Thanks to Caesar’s victory in the civil war, Pompey is mostly remembered not for being one of Rome’s greatest generals, but for being defeated by Caesar and then ignominiously murdered after he fled to Egypt, where the boy pharaoh Ptolemy XIII decapitated Pompey and offered his head to Caesar as a gift. Although Caesar was there chasing Pompey’s men, he quickly became involved in Egypt’s own civil war. As a consequence of Ptolemy’s barbarity, Caesar impulsively decided to side with his sister Cleopatra in her bid for the throne of Egypt, escalating what was rapidly becoming an all-out civil war.
Of course, before the civil war, Pompey was one of the most powerful men in Rome. Gnaeus Pompeius was born on September 29, 106 BCE and went on to become regarded as one of the greatest statesmen and generals of the late Roman Republic. He was given the title “the Great” by his troops in Africa in 82 BCE and assumed the cognomen Magnus after 81 BCE. Pompey belonged to the senatorial nobility, the Pompeii, and the family had its first consul in 141 BCE. He loved all things Greek and spoke the language fluently. He gained much of his early military experience working on the staff of his father Pompeius Strabo, and the family base was in Picenum in eastern Italy. Strabo had significantly increased the family’s clients when he was consul in 88 BCE.
In time, Pompey played a role in defeating many of Rome’s enemies across the world, from Africa to Spain, and he even helped put down Spartacus’ uprising. He had built his military power and acumen by participating in Rome’s previous civil war between Gaius Marius and Sulla, sharpening both his political and military skills, and he used them to great effect for decades during one of ancient Rome’s most chaotic – and important – periods. Perhaps just as importantly, following his successes in Africa, he demanded a triumph and refused to disband his army.
