Historical Figure
Pompey the Great
b. 106 BC
Roman general and statesman (106–48 BC)
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Biography
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. As a young man, he was a partisan and protégé of the dictator Sulla, after whose death he achieved much military and political success himself.
In Their Own Words (3)
More people worship the rising than the setting sun.
Spoken by a young Pompey to the Dictator Sulla to get Sulla to award him a triumph
Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons!
“Οὐ παύσεσθε,” εἶπεν, “ἡμῖν ὑπεζωσμένοις ξίφη νόμους ἀναγινώσκοντες;” Plutarch, Lives. Pompey 10.3.2. To the Mamertines in Messana, complaining about Pompey's legal jurisdiction after their city was retaken during the civil warfare. Lit.: "'Will you not give up,' he said, 'reading laws to us men girt with swords?'"
To sail is necessary, to live is not.
The needs of the state (to supply their starving people with grain brought by ship) outweigh the needs of the individual, such as a sailor who would prefer not to risk death by leaving port in a violent storm to pick up a grain shipment.
Timeline
The story of Pompey the Great, told in moments.
Born Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in Picenum, eastern Italy. His father was a wealthy senator with a bad reputation. Pompey inherited his father's army at 23 and immediately used it to back the dictator Sulla.
Given extraordinary command to clear the Mediterranean of pirates. He did it in three months. The operation covered the entire sea. Grain prices in Rome dropped immediately. He was 39.
Formed the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Crassus. Three men dividing the Roman world between them. Pompey married Caesar's daughter Julia to seal the deal. When she died in childbirth, the alliance began to crack.
Lost the Battle of Pharsalus to Caesar despite having double the troops. His army broke and ran. Pompey fled to Egypt hoping for refuge from the boy-king Ptolemy XIII.
Murdered on a small boat off the Egyptian coast. Ptolemy's advisors stabbed him as he stepped ashore, hoping to gain Caesar's favor. Caesar wept when presented with Pompey's severed head. They'd been allies, then family, then enemies.
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