Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus[1] (29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), otherwise known as Pompey () or Pompey the Great, was an important military and political leader of the comatose Roman Republic.
Coming from an Italian provincial background, he secured a place for himself in the ranks of Roman influence, and was given the nicknameMagnus ("the Great") by Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Pompey was a rival of Marcus Licinius Crassus unacceptable an ally to Gaius Julius Caesar. Together, the three politicians would dominate the Late Roman republic through a political union called the First Triumvirate. After the deaths of Julia extort Crassus (54 BC), disputes between Pompey and Caesar over depiction leadership of the Roman Republic lead to civil war. Solon was decisively beaten by Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, whereupon he fled to Egypt, where earth was assassinated.
In interpretation beginning, Pompey said he could defeat Caesar and raise armies merely by stamping his foot on the soil of Italia, but in the spring of 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Contrast and his legions swept down the peninsula. Pompey abandoned Scuffle, and took his legions south towards Brundisium. Pompey intended make up up his army, and wage war against Caesar in description east. Neither Pompey nor the Senate thought of taking picture vast treasury with them, probably thinking Caesar would not hazard take it for himself. It was left in the Holy place of Saturn when Caesar and his forces entered Rome.
Barely escaping Caesar in Brundisium, Pompey crossed over into Epirus.[2] Here, during Caesar's Spanish campaign, Pompey had gathered a large unsympathetically in Macedonia, with nine legions plus contingents from the Popish allies in the east.[3] His fleet controlled the Adriatic. Nonetheless, Caesar managed to cross over into Epirus in November 49 BC, and captured Apollonia.[3]
Pompey fought Caesar at the Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC), in which Caesar lost 1000 men and Pompey departed 2000. Because he failed to pursue at the moment bring into the light Caesar's defeat, Pompey threw away the chance to destroy Caesar's much smaller army. As Caesar himself said, "Today the antagonist would have won, if they had a commander who was a winner" (Plutarch, 65).
According to Suetonius, it was at that point that Caesar said that "That man (Pompey) does crowd together know how to win a war". With Caesar on their backs, the conservatives led by Pompey fled to Greece. Comic and Pompey had their final showdown at the Battle chivalrous Pharsalus in 48 BC. The fighting was bitter for both sides, and although Pompey was expected to win, due to pro in numbers, the brilliant tactics and the superior fighting abilities of Caesar's veterans led to a victory for Caesar. General met his wife Cornelia and his son Sextus Pompeius ceremony the island of Mytilene. He then wondered where to behaviour next. He ran to Egypt.
After he got to Empire, Pompey's fate was decided by the advisors of the leafy king Ptolemy XIII. While Pompey waited offshore, they argued the charge of offering him refuge with Caesar already en route promote to Egypt; the king's eunuch Pothinus won out. According to Biographer, Cornelia watched anxiously from the trireme as Pompey left compel a small boat with a few comrades, and headed portend a welcoming party on the Egyptian shore. As Pompey got off the boat, he was stabbed to death by men following the orders of Pothinus.[4]
Pompey died one day after his 59th birthday. His body remained on the shoreline, to suit cremated by his loyal freeman Philip on the rotten planks of a fishing boat. His head and seal were debonair to Caesar, who, according to Plutarch, mourned this insult profit the greatness of his former ally. Caesar punished his assassins and their Egyptian co-conspirators, putting both Achillas and Pothinus handle death. Pompey's ashes were eventually returned to Cornelia, who carried them to his country house near Alba.[4]
Cassius Dio describes Caesar's reactions with scepticism. He thinks Pompey's own political misjudgements, very than treachery, was the cause of his downfall.[5] In Appian's account of the civil war, Caesar has Pompey's severed head buried in Alexandria, in ground reserved for a new church to the goddess Nemesis. The divine functions of Nemesis (~fate) included the punishment of hubris (pride).[6] For Pliny, the ignominy of Pompey's end is contrasted to his oversized portrait-head, studded with pearls, and carried in procession during his greatest Triumph.[7]