POMPEY. 



629 



rompey therefore obtained the honour of a triumph, 

 although he was the first Roman who had been 

 admitted to it without possessing a higher dignity 

 than that of knighthood, and was not yet of the 

 legal age to be received into the senate. Sylla 

 soon after abdicated the dictatorship, and, at the 

 consular election, had the mortification to feel his 

 rival's ascendency. He revenged himself by pass- 

 ing him over in his will ; but Pompey was magnani- 

 mous enough to respect the dead, and used his 

 influence to have his body buried at the public 

 expense, with the greatest pomp. 



New troubles soon broke out, occasioned princi- 

 pally by the ambitious projects of the consul Lepi- 

 dus, who aimed at supreme power. Lepidus left 

 Rome, and placed himself at the head of an army, 

 but was defeated by the united forces of the consul 

 Catulus and Pompey. The latter was then com- 

 manded to march against M. Junius Brutus (father 

 of the celebrated M. Brutus), who commanded a 

 body of troops in Cisalpine Gaul in the interest of 

 Lepidus. Pompey compelled him to surrender, and 

 put him to death, notwithstanding that he had pro- 

 mised him a safe conduct. A period of quiet now 

 followed, and Catulus endeavoured to oblige Pom- 

 pey to dismiss his troops. This the latter evaded, 

 under various pretences, until the progress of Ser- 

 torius, formerly a general in the service of Marius, 

 in Spain, induced the senate to send Pompey, now 

 thirty years of age, to the support of Metellus, who 

 was unequal to cope with so able an adversary. 

 He was invested with proconsular power. The 

 two commanders who acted independently of each 

 other, though with a mutual good understanding, 

 were both defeated through the superior activity 

 and skill of Sertorius. Pompey lost two battles, 

 and was personally in danger; and, as long as Ser- 

 torius was alive, the war was continued with little 

 success. But Sertorius having been murdered by 

 his own officers, and succeeded in the command by 

 Perpenna, Pompey soon brought the struggle to an 

 end. 



On his return to Italy, the servile war was raging: 

 Crassus had already gained a decisive victory over 

 Spartacus, the leader of the rebels, and nothing was 

 left for Pompey but to complete the destruction of 

 the remnants of the servile forces ; yet he assumed 

 the merit of this triumph, and displayed so little 

 moderation in his success, that he was suspected of 

 wishing to tread in the steps of Sylla. He triumph- 

 ed a second time, and was chosen consul B. C. 70, 

 although he had yet held none of those civil offices 

 through which it was customary to pass to the con- 

 sulship. His colleague was Crassas, and both of 

 them courted the people Crassus by his profuse 

 largesses, and Pompey by the restoration of the 

 tribuneship, and other popular institutions. In the 

 course of the year, when the censors were, accord- 

 ing to custom, engaged in granting release from 

 service to such knights as had served the time 

 required, Pompey appeared before them, in his con- 

 sular robes, and leading his horse by his bridle. 

 The censor asked him " Pompey the Great, have 

 you served the time required by law?" "Yes," 

 answered he, " and all under my own command." 

 This answer was received with a general shout of ap- 

 plause: the censors rose from their seats, and accom- 

 panied him, amidst the acclamations of the multi- 

 tude, to his house. 



Two years after the expiration of his consulship, 

 the pirates, encouraged by the Mithridatic war, had 

 become so powerful in the Mediterranean that they 

 carried on a regular warfare along a great extent of 

 coast, and were masters of 1000 galleys and 400 

 towns. The tribune Gabinius, a man devoted to 



the interests of Pompey, proposed tnat an indivi- 

 dual (whose name he did not mention) should be 

 invested with extraordinary powers by sea and land 

 for three years, to put an end to the outrages of the 

 pirates. Several friends of the constitution spoke 

 with warmth against this proposition; but it was 

 carried by a large majority, and the power was 

 conferred on Pompey, with the title of proconsul. 

 In four months he cleared the sea of the ships of 

 the pirates, got possession of their fortresses and 

 towns, set free a great number of prisoners, and 

 took captive 20,000 pirates, to whom, no less pru- 

 dently than humanely, he assigned the insular towns 

 of Cilicia and other provinces, which had been aban- 

 doned by their inhabitants, and thus deprived them of 

 any opportunity of returning to their former course. 



Meanwhile, the war against Mithridates had been 

 carried on with various fortune, and, although 

 Lucullus had pushed the enemy hard, yet the latter 

 still found new means to continue the contest. 

 The tribune Manilius then proposed that Pompey 

 should be placed over Lucullus in the conduct of 

 the war against Mithridates and Tigranes, and 

 likewise over all the other Roman generals in the 

 Asiatic provinces, and that all the armies in that 

 quarter should be under his control, at the same 

 time that he retained the supreme command by sea. 

 This was a greater accumulation of power than had 

 ever been intrusted to any Roman citizen, and sev- 

 eral distinguished men were resolved to oppose a 

 proposition so dangerous to freedom with their 

 whole influence: but Pompey was so higli in the 

 popular favour that, on the day appointed for the 

 consideration of the proposition, only Hortensius 

 and Catulus had the courage to speak against it, 

 while Cicero, who hoped to obtain the consulship 

 through the support of the Pompeian party, advo- 

 cated it with all his eloquence, and Cassar, to whom 

 such deviations from the constitution were accept- 

 able, used all his influence in favour of it. Cicero's 

 oration pro lege Manilla contains a sketch of Pom- 

 pey's public life, with the most splendid eulogy 

 that, perhaps, was ever made on any individual. 

 The law was adopted by all the tribes, and Pompey, 

 with assumed reluctance, yielded to the wishes of 

 his fellow citizens. He arrived in Asia B. C. 67, 

 received the command from Lucullus, who was the 

 less able to conceal his chagrin as Pompey industri- 

 ously abolished all his regulations. (See Mithridates) 

 The king was driven from his strongholds, defeat- 

 ed with the loss of his camp, and compelled to flee 

 into the country beyond the Caspian. Pompey, 

 who had, at the same time, detached Tigranes from 

 his alliance with Mithridates, and placed his king- 

 dom at the disposition of the Romans, followed 

 Mithridates to Scythia, and waged war for two 

 years with the warlike inhabitants of that region. 

 He then returned to Pontus, completed the con- 

 quest of that kingdom, and converted Syria into a 

 Roman province. At the invitation of the two 

 brothers Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, who claimed 

 the throne of Judaea, he appeared in that country 

 to settle the dispute. After a three months' siege, 

 he took Jerusalem by storm, and conferred on 

 Hyrcanus the dignity of high-priest. In the mean 

 time, Mithridates, reduced to despair, had poisoned 

 himself, and thus ended the war. 



After Pompey had settled the affairs of Asia, he 

 visited Greece, where he heard the orators and 

 poets, and displayed his respect for philosophy by 

 making a valuable gift to the city of Athens. He 

 then returned to Italy, dismissed his army, to quiet 

 the apprehensions of the citizens, as soon as he 

 landed at Brundusium (B. C. 61), and entered 

 Rome as a private man. The whole city came out 



