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POMPEIUS CNEICS. 



POMPEIUS CNEICS. 



918 



by a flash of lightning, the people at his funeral tore the body from 

 the bier and dragged it through the streets of Rome. (Plut., ' Pomp..' 

 i; Veil. Pat, ii. 21.) 



The first time we find the name of Pompey mentioned is in B.C. 89, 

 in the Marsic war, when he accompanied his father to fight against 

 the Italians; he was also in the battle at the gates of Rome between 

 his father and China and Sertorius. Soon after this battle Cinna 

 caused money to be distributed among the soldiers of Pompeius Strabo, 

 and bribed a friend and comrade of Pompey to murder him and his 

 father; but the courage of the young man saved his own and his 

 father's life, and put down an insurrection among the discontented 

 soldiers. His father died soon after this event, and when the Marian 

 party gained the upper hand, and made their entrance into the city, 

 the house of Pompey was plundered. It was not until after the death 

 of Marius, in B.C. 86, that he ventured to appear again in public, when 

 his enemies immediately charged him with being the accomplice of 

 his father in the plunder of Asculum. Having no confidence either 

 in the justice of his cause or the eloquence of his advocates L. Martins 

 Philippus and Q. Hortensius, he secretly betrothed himself to the 

 daughter of P. Antistius, who was to preside at the trial, by which 

 means, together with the protection of Carbo, he was acquitted. 



When Sulla was returning from his expedition against Mithridates, 

 Pompey, who had fled from the camp of Cinna just before he was 

 murdered, was in Picenum, where he set about raisiug at his own 

 expense an army, with which he hoped to overcome the Marian party 

 before the arrival of Sulla. Without the authority or sanction of the 

 Roman senate he organised three legions, consisting chiefly of the 

 veterans of his father. Three generals of the Marian party sur- 

 rounded him in three different camps. He directed his main force 

 against one of them, M. Brutus, and defeated him ; upon which the 

 two other generals retreated. Pompey was received in all the towns 

 of Picenum as their deliverer. (Plut., 'Pomp.,' 7.) The senate was 

 indignant at his arbitrary proceedings, but his army remained faithful 

 to him. At the interview which he afterwards had with Sulla he dis- 

 played enough of his vain and ambitious character for Sulla to discover 

 that Pompey wished to be looked upon as a man of no less importance 

 tbau himself. When therefore Pompey, with apparent humility, 

 niliitR'l him as imperator, Sulla returned the compliment. 



Sulla was made dictator, and the civil war waa carried on in Italy 

 with unremitting vigour. While the consul C. Marius the Younger 

 was besieged in Prscneste (B.C. 82), his colleague Cn. Carbo fought an 

 indecisive battle against Sulla at Clausium, but his legates Marcius 

 and Carrinag were defeated by Pompey. Carbo then retreated to 

 Ariminum, and sent Marcius to the relief of Prtcneste, but Pompey 

 repelled him in the Apennines with great loss. Carbo himself iu 

 despair (ailed to Africa, but his troops, which remained in Etruria, 

 were closely watched and afterwards dispersed by Pompey, whereby 

 the fall of Proeneste was prepared. Sulla, partly to reward the young 

 champion of his party, partly to make himself sure of his attachment, 

 presented him with the hand of his step-daughter /Emilia, who was 

 pregnant by Manilla Glabrio, from whom she was obliged to separate. 

