Sulla's Pompey

“ If it is a piece of good-fortune to gain a crown without trouble, fortune never did more for mortal than it did for Pompeius; but on those who lack courage the gods lavish every favor and every gift in vain." I must say here that, while I acknowledge the German historian's research and knowledge without any reserve, I cannot accept his deductions as to character. I do not believe that Pompey found any diadem at his feet, or thought of any diadem, nor, according to my reading of Roman history, had Marius or had Sulla; nor did Cæsar. ”

“ Notwithstanding the restoration of the Tribunate and the alteration in the judicial power in Pompey's Consulship, the popular party had received such a severe blow during Sulla's supremacy, that the aristocracy still retained the chief political influence during Pompey's absence in the East. But meantime a new leader of the popular party had been rapidly rising into notice, who was destined not only to crush the aristocracy, but to overthrow the Republic and become the undisputed master of the Roman world. ”

“ Suppose Pompey should do as Sulla had done, and bring his army to Rome! Suppose he should make himself Dictator, and destroy his enemies!
But these fears proved groundless, for no sooner had Pompey reached Italy than he disbanded his army, bidding his soldiers to go home until he recalled them to grace his triumph.
He was at once elected Consul, while his colleague was the wealthy Crassus. The two Consuls did not agree well, for Pompey’s sympathies were, in these days, with the people, while Crassus was anxious to please the Optimates. ”

“ But although the war in Italy was brought to a close, the Marian party still held out in other parts of Europe; and Pompey, who was now regarded as one of the principal leaders of the aristocracy, was sent against them by Sulla. He first proceeded to Sicily, to which island Carbo had crossed over from Africa, but here met with no opposition; as soon as he landed, Carbo fled from the island, intending to take refuge in Egypt, but he was seized and brought in chains to Pompey, at Lilybaeum, who put him to death, and sent his head to Sulla. ”

“ Through Pompey's influence Lepidus was not only elected, but obtained a greater number of votes than his colleague Q. Catulus, who was supported by Sulla. The latter had now retired from public affairs, and would not relinquish his Epicurean enjoyments for the purpose of defeating Pompey's plans, but contented himself with warning the latter, as he met him returning from the comitia in triumph, "Young man, it is time for you not to slumber, for you have strengthened your rival against yourself." The words of Sulla were prophetic ”

“ Most of the soldiers of Pompey joined his army. Those who did not were dismissed unharmed. Everywhere he showed the greatest leniency, and everywhere won friends. On his return to Rome he gained new friends by passing laws relieving debtors and restoring their civil rights to the children of Sulla's victims.
He remained in Rome only eleven days, and then sailed for Greece, where Pompey had gathered a large army. It was January 4, 48 B.C., when he sailed. On June 6 of the same year was fought, at Pharsalia, in Thessaly, a great battle which decided the fate of the Roman world. ”

“ It was the fortune of Pompey, a favorite officer of Sulla, to cause the first violation of the laws laid down by his general.
GNEIUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (106-48) led a soldier's life from his boyhood to his death. When a youth of seventeen he fought by his father's side in the civil struggles between Marius and Sulla. He was a partisan of the latter, and connected himself with the cause of the aristocracy. He defeated the followers of Marius in Sicily and Africa, and in 81 was allowed to enjoy a triumph, though still an Eques and not legally qualified. ”

“ At the age of forty-one he became Consul. It was during the struggle for the consulship that the triumvirate was formed, of which subsequent ages have heard so much, and of which Romans at the time heard probably so little. Pompey, who had been the political child of Sulla, and had been the hope of the patricians to whom he belonged, had returned to Rome after various victories which he had achieved as Proconsul in the East, had triumphed,—and had ventured to recline on his honours, disbanding his army and taking to himself the credit of subsiding into privacy. ”

“ SULLA SAVES ROME FROM THE SAMNITES Sulla returned to Italy three years after the death of Marius. During that time the popular party had been in power. But now it feared that its reign was nearly at an end, for Sulla was in Italy, and was coming to Rome, and coming not alone, but with his army.
Carbo was the leader of Sulla’s enemies. He had gathered together a large army, but it was scattered over Italy, under his lieutenants. Pompey, who was soon to be known as Pompey the Great, was fighting for Sulla, and he, with three legions, kept Carbo’s forces from uniting. ”

“ During the war against Mithradates Sulla lodged his men with the rich inhabitants of Asia; they lived as they chose, they and their friends, receiving each sixteen drachmas a day. These first generals, Marius and Sulla, were still Roman magistrates. But soon rich individuals like Pompey and Crassus drew the soldiers to their pay. In 78 at the death of Sulla there were four armies, levied entirely and commanded by simple citizens. From that time there was no further question of the legions of Rome, there were left only the legions of Pompey or Cæsar. ”

“ There were abundant materials of discontent in Italy, and it would not have been difficult to collect a numerous army ; but the victory of the aristocