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Pompey the Great

At the age of twenty-six Gnaeus Pompeius is considered such a brilliant general that his own troops, after a campaign in Africa in 80 BC, call him Pompeius Magnus - Pompeius the Great - in a flattering echo of Alexander the Great. In English he is known more simply as Pompey.

Pompey's military reputation continues to grow and in 67 BC he is entrusted with an important mission - to rid the Mediterranean of the pirates who are terrorising coastal regions and ruining Rome's trade. They are said to have as many as 1000 ships in their combined fleets. In view of the evident difficulty of the task, the senate gives Pompey three years to complete it.

He takes three months. He annihilates the entire pirate fleet in a brilliantly planned operation, astonishing in an age when long-range communication is difficult. To prevent his prey from constantly slipping out of reach, Pompey divides the Mediterranean and Black Sea into thirteen regions, each with its own commander. A carefully coordinated operation over the entire area soon mops up the pirate vessels.

This success brings Pompey, in 66 BC, an even more important command. He is to take charge of the Roman legions in Asia Minor. The entire eastern Mediterranean, from Anatolia through Syria to Palestine, is in a state of unrest and anarchy. His task is to bring it under control.

Again he achieves his purpose with great skill. Anatolia is subdued. Syria is annexed in 64 BC as a Roman province. Phoenicia and Palestine are soon merged with it, though Jerusalem only falls to him after a three-month siege.

Throughout the region Pompey establishes administrative systems which will preserve peace in the coming years. They will also bring in vast new quantities of annual tax. When Pompey enjoys his triumph in Rome, in September of 61 BC, the quantity of gold and bullion dragged along in his procession is greater than any general has brought home before. It is sufficient to provide a generous bounty for his soldiers and still leave much for the treasury.

On bringing his victorious fleet and army into Brindisi, late in 62 BC, Pompey has dismissed his legions in the correct manner - it is illegal for Roman generals to bring their armies on to Italian soil. But there is, as always on such occasions, an implicit understanding between the legionaries and their leader; he will use his influence to provide plots of land on which they can support themselves.

For two years Pompey fails to fulfil this obligation, owing to political obstruction from opponents in Rome. The situation brings him into a natural alliance with two other powerful but frustrated men - Crassus, a one-time political colleague of his, and the up-and-coming Julius Caesar.

The first triumvirate: 60-53 BC



In the circumstances, they do so.




Caesar and Pompey: 54-48 BC





