability. 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. The truth, of course, is another matter.

Marriages and offspring

Chronology of Pompey's life and career

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 also plays a key role in the first season of the Rome HBO/BBC television production, where he is played by Kenneth Cranham.

Notes

Further reading

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