 ( Pint., ' Sulla,' 33 ; ' Pomp.,' 9.) Pompey abandoned Antistia, to whom 

 he was married, but ./Emilia soon after died in childbed. Pompey was 

 thus a declared champion of the party of Sulla, and after the war in 

 Italy wag brought to a conclusion, he undertook to punish the remain- 

 ing enemies of the aristocracy in Sicily, Africa, and Spain. Carbo 

 attempted to escape to Egypt, but was overtaken and brought in 

 chains before Pompey, at Lilybroum ; his companions were put to 

 death without even the form of a trial ; Carbo, though he had onco 

 shown himself a friend to Pompey, was solemnly condemned to death, 

 and Pompey s'nt his head to Sulla. All Sicily submitted to him 

 without further resistance. Leaving the administration of Sicily in 

 the hands of Memmius, his brother-in-law, he set out for Africa with 

 ail immense fleet to oppose Domitius Ahenobarbus, under whom some 

 remnants of the Marian party had assembled, and also to support 

 Hiempsal, a friend of Sulla, against Hiarbas, king of Numidia. A 

 battle issued, in which Pompey, though with great loss, gained a 

 Tictory. Domitias fell, Hiarbas was ^ut to death, and Hiempsal 

 rentored to his throne. The whole object of this campaign was 

 attained in the course of a few mouths, and Pompey gained general 

 admiration for liis disinterestedness. He returned to Rome, where 

 thousands came out to meet and to gaze at the young hero. Sulla 

 himtelf complimented him with the appellation of Magnus (the great), 

 which henceforth became hereditary to his family. The time at which 

 he received this surname is differently stated by different authors, but 

 from the examination of the various accounts in Drumann's ' Hist, of 

 Rome* (vol. iv. p. 335, &c.), it cannot be doubted that ho obtained it 

 after his African expedition. But Fompey, although he had not 

 yet held any public oflice, and was only a knight (eques), was bent 

 upon entering Rome iu triumph. Several discussions took place in 

 the senate, where great efforts were made to prevent such an unpre- 

 cedented occurrence, but Sulla at length yielded and Pompey entered 

 Koine in triumph. After this display of childish vanity Sulla treated 

 him with a coldness which did not full much short of contempt. (Plut., 



Mip.,' 15.) 



TliU feature of vanity in his character explains the otherwise unac- 

 countable fact that, in opposition to Sulla, he exerted all his influence 

 to secure the consulship for Jimilius Lepidus. Sulla, foreseeing the 



consequences, said to Pompey, on this occasion, " Thou hast given the 

 sword into the hands of thy owii enemy." Sulla soon after died (B.C. 

 78), and Lepidus openly made the impotent attempt to rescind all 

 the laws of the late dictator, in which he hoped to be supported by 

 Pompey; but Pompey, remaining faithful to his party, saved the 

 aristocracy. It was only owing to the great precautions taken by the 

 senate that peace and order were maintained during the consulship of 

 Lepidus and Q. Catulus ; but after the expiration of the year, when 

 Lepidus had gone to his province of Gaul, the war broke out Lepidus 

 was defeated by the united forces of his late colleagxie Catulus and 

 Pompey, and the latter was now commanded by the senate to tako 

 the field against M. Junius Brutus, the father of the celebrated Brutus, 

 who was still at the head of a division of the army of Lepidus iu 

 Cisalpine Gaul. Brutus defended himself bravely in Mutina, but was 

 at length compelled to surrender : ho obtained the promise of safe 

 passage, but was put to death the next day by Geminius, at the 

 command of Pompey. (Plut., 'Pomp.,' 16, 64; 'Brut.,' 4.) Scipio 

 ..Kuiiliamis, the sou of Lepidus, was made prisoner in Liguria, and 

 likewise put to death at the command of Pompey. Lepidus was next 

 attacked by Catulus and Pompey, iu the neighbourhood of Cosa, and 

 being again defeated, he resolved, with the remnant of his army, to 

 seek refuge iu Sardinia, but he was repelled from the island by the 

 Roman governor, and soon after died. The surviving followers were 

 treated with great clemency, partly that they might not be induced to 

 join the army of Sertorius in Spain, and partly because the victorious 

 party themselves wished for peace in order to enjoy the fruits of their 

 victory. Pompey also received orders to lay down his arms and return 

 to Rome. He disobeyed the command under various pretexts ; but the 

 truth was, he was anxious to obtain the command against Sertorius. 

 And when indeed the power of Sertorius assumed a more threatening 

 character, when Perperna had joined his army, and the senate saw no 

 one else that could be entrusted with the command against so 

 formidable an enemy, it was at length reluctantly decreed tbat Pompey 

 should be sent to Spain with the power of a proconsul, and in 40 days 

 he was ready for departure, with an army of 30,000 foot and 1000 

 horse. He left Italy iu B.C. 76, when he was thirty years of age. Ho 

 crossed the Alps, according to Appiau ('Civil.,' L 109), between tho 

 rivers Rhone and Po, and directed his course towards the southern 

 coast of Spain. Several Spanish tribes, and even Lauron, when 

 besieged by his adversaries, declared for him. In the ensuing cam- 

 paign Metellus defeated Perperna, and took his camp, but Sertorius 

 wounded Pompey with his own spear, and compelled him to retreat. 

 Not long after, a great battle was fought near Seguntia, in which 

 Pompey was again defeated, and 6000 of his men were slain. In this 

 way the war was carried on with various success for nearly four years; 

 and had not Sertorius been betrayed by the Spaniards, and at last 

 assassinated by conspirators headed by Perperna (B.C. 74), he would 

 probably have driven the Romans from Spain, although Pompey con- 

 ducted the war with great skill. He now also received reinforcements 

 from Italy, where his demands were readily granted by the senate, 

 and strongly supported by the consul Luoullus, who feared lest 

 Pompey might return, as he had threatened to do, and obtain the 

 command against Mithridates. Pompey advanced in Spain as far west 

 as Cale (Porto). 



Perperna, now at the head of the armies of Sertorius, was attacked 

 by the whole of Pompey's forces, and took to flight. He was found 

 in a wood ; and, in order to eave his life, offered to deliver up to 

 Pompey letters of Roman nobles, in which they had invited Sertorius 

 to Italy, and expressed their aversion to the constitution of Sulla. 

 Pompey refused to see him, aud ordered him to be put to death, and 

 the papers to be burned without being read. The army of Perperna 

 dispersed ; but those who could not expect a pardon sought refuge in 

 those towns which were determined to defend their liberty to the last. 

 Some of these towns were razed to the ground by Pompey, while 

 some distinguished Spaniards, who had supported the enemy of their 

 own country, were individually rewarded with the Roman franchise. 

 (Cic., 'Pro C. Balbo,' 8.) As Metellus left Spain before Pompey, the 

 latter availed himself of this opportunity to make it appear that he 

 alone had accomplished the pacification of Spain, and, with the assist- 

 ance of commissioners sent by the senate, he proceeded to organise 

 the administration of the province of Spain. Another great object 

 was now to be accomplished. Almost the whole of southern Italy 

 was in the hands of the revolted slaves under Spartacus. On his 

 return, Pompey erected in the Pyrenees, on the road to Gaul, a pillar, 

 with au inscription recording his victories. (Strabo, iii. 4, p. 257, and 

 iv. 5, p. 287, Tauchnitz ) In Gaul he settled some of the bands which 

 had served under Sertorius in Gallia Aquitania, in a place which 

 hence received the name of Lugdunum Convenarum (St. Bertrand). 

 (Hieronym., ' Adv. Vigilant ,' torn. iv. p. 282, ed. Monach. Benedict., 

 Paris.) On his arrival in Italy, he did not, as the laws required, 

 dismiss his troops, for ha knew that with them he might obtain any- 

 thing from the senate. Crassue, a friend of the aristocratic party, 

 had been conducting the war against the slaves ; and ou hearing of 

 the return of Pompey, he had hastened to bring it to a conclusion, in 

 order that Pompey might not snatch the laurels from him. The war 

 was indeed at au end on the return of Pompey, but he found au 

 opportunity of cutting to pieces a body of 5000 slaves, who were on 

 their inarch to seek refuge beyond the Alps, and he wroto to tho 



