Pompey the Great: The Life and Legacy of the Legendary Roman General Who Lost the Civil War to Julius Caesar

Possibly the most important man of antiquity, and even all of history, was Julius Caesar. Alexander Hamilton, the famous American patriot, once remarked that “the greatest man who ever lived was Julius Caesar”. Such a tribute, coming from one of the Founding Fathers of the quintessential modern democracy in reference to a man who destroyed the Roman Republic, is testament to the enduring mark that Caesar left upon the world. The ultimate conqueror, statesman, dictator, visionary, and opportunist, during his time in power Caesar expanded the borders of Rome to almost twice their previous size, revolutionized the infrastructure of the Roman state, and destroyed the Roman Republic for good, leaving a line of emperors in its place. .


Even in his time, Caesar was in many ways larger than life, and because of his legacy as virtual founder of the Roman Empire, much of what was written about – and by – him during his life and immediately after his assassination was politically motivated. The fact that he was murdered on the Ides of March is universal knowledge, but it’s often forgotten that he was stabbed while entering the Curia of Pompey, one of the Senate’s meeting places, in March of 44 BCE. The curia was a theater dedicated to Pompey the Great, Caesar’s rival in the civil war that ended the Republic and made Caesar dictator. When Caesar was stabbed, he fell at the base of a colossal statue of Pompey.


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. He brought his troops to the gates of Rome, and Sulla felt he had no option but to give in to his demands. When Sulla withdrew from political life, Pompey supported Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, a strong supporter of Sulla, for the consulship in 78 BCE. Once in office, Lepidus attempted to stage what in effect would have been a revolution. On this occasion, though, Pompey did not join him and in fact used his army to defeat the uprising. These were lessons Julius Caesar would take note of when he crossed the Rubicon to fight Pompey a generation later.