POMPEY, Cn., commonly known as "Pompey the Great," was the son of Pompey Strabo, a Roman general, and was born on the 30th September 106 B.C. His first fame as a general was won in the great struggle against the Marian party. Hearing in 84 B.C. that Sylla, the leader of the opposite faction, was returning from the East, he resolved, with the most decisive activity, to advance the cause of that famous commander. Although only in his twenty-third year, he succeeded in raising a force of three legions in his family district of Picenum, marched southwards, routing or terrifying all the troops that came across his path, and at length had the honour of presenting to the chief of his party an entire army, well equipped, and flushed with several victories. His next act was to proceed to Sicily for the purpose of driving out Perperna, and recovering the island. No sooner had that been effected without any opposition, than he was found in Africa defeating Domitius, and reducing the savage country of Numidia. The title of Magnus, and the honour of a triumph, which were conferred upon him on his return to Rome in 81 B.C., only served to increase his military ardour. He did not rest until, in 76 B.C., he was sent into Spain to finish the war by subduing Sertorius, the only surviving general of the Marian party. At first, indeed, his youthful impetuosity was checked and repulsed by the veteran tactics of his able foe. Yet no sooner had Sertorius been assassinated by Perperna in 72 B.C., than he annihilated the hostile forces in one great battle, reduced the entire peninsula shortly afterwards, and returned to Italy in 71 B.C. to claim a second triumph. Pompey now entered upon the meridian splendour of his career. His personal qualities began to show themselves, and to give a fresh and exquisite interest to the remembrance of his great exploits. In private he was seen to be simple in his tastes, temperate in his habits, fond of domestic quiet, and faithful to his marriage vows. In public he appeared a thorough-trained soldier, a dignified general, a man of honour and integrity, gracious in granting a favour, and prompt in giving a telling reply. The people pampered and idolized him on every occasion. There was no commission which could be refused to him, and which he could not execute with honour and success. Appointed in 67 B.C. to the great task of exterminating the hordes of pirates who revelled in plunder and license along the entire length of the Mediterranean, he received the undivided empire of the sea and the coast, and commenced the enterprise with all the bold decision and comprehensive power of a mighty potentate. His numerous squadrons, Pompey, distributed along the shores, chased the corsairs out of their favourite haunts in the numerous creeks and harbours. Then he himself, ranging the middle of the main with the body of his fleet, swept them all eastward before him, and bringing them to bay off the promontory of Coracesium, completely routed them, and remained undisputed king of the seas. Nor were his growing dominion and triumph checked even at this stage. As soon as it was known at Rome that he had extirpated the pirates, it was decreed that his command should also be extended over Asia Minor—that in fact almost the entire empire should be entrusted to his sway. Accordingly in 66 B.C. he began his progress through his new domains, invested with all the majesty and awe of a virtual emperor. Wherever he marched strife and opposition gave way before him. Mithridates, that formidable and inveterate foe to the Romans, fled at his approach to the distant regions of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. Kings and princes laid their crowns down at his footstool, and received them again from his hand. One country after another—Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Pamphylonia, Media, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Judea, were compelled to submit to the Roman yoke. He was even meditating to extend his conquests as far south as the Persian Gulf; when in 62 B.C., the intelligence of the death of Mithridates led him to consider that the chief object of the war was accomplished, and to return with his spoils in triumph to Rome. This triumph, in 61 B.C., was the culminating point of Pompey's career, and from that date his influence began to decline.

A much greater and abler man, Caius Julius Caesar, was now silently and successfully plotting to supplant him in the supreme place of power. At first that wily rival artfully used him as a tool. He formed the league of the first triumvirate with him and Crassus, in order that he might obtain by their assistance the province of Gaul. He then gave him the hand of his daughter Julia, in order that he might bind him still more closely to his interests. At the same time, under the protection of these alliances, all his energies were bent to train a veteran army which might execute his plans by sheer physical force, to achieve a military renown which might inspire his foes with terror and his friends with confidence, and to amass a treasure of wealth which might buy him partisans in the distant city of Rome. At length, when all his projects were ripe for execution, he boldly demanded leave from the Senate to stand for the consulship without appearing personally at Rome, and on his being balked in his request, he crossed the Rubicon at the head of his army in 49 B.C., and marched towards the city. It was then that the sad decline of Pompey's power became apparent. He could procure no thoroughly-disciplined trustworthy levies, with whom he could oppose his formidable enemy. Those who flocked to his standard were raw recruits, helpless senators, and luxurious and foolhardy nobles. His army was bound together by no spirit of mutual confidence or unity of purpose. He felt himself compelled to leave Caesar in undisputed possession of Italy, and to cross over in his fleet from Brundisium to Dyrrhacium. There, too, he failed to gain any real elements of strength. Although a year elapsed before he was confronted by the enemy, the spirit of insubordination and license was as prevalent in his camp as ever. Taunts and criminations continued to be cast against his generalship. He received no respite from blame, until he set aside his own plans of following closely upon the hostile troops and cutting off their supplies, and on the 9th of August 48 B.C. drew up his line of battle on the plain of Pharsalus. The consequence was, that his ranks were soon broken to pieces before the hardy battalions of the foe; his cause was totally ruined; and Caesar remained the undisputed master of the world. Pompey was completely stunned by this sudden blow of fortune, and made no attempt whatever to retrieve his fate. Departing from the fatal field with a few attendants, and walking silently and sadly on, he reached the mouth of the river Peneus, and took refuge for the night in a fisherman's hovel. On the following day a Roman vessel took him on board, and repaired to Lesbos to take in his wife Cornelia and his boy Sextus. He then, without any definite purpose, coasted westwards along the shores of Asia Minor, receiving acquisitions of ships and attendants as he proceeded. On arriving at Cyprus, it was determined that he should seek an asylum with Ptolemy, King of Egypt, whose father he had been the means of restoring to the throne. His friends accompanied him to the coast of Pelusium, and with sad forebodings saw him entrust himself to an Egyptian boat which had come out to take him to land. Their fears were doomed to be realized. Just as he was on the point of stepping on shore, they saw the dastardly hirelings stab him from behind, and beheld him calmly muffle up his face in his toga, and fall with a dignity that was worthy of Pompey the Great.

Pompet, Sextus, surnamed "Magnus," after his father, was the younger son of Pompey the Great, and Muca, and was born in 75 B.C. He first appeared on the field of action immediately after his elder brother Cnecius had been defeated by Caesar at Munda in 45 B.C. He then determined to take up the sword that had fallen from his brother's hand, and to devote his life to the avenging of his father's death, and to the recovery of his patrimony in Italy. Accordingly no time was lost in escaping to the border territory of the Lacetani, and in rallying around him in the mountain fastnesses a gang of banditti and desperadoes. In the course of a short period his band had swelled into an army, and his stealthy depredations had been exchanged for open and aggressive warfare. He marched southward, overwhelming all opposition, until he gained a firm footing in Iberia, and assumed the state and authority of a petty sovereign. Cains Carrinas and Asinius Pollio, the successive governors of the invaded province, tried in vain to crush him. Equally in vain was the attempt of the government at Rome to wheedle him into a surrender of his arms. Manning a fleet, he steered for the neighbourhood of Massilia, and lay off the coast, awaiting the issue of the political turmoil which had followed the death of Caesar. When the result was announced in 43 B.C., and he perceived that a second triumvirate was formed, and that his own name was among the number of the proscribed, his future plan of action was determined. There was no resource for him but to resort to piracy, and become as daring a seafaring as he had formerly been a brigand chief. His mariners therefore commenced to board traffickers, and to make descents upon cities, with telling effect. Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily fell into his power; Rome was reduced to the point of starvation by his interception of their corn-ships; and the triumvirs were at their wits' end how to deal with him. The negotiation which was held off the promontory of Misenum in 39 B.C. eventually proved fruitless. The attempts to subdue him by force were also signally foiled in the sea-fights at Cumae and Messana. It was not until Octavian strained every effort to extirpate this pest of the sea that the aspect of the contest began to change. Then, indeed, the doom of Sextus Pompey was virtually sealed. A Roman squadron, under Agrippa, annihilated his fleet off Naulochus in 36 B.C. Forced to flee for safety, he repaired to the coast of Asia Minor only to involve himself in greater perils. A plot which he had formed for seizing the eastern provinces was detected; Titus, the legate of Antony, overtook him in his flight towards Armenia; and after being carried to Miletus, he was put to death in 35 B.C.