POM 



the ascendancy of Marius and Cinna deluged the ca- 

 pital with blood. 



Attached to the interests of Sylla, Pompey levied 

 three legions for his cause. In the 26th year of his age 

 he succeeded in reducing Sicily, and in 40 days he re- . 

 covered all the territories in Africa that had forsaken the 

 cause of his master. The Romans were astonished at 

 such rapid and unexpected success, and a dread of the 

 rising power of Pompey induced Sylla to recall him to . 

 Rome. On his arrival at the capital, Sylla saluted 

 him with the appellation of Great ; but the ambition of 

 Pompey required something more for its gratification, 

 and when he was refused a triumph, he exclaimed, 

 " That there were more worshippers of the rising than 

 of the setting sun." Sylla, alarmed at the boldness of 

 the speech, yielded to a Roman knight a triumphal 

 procession through the streets of the capital. Upon 

 the death of Sylla, Pompey opposed the Marian faction 

 under Lepidus. He put an end to the war which had 

 been occasioned in Spain by the revolt of Sertorius, 

 and though still a private citizen, he was honoured by 

 a second triumph. Being soon afterwards made consul, 

 he restored the tribunitial power to its original dignity, 

 and in 40 days he put down the pirates in the Medi- 

 terranean, who had nearly destroyed the naval power 

 of Rome. By the influence of Manilius and his other 

 friends at Rome, he was appointed to carry on the war 

 against Mithridates, king of Pontus, and Tigranes, 

 king of Armenia ; and such was the success of his 

 operations, that he defeated Mithridates in a general 

 engagement, and soon afterwards received the submis- 

 sion of the Armenian king. After conquering the Al- 

 - banians and Iberians, he visited countries which were 

 then scarcely known at Rome ; and at one time he re- 

 ceived homage from twelve crowned heads. Entering 

 Syria, ami pushing his conquests as far as the Red Sea, 

 he subdued Arabia, reduced Judea to the state of a 

 Roman province, and returned to his native country in 

 all the pomp and state of eastern magnificence. The 

 Romans, though dazzled with all this splendour, had 

 too much wisdom not to dread the popularity and influ- 

 ence of such a man. Pompey, anticipating this feeling, 

 prudently disbanded his army, and entered Rome as a 

 private citizen. The Romans honoured him with a 

 triumph, and gazed for three successive days on the 

 spoils of eastern grandeur which preceded the con- 

 queror's chariot. Twenty thousand talents were added 

 to the public treasury, and the revenues of the state 

 were raised from 50 to 85 millions of drachmae. 



The dignified elevation to which Pompey was now 

 raised, procured him many enemies. Under the mo- 

 dest guise of a private citizen, it was obviously his am- 

 bition to hold the first place in the republic. In wealth 

 he was still inferior to Crassus and Lucullus. The re- 

 publican faction watched him with a well-founded jea- 

 lousy ; and Caesar was busily though secretly engaged 

 in laying a broad basis for his boundless ambition. 



With the view of increasing his power, and pulling 

 down his enemies, Pompey united himself with Caesar 

 and Crassus, a combination of heterogeneous ele- 

 ments which external causes alone could keep toge- 

 ther. In the division of the provinces among this 

 triumvirate, Pompey received Africa and Spain, Crassus 

 was made governor of Syria, and Caesar was contented 

 with the remainder, and with the possession of the go- 

 vernment of Gaul for other five years. The death of 

 Julia, however, the daughter of Caesar, whom Pompey 

 had received in marriage, and the total defeat and 

 slaughter of Crassus in Syria, dissolved this disjointed 

 2 



82 POM 



i 



confederacy, and left the empire of Rome to Pompey Pompey *s 

 and Caesar. Pillar. 



The history of the civil war which followed these ^~*^<~~~' 

 events has been so minutely given in the life of Caesar, 

 that it is unnecessary to repeat it in this place. See 

 CJESAR, Vol. V. p. 198. After the battle of Pharsalia, 

 Pompey fled for protection to Ptolemy, king of E^ypt, 

 and arrived in the bay of Alexandria. When a boat 

 was sent to bring him on shore, Pompey left, his gal- 

 ley, after a tender parting with his sen and his 

 wife Cornelia. The Egyptian sailors received him 

 on board with a gloomy silence, and the moment 

 he disembarked he was assassinated by Achillas and 

 Septimius; an event which happened 48 years before 

 Christ, and in the 58th or 59th year of his age. His 

 head was cut off and sent to Caesar, and his body was 

 left. for some time naked on the sea-shore. One of his 

 freedmen, however, of the name of Philip, formed a 

 burning pile, and deposited the ashes of his master un- 

 der a mound of earth. Caesar erected a monument to his 

 memory, and the emperor Valent afterwards repaired 

 it at his own expence. Cneius and Sextus, the sons of 

 Pompey, endeavoured for a time to oppose the power 

 of Caesar ; but they soon sunk beneath his arm. Cneius 

 fell in the battle ot Munda, and Sextus was put to death 

 by Antony about 35 years before Christ. 



POMPEY'S PILLAR, a very interesting monument 

 of antiquity, which has been already briefly described 

 under the article EGYPT, Vol. VIII. p. 396'. Since 

 that article was written, much curious information on 

 this subject has appeared in the late Dr. Clarke's Tra- 

 vels, the substance of which we shall now endeavour 

 to communicate. 



Pompey 's pillar is visible from almost every spot in 

 the neighbourhood of Alexandria. The inscription 

 upon its pedestal, supposed to contain the name of the 

 emperor Diocletian, was not known to exist when Dr. 

 Clarke visited Egypt, although it had been mentioned 

 by Ma.illet and Pococke. After gazing for some time 

 in utter astonishment at the sight of a column of gra- 

 nite eight feel in diameter, and sixty-three feet high, Mr, 

 Hamilton expressed a wish to find some part of the 

 inscription. The four sides of the pedestal were ac- 

 cordingly examined, but not a trace of any existing in- 

 scription could be discovered. This inscription, how- 

 ever, was afterwards discovered by Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Squire. He observed that the letters IT and O were 

 legible enough, and he clearly perceived by the re- 

 mains of the characters that it consisted ofjbur lines in 

 Greek. Mr. Hamilton was at this time in Upper 

 Egypt ; but upon his arrival in Alexandria, when the 

 attempt to copy the inscription had begun, he assist- 

 ed in taking a fac-simile of it, and observed the letters 

 which are now believed to complete the name of 

 the emperor Diocletian. The letters observed are 

 AIO IANON, which have been supposed by some 



to be AIOKAHTIANON, Diocletian; and by "others 

 AION AAPIANON, the divine Adrian. In favour of 

 this last supposition it should be stated, that Sicard, 

 who examined the inscription long ago, declared the 

 fourth letter to be N and not K. The veneration of 

 Diocletian's name has been ascribed to the supposed 

 gratitude of the people of Alexandria to Diocletian for 

 an allowance of corn ; but Dr. Clarke remarks, that 

 history affords no authority either for the tribute itself, 

 or the grateful feelings which it is supposed to have ex- 

 cited. Hadrian, on the contrary, was pre-eminently 

 entitled to their gratitude. He performed also, accord- 

 ing to Dio Cassius, funeral rites to Pompey, as Julius 



