POMPEI Gnaeus (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus)

(106-48 BC), after 81 BC. - Pompey the Great
Along with Caesar and Crassus Pompey was a member of a so-called. the first triumvirate, but at the end of life is the main opponent of Caesar.
Pompey was born in the family, natives of which played a prominent role in the political life of Rome in the 2. BC. His first serious military experience was participation in the Social War (91-87 BC), when the rose Italic allies of Rome - Samnites, Mars and other. The father of Pompey, unscrupulous Pompey Strabo, took time (89 BC) consulship. In 87 BC. Pompeius Strabo, balancing between sullantsami and advancing on Rome Lucius Cornelius Tsinnoy, died. The young Pompey switched it to Tsinne, but in 83 BC. we find it already in the ranks 'Optimates' sullantsev who fought with the 'popularization' followers died in 86 BC. Maria. Pompey scored in Pitsene, . Italic area on the shore of the Adriatic, . of the veterans and clients of his father, an army (3 Legion), and so successfully supported Sulla, . that he proclaimed him emperor (the victorious commander) and next year sent to Sicily, . then Africa,
. Advances in both campaigns have brought the young commander had given him the nickname the soldiers of the Great and the triumph (in 81 or 80 BC), in which Sulla consented reluctantly, under pressure actually forces which Pompey came to Rome. Triumphant was then only 25 years old, and he was still the rider, so he had no right to such differences.

A few years the Senate has asked Pompey to take part in the fight against the surviving supporters of Mary, and in 77 BC. he participated in the suppression of speech mariantsa Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, although the year before he contributed to his election to the consuls. In 76 BC. Pompey was otryazhen in Spain against mariantsev, which were headed by Quintus Sertorij. He acted there was not so successful, but the death Sertorij killed by the conspirators (72 BC), allowed Pompey to return to Italy with the army. The army was supposed he needs in order to destroy the remnants of the rebel army of slaves led by Spartacus was a gladiator: After the defeat of Crassus (71 BC), the rebels scattered across Italy. In fact, Pompey could take advantage of his soldiers in case if he failed to achieve the intended. In fact, for all its merits, having won so many victories, Pompey have never held any public office. And now he was able to celebrate a triumph, and in 70 BC. Pompey with Crassus, his rival for supremacy in Rome, was elected consul. Together, they abolished the constitution of Sulla, returning the power of tribune of the people and giving riders the right to participate in the courts to investigate abuses of the governors of provinces. Thanks tribunes not long in coming. In 67 BC. tribune Aulus Aulus Gabinius, despite the vehement opposition of the Senate, held a bill, which Pompey had been given an extraordinary wartime powers for the destruction of piracy in the Mediterranean. To achieve this, Pompey took only three months.

This achievement led to a new honors. In 66 BC, . at the suggestion of another forum, . Guy Manilius, . and again in spite of strong opposition of the Senate Pompey was even more substantial powers, . changing Lucie Licinius Lucullus in the post commander in the war with the king of Pontus Mithridates, . which for many years opposed to Rome in the East,
. New Roman commander easily drove Mithridates out of Asia Minor, and spent several years in the conquest of the East. The huge scale campaigns of Pompey and treachery, shown in relation to local residents, have sown the seeds of future strife in Rome and Parthia. However, Pompey expanded the scope of Roman rule in the East for several centuries laid the foundations of the management of these territories. As in Palestine, Pompey learned about suicide of Mithridates, and a few months (December 62 to AD), he returned to Italy, and celebrated his third triumph.

The fact that on arrival in Italy, Pompey disbanded his troops, freed from the fears of his opponents, which they experienced in connection with the return of the commander. However, it has emboldened the Senate, which refused to approve once all activities prozvedennye Pompey in the East, as well as authorization to pay the veterans of his army. In response, in 60 BC. Pompey formed a political alliance with Crassus and Caesar, known as the first triumvirate. This alliance was sealed by the marriage of Pompey to Caesar's daughter Julia. Caesar became consul for 59 BC. and quickly achieved the ratification of all acts of Pompey in the East, as well as the distribution of land to his veterans. Meanwhile, although the members of the triumvirate had reached an agreement on the need to drive counteract their plans Cicero, the alliance has remained unstable. Soon after, as in 58 BC. Caesar went to Gaul to obtain fame and wealth, between Pompey and Crassus renewed friction, and when Pompey did not oppose the return to Rome of Cicero, the final break seemed to have the inevitable. So Caesar arranged a meeting triumvirs in Luke (56 BC), where they tried to restore mutual. Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls again (55 BC), although it was not without violence, and then both have been appointed in the province: Pompey got Spain, and Crassus - Syria. But Pompey also never left Italy, and commanded his legions to Spain through the Vice.

With the death of Julia (54 BC) and killed in the war with the Parthians Crassus (53 BC), the bonds between Caesar and Pompey, had disappeared, and their rivalry has become open. When riots broke out in Rome prevented the election of consuls for 52 BC, the Senate urged Pompey to restore order and appointed him sole consul. Pompey coped with the task, called the troops and forced to dismiss one of the instigators of the riots Milo, who killed the leader of another gang Claudia. In addition, in the third consulate of Pompey, laws were passed that Caesar perceived as adversely affecting its interests, if not aimed directly against. Caesar attempts to defend its position led to a quarrel with the Senate, and eventually he was declared an enemy of the state (January 49 to AD). The Senate asked the Pompey faithful to the Senate to lead the troops in Italy, Pompey agreed, and 'the die was cast': Caesar crossed the Rubicon, a small river that separated Gaul from the most Tsizalpiyskuyu Italy. Started another civil war.

Faced with hardened legions of Caesar, Pompey preferred to retreat, in March, he was led away with him all the ships, crossed into Macedonia, where he began to recruit troops. Caesar quickly routed the supporters of Pompey in Spain, after which also crossed the Adriatic Sea (January 48 to AD). An attempt to storm the camp of Pompey under Dirrahiem almost ended miserably. But when Pompey on August 9, possibly against his own plans, and led his army on the battlefield of Pharsalus (Thessaly), Caesar inflicted a crushing defeat. In search of refuge and a base for continuing the fight Pompey fled to Egypt, but advisers infant king of Egypt, Ptolemy XIII, a client of Pompey, for fear of Caesar killed Pompey, as soon as he stepped ashore on 28 September 48 to AD