Born of the oldest Roman nobility, Pompey (Cn. Pompeius Magnus listen)) made his first weapons under the command of his father, Pompey Strabo, in the Allied War. He later fought against the supporters of Marius, especially in Sicily and Africa, where his victories earned Sulla the nickname "Great" ( magnus ), fighting at the command of a private army, recruited from among Piceno's family clients and the veterans of his father, a supporter of Sulla.
His political life began when Sulla entered Rome after defeating Mithridates in 84 BC. His first actions were to put order in a political scene, agitated by two pockets of resistance from the Populares, led by Lepidus and Quintus Sertorius.
Lepidus Rebellion (78BC)
The Consul Emilio Lépido, former "Popular" passed to Sila, tried to find support for his leadership in the elements of the population harmed by the Sila Dictatorship.
Political program of Lepidus
His political program included the main aspirations and demands of the groups and individuals excluded from the system, who asked for:
— The return of the exiles.
— Return to their former owners of the confiscated properties.
— Annulment of Sulla's measures against the descendants of the outlaws.
— Resumption of free distributions of grain among the plebs.
Extentofagitation
Lepidus's aspirations found an echo in the region of Etruria, whose inhabitants had been greatly affected by the confiscations and the province rose up against Rome.
The Senate gave orders to the Consuls to crush the uprising. Catullus obeyed but Lepidus joined the rebels.
Pompey was appointed lieutenant of the Consul Catullus and Lepidus was defeated at the Milvian Bridge. A part of the troops, commanded by Marco Perpenna, fled to Hispania and joined the troops of another rebel to the Sulla regime:Quintus Sertorius.
Pompey and Sertorius (74-71BC)
Q. Sertorius he had fought against the Cimbri and Teutons, and later against the Italic peoples in the War of the socii . In all his interventions, he credited himself as an excellent general. Between Mario and Sila, he sided with Mario against Sila. When he triumphantly entered Rome, Sertorius went to Hispania (82 BC), with the purpose of gathering resources to counteract the power of Sila.
Rome sent against Sertorius two of its best generals:Metellus and Pompey.
Sertorio managed, employing skillful politics, to win the affection of the Hispanics.
— He founded a school in Osea (Huesca) to educate the children of Celtiberian nobles. In it they were taught the Greek and Latin letters.
— He formed in Évora a Senate of 300 members, composed of Romans and refugees fleeing Roman repression.
— He defeated Metellus and Pompey in several battles (Valencia, Xucron River, Sagunto).
Unable to defeat him on the battlefield, the Romans put a price on his head (200 talents), and he was killed by his lieutenant Perpenna at a banquet (72 BC).
Pompey remained in the Iberian Peninsula for five years (76-71). He is credited with founding the city of Pompaelo (Pamplona), in the country of the Vascones.
PompeyandtheGladiatorWar
The gladiators —usually slaves, prisoners of war, or criminals fighting in the circus in Rome— rose up. Their leader was a Thracian prince who had deserted the Roman army, named Spartacus (73-71 BC). After being imprisoned and working as a slave in Capua, he managed to escape and organized an army of gladiators and runaway slaves.
The facts:
— Spartacus he defeated the Roman Legions several times and managed to reach the gates of Rome.
— Crassus He led the Roman legions, reestablished discipline in them and managed to push the gladiators south, defeating them at the battle of Silaro , where Spartacus died heroically.
— Defeated and leaderless, the gladiators headed for the Alps, but encountered Pompeius , who returned from Hispania, being almost completely annihilated.
— Pompey's revenge was terrible:those who did not die in battle were crucified (about 6,000). Pompey wrote to the Senate:'Crassus has defeated Spartacus; but I have overcome the roots of war; it will never be reborn again.”
The consulate of Pompey and Crado
As a reward for this victory, in the year 70 Crassus and Pompey were elected Consuls, representing the popular reaction , abolishing the Sila Constitution and the limitations imposed by Sila on the Tribunes of the Plebs, giving a wide margin of action to the Populares, since these magistrates were only mere agents of great republican personalities.
With them, Pompey increased his power.
They also expelled from the Senate 64 Senators added by Sulla.
Crassus (M. Cicinius Crassus) stayed in Rome for the next decade, making an alliance with L. Sergio Catilina and Caesar , who provided electoral support to the Equestrian Order.
Pompeyo activity
Pompey's activity in later years can be summarized in the following points.
War against the pirates (67 a.C.)
Powers and effectives:The Lex Gabinia
- The Lex Gabinia of 67 B.C. granted him the imperium maritime and the power to operate inland at a depth of 50 km. for all coasts.
- he put at his disposal the fleet and all the treasure of Rome, being able to be helped by kings and subjects of Rome.
Pompey, with these powers, created a fleet and defeated the pirates with 100,000 knights, 5,000 horsemen and 100 ships.
Events and result (67 B.C.)
- The Roman general blockaded all the Mediterranean ports, forcing the corsairs to take refuge on the mountainous coasts of Olida (in the Eastern Mediterranean), where they found good and safe ports.
- Pompey went to look for them in their refuges in the Aegean and Black Seas, looted their arsenals and warehouses, destroyed their ships and took 20,000 prisoners, although he was generous, sparing their lives and distributing them among the cities that the war had killed. deserted. The fight had lasted three months.
Pompey and the 3rd war against mithridates (74-63 b.c.)
The facts
The events that preceded:The second mithridatic war and the peace of Dardanus.
Mithridates, defeated by Sulla (84 BC), after his death, knew how to take advantage of the uprisings and the fights between the parties, taking up arms against Rome in order to reconquer the territories that he had lost.
In the year 82 B.C. The first frictions arose regarding Cappadocia that triggered the intervention of Lucius Licinius Murena, Sulla's successor in Asia.
Peace was barely restored, more fictitious than real, which turned Pontus into a pole of attraction for opposing elements:the anti-Romans and the anti-Silans.
The invasion of Bithynia
Mithridates, with the support of his son-in-law, Tigranes of Armenia, created a power complex in Asia Minor that was only waiting for a favorable opportunity to rise up against Rome. The occasion arose when King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia died, leaving his kingdom to Rome.
Mithridates invaded Bithynia and the Senate entrusted the direction of him to the governors of Bithynia and Asia, Aurelius Cotta and Licinius Lucullus respectively.
The 3rd Mithridatic War proper
Mithridates defeated Cotta in Chalcedon, but Lucullus managed to make him flee and invaded Pontus, Mithridates seeking refuge in Armenia, along with his son-in-law, King Tigranes.
The action of Lucullus and the Publicani (70 BC)
After his victories, Lucullus returned to his province that required urgent economic measures, lowering taxes on the population, which earned him the opposition of the businessmen and the Publicani who were fleecing the province. In 69 BC, Lucullus invaded Armenia and seized his capital, Tigranocerta, but a mutiny of his soldiers made him lose the advantage and the expedition was a resounding failure, Tigranes and Mithridates managing to recover their possessions.
The Lex Manilia of 66 BC
Pompey's supporters saw an opportunity to capitalize on this defeat of Lucullus. The Tribune of the Plebs, Gaius Manilius, presented a law that commissioned Pompey to conduct the war against Mithridates. This Manilia law gave it a potential authority far superior to the Lex Gabinia, outside the Roman Constitution. This law added to the Gabinian Law jurisdiction over Phrygia, Lycaonia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Bithynia, Upper Colchis, and Armenia.
In defense of the Lex Manilia, Cicero delivered a speech that was considered crucial in his political career.
Things were not going well when Pompey took command of the army, for not only Mithridates and his ally the King of Armenia, Tigranes (121-56 BC), had entered their respective states, but they had also taken the offensive and the Romans They receded everywhere.
But Pompey arrived in Asia with 60,000 men and a large fleet, which allowed him to block the coast of Asia Minor, while Mithridates could only oppose him with 30,000 men.
Mithridates seeing that his efforts would be useless and already tired of the fight, he sued for peace, retiring to the inaccessible regions of the Caspian Sea, where he died at an advanced age.
Disencumbered by the king of Pontus, Pompey entered the Tigranes States of Armenia, meeting little resistance, since, seeing the futility of his efforts, Tigranes went to humble himself before Pompey and offered him his crown, restoring him to the throne on behalf of Pompey. Armenia after paying a sum of 6,000 talents.
Pompey did not destroy this kingdom of Armenia because Rome needed to oppose it as a barrier against the ambition of the Parthian king.
The results
Pompey, after seizing Pontus and Armenia, occupied Bithynia and Syria, transforming them into Roman provinces (74 BC). Finally, they passed to the power of Rome, Phoenicia and Palestine, in whose capital, Jerusalem, taken by assault, a Roman proconsul resided since then (64 BC),
News of the Bosphorus events reached Pompey before the walls of Jericho (63 BC) and he hastened to Amiso, ordering the burial of Mithridates at Sinope, along with the other kings of his dynasty. The Triumph was celebrated in Rome on September 26, 61 BC. Relatives and courtiers of Mithridates were exhibited in it, as well as numerous sumptuous objects.
After the war and the reorganization of the East on new bases, Pompey, with a great army that served him faithfully and the many clients he had acquired, prepared to return to Rome as the most powerful man in the Republic.
Situation in Rome:The 60s
In Rome, as Pompey approached, three fundamental events took place:
- Sulla's supporters controlled the Comitia Centuriata , who elected the Senior Magistrates or cum Imperium (consuls and praetors).
- A third force was forming around Marcus Licinius Crassus, relying above all on his unlimited financial resources.
- Now emerging on the Roman political scene Gaius Julius Caesar , an aristocrat of an ancient family, linked by family ties to Gaius Marius, who had seen his political aspirations aborted in the times of Sulla for this reason.
The time of Cicero, Caesar and Pompey (78-43 B.C.)
At the end of this period, the Republican system in Rome collapsed for various reasons.
• Outdoors :due to the continuous wars caused by the weakness of the republican regime:
- With Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus.
- With the pirates.
- In continental Europe.
• Inside :All these conflicts influenced Rome, where politicians manipulated voters with prearranged elections, demagoguery, vote buying, and political assassinations.
In this conflictive time, three personalities stood out above all:
- Pompey (106-48 B.C.), the great victorious general in the East, whom we have been talking about.
- Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC).
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC).
In the year 63 B.C. Cicero is appointed Consul. Supported by Crassus , wanting to win Popular support against the possible danger of a return of Pompey.