Pompey the Great

Pompey the Great

 in full Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

(born Sept. 29, 106, Rome—died Sept. 28, 48 BC, Pelusium, Egypt) Statesman and general of the Roman republic. His early military career was illustrious. He fought effectively for Sulla against Marius in the Social War, reconquered Spain (76–71), destroyed utterly the army of Spartacus (71), destroyed the pirates of the eastern Mediterranean (from 67), defeated Mithradates (63), and consolidated and extended the eastern provinces and frontier kingdoms. In 61 he formed the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus. After Crassus's death in 53, Pompey and Caesar fell out. By 52, with Rome in a state of anarchy, Pompey was named sole consul. In 49 Caesar defied the Senate and provoked the civil war by crossing the Rubicon in pursuit of Pompey, who fled east with his navy. Defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus (48), Pompey fled with his fleet to Egypt, not realizing the Egyptians would take Caesar's side, and was killed as he prepared to step on land from the boat they had sent to bring him ashore.