Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BCE), also known as ‘Pompey the Great’, was a Roman Consul and Commander.
He was the most powerful man in Rome for 20 years until the rise of Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE).

Born on 29 September 106 BCE, Pompey was elected Consul three times and was given a Roman Triumph three times, calling himself ‘Magnus’ as a result of his military successes under Sulla.
In 70 BCE he became joint Consul with Crassus, in 67 BCE he cleared the Mediterranean of Pirates before conducting the Third Mithridatic War (73063 BCE) against Mithridates VI of Pontus who he defeated in 63 BCE.
Between 60-53 BCE he formed a secret alliance called the First Triumvirate between himself, Crassus and Julius Caesar, to sideline the power of the Roman Senate.
When the Triumvirate broke up, he fought Julius Caesar in the Great Roman Civil War (49-45 BCE).
After losing the Battle of Pharsalus, he fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated on arrival by Cleopatra’s brother, Ptolemy, on 3rd September 48 BCE.

In 84 BCE Sulla returned from the First Mithridatic War and Pompey raised 3 Legions to help Sulla defeat the Marians by marching on Rome and becoming Dictator.
Sulla rewarded Pompey by sending him to Sicily to pursue the Marians, who fled to Africa. Pompey was ordered to pursue them and he defeated the Marians at the Battle of Utica. Pompey was allowed to hold his first Roman Triumph.

After Sulla died in 78 BCE, one of his main opponents called Lepidus attempted to take an army to Rome, but Pompey’s army defeated him and Lepidus left for Sardinia where he died.

This was a guerilla war waged in Spain by Sertorius, the last of the Marian supporters.
Pompey took 30,000 men and campaigned in Spain between 76-71 BCE until Sertorius was defeated.

71 BCE Returning from Spain, Pompey met the remains of the slave army of Spartacus who Crassus had just defeated.
By taking 5,000 of them prisoner he took the credit for defeating Spartacus, instead of Crassus and on 31 December 71 BCE he celebrated another Roman Triumph.
He now became the most powerful man in Rome for the next twenty years, until the rise of Julius Caesar.

Pompey was given complete Dictatorial Powers for 3 years to defeat the Pirates of Cilicia and was allocated a large budget, 20 Legions and 500 ships, plus the same authority as a Provincial Governor up to 45 miles inland.
In 67 BCE Pompey divided the Mediterranean into 13 Sectors, with a Legate (Assistant) for each. This organisation was to form the basis for the future Provincial Squadrons of a later standing Roman Navy.
The use of Legates was to be copied by Julius Caesar during his Gallic Wars and by Augustus under the Empire.
Starting from the Straits of Gibraltar, he sailed east with 60 vessels, driving the Pirates into each Legate’s waiting fleet and army. He cleared the western Mediterranean in 40 days. The escaping Pirates fled back to Cilicia.

Pompey campaigned against Mithridates VI of Pontus and after several years defeated him.
Victory resulted in the annexation of Pontus, Bithynia, Syria and Crete as Provinces to the Roman Republic. Also Armenia became a Roman Client Kingdom.
On 29 September 61 BCE, Pompey celebrated his third Roman Triumph.

After defeating Mithridates, Pompey marched on Armenia, forcing Tigranes to become a Roman Client King.
He then marched on Iberia and Albania and made them into Roman Client Kingdoms.

Tigranes had occupied Syria since 83 BCE, but after losing the battle of Tigranocerta in 69 BCE, the Syrians rebelled, and Lucullus had approved Antiochus XIII as a Roman Client King of Syria.
Once Pompey had completed his Caucasian Campaign, he moved his army to winter in Antioch in 64 BCE and had Antiochus XIII executed. During 63 BCE, Pompey crushed the regional warlords and turned the country into the Roman Province of Syria.

Pompey intervened in the civil war in Judaea and conducted a successful Siege of Jerusalem in 63 BCE and reinstated Hyrcanus II as a Roman Client King.
This ended the independence of Judaea, which was now controlled from Roman Syria.

Between 60-53 BCE, a secret alliance called the First Triumvirate was formed between three Generals, Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey in order to bypass the power of the Roman Senate.
It ended in 53 BCE when Crassus was killed at the Battle of Carrhae against the Parthians.
When Pompey’s wife, Julia Caesaris, who was Caesar’s daughter died, Pompey promptly married the daughter of one of Julius Caesar‘s arch rivals and joined the Roman Senate against him.

49 BCE The Great Roman Civil War: Julius Caesar by Crossing the Rubicon, started the Civil War against Pompey and the Optimates.
48 BCE 10 July The Battle of Dyrrhachium.
48 BCE 9 August The Battle of Pharsalus resulting in the defeat of Pompey, who fled to Egypt.

48 BCE 3 September Pompey was assassinated in Egypt.
In 48 BCE, after defeating Pompey, Julius Caesar pursued him to Alexandria, Egypt. But on 3rd September, Pompey was assassinated on his arrival by Cleopatra’s brother Ptolemy, as he was leaving his vessel. When Julius Caesar appeared two days later, far from being pleased, he was angered by this lack of clemency.

After the Third Mithridatic War Pompey returned to Rome with the Recipe for an antidote to poisoning that Mithridates had invented himself called Mithridatium.
The Recipe was translated by Pompey’s Freedman and its use became well known during the Roman Empire and continued into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Pompey’s Pillar is a Roman Triumphal red granite column standing 90 ft (25m) high, in Alexandria, Egypt.
It was named ‘Pompey’s Pillar’ by medieval historians because Pompey was executed in Alexandria in 48 BCE, and they believed his head was enclosed in the capital on top of the Pillar.