Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Latin: [ˈŋnae̯.ʊs pomˈpejʊs ˈmaŋnʊs]; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( POM-pee) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the final decades of the Roman Republic. As a young man, he was a partisan and protégé of the dictator Sulla, after whose death he achieved significant military and political success.

A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered into a military career at an early age. He rose to prominence serving Sulla as a commander during the civil war of 83–81 BC. His early success as a general allowed him to bypass the traditional cursus honorum (the sequence of public offices required for political advancement), and he was elected as consul on three occasions (70, 55, 52 BC). He celebrated three triumphs and served as a commander in the Sertorian War, the Third Servile War, the Third Mithridatic War, and in various other military campaigns. Pompey's early success led dictator Sulla to grant him the cognomen Magnus – "the Great" – reportedly in reference to Pompey's admiration for Alexander the Great. His adversaries, however, referred to him as adulescentulus carnifex ("teenage butcher") due to his perceived ruthlessness.

In 60 BC, Pompey joined Crassus and Caesar in the informal political alliance known as the First Triumvirate, cemented by Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter, Julia. After the deaths of Julia and Crassus (in 54 and 53 BC), Pompey aligned himself with the optimates—a conservative faction of the Roman Senate. Pompey and Caesar subsequently came into conflict over control of the Roman state, which led to Caesar's civil war.