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.

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Pompey the Great 

(Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus). Born 106 B.C.; died 48 B.C. Roman military leader and politician.

In 83 B.C., Pompey aligned himself with Sulla. After Sulla’s death, he at first defended the regime Sulla had established, participating in 78–77 in the suppression of Lepidus’ revolt, from 77 to 72 in the war against Sertorius in Spain, and in 71 in the suppression of the uprising led by Spartacus. His and Crassus’ consulship in the year 70 was marked by the abolition of many of Sulla’s institutions. In 67 he received extraordinary powers for three years to deal with piracy in the Mediterranean. In 66 he became commander of the Roman troops in the war against Mithridates VI Eupator, which ended in victory for the Romans and the organization of the new provinces of Bithynia and Pon-tus as well as Syria. The Senate’s refusal to approve his measures in the East and to reward his soldiers with lands induced him to join an alliance with Crassus and Caesar in 60, which was called the First Triumvirate. In 55 he again served as consul with Crassus and then as governor of Spain, which he ruled from Rome through legates.

When the First Triumvirate collapsed after Crassus’ death in 53, Pompey drew close to the Optimates. In 52 he was elected “sole consul.” In 50 he was given command of an army to fight Caesar. Pompey defeated Caesar in 48 at Dyrrhachium in Epirus, but soon thereafter his army was defeated by Caesar’s at Pharsalus in Thessaly. Pompey fled to Egypt, where the Egyptian emperor Ptolemy XIII, who wanted to please Caesar, ordered that he be killed.

V. M. SMIRIN