Pompey. Cneius Pompeius Magnus, the rival of Cæsar, was born in 106 B.C., and at seventeen fought along with his father in the Social or Italian war on the side of Sulla against the faction of Marius and Cinna. When Sulla returned from Greece to Italy to oppose Marius (84) Pompey hastened into Picenum, and there raised an army of three legions, with which he drove the soldiers of Marius out of the district, and then joined Sulla. For his prudence, valour, and good fortune throughout the war he was sent to destroy the remains of the Marian faction in Africa and Sicily. On his triumphant return to Rome he was honoured with the name of Magnus, or the Great. His triumph was an unprecedented distinction for one who had not yet held any public office and was merely an eques. His next exploits were the reduction of the followers of Lepidus, whom he drove out of Italy, and the extinction of the Marian party in Spain under the brave Sertorius (76-71). Pompey suffered some severe defeats from Sertorius, and, indeed, put an end to the war only after his antagonist's assassination. Returning to Italy, he fell in with the remnants of the army of Spartacus, and thus closed the Servile war. He was now the idol of the people, and, though legally ineligible for the consulship, was elected for the year 70, the senate relieving him of his disabilities rather than provoke him to extremities. Hitherto Pompey had belonged to the aristocratic party, but of late years he had been looked upon with suspicion by some of the leading men, and he now publicly espoused the people's cause. He carried a law restoring the tribunician power to the people; and aided largely in introducing the Lex Aurelia, by which the judices should for the future be taken from the senate, the eques, and the tribuni aararii, instead of from the senate alone. In 67-66 Pompey cleared the Mediterranean of the pirates who infested it; and during the next four years (65-62) conquered Mithridates, king of Pontus, Tigranes, king of Armenia, and Antiochus, king of Syria. At the same time he subdued the Jews and captured Jerusalem. On his return to Italy he disbanded his army, and entered Rome in triumph for the third time in 61. But now his star began to wane. Henceforward we find him distrusted by the aristocracy, and second to Cæsar in popular favour. After his return he was anxious that his acts in Asia should be ratified by the senate, and certain lands apportioned among his veterans. But the senate declined to accede to his wish, and he therefore formed a close intimacy with Cæsar, and the pair, together with the plutocrat Crassus, formed that coalition which is commonly called 'the First Triumvirate,' and which for a time frustrated all the efforts of the aristocratic party. This small oligarchy carried all before them: Pompey's acts in Asia were ratified, and his promises to his troops fulfilled; Cæsar's designs were all gained, and his agrarian law, distributing land in Campania among the poorer citizens, was passed. Cæsar's daughter, Julia, was given in marriage to Pompey, and private relationship was thus made to bind tighter the tie of political interest. In the year following Cæsar repaired to Gaul, and there for nine years carried on a career of conquest that covered him with glory, while Pompey was idly wasting his time and his energies at Rome. But Pompey could not bear a rival. Jealousies arose betwixt the two; Julia died in 54, and thus father-in-law and son-in-law were sundered by a yet wider gulf, which no bridge could span. Pompey now returned to the aristocratic party, whose great desire was to check Cæsar's views, and strip him of his command. Cæsar was ordered to lay down his office and return to Rome, which he consented to do, provided Pompey, who had an army near Rome, would do the same. The senate insisted on an unconditional resignation, and ordered him to disband his army by a certain day, otherwise he would be declared a public enemy. To this resolution two of the tribunes in vain objected; they therefore left the city and cast themselves on Cæsar for protection. It was on this memorable occasion that he crossed the Rubicon, and thus defied the senate and its armies, which were under Pompey's command. The events of the civil war which followed have already been recorded in the life of Cæsar. It remains only to mention that, after being finally defeated at Pharsalia in 48, Pompey escaped to Egypt, where, according to the order of the king's ministers, he was treacherously murdered by a former centurion of his own, as he was landing from the boat. His head was cut off, and afterwards presented to Cæsar on his arrival in Egypt. But Cæsar was too magnanimous to delight in such a sight, and the murderer of Pompey was by his orders put to death. The body lay on the beach for some time, but was at length buried by a freedman, Philippus, who had accompanied his master to the shore.
Pompey's younger son, Sextus, by his third wife, endeavoured after his father's death to prolong the struggle with Cæsar. He secured a large fleet, manned largely by slaves and political exiles, and, occupying Sicily, ravaged the coasts of Italy. But in 36 B.C. he was defeated at sea by Agrippa, and next year was slain at Mitylene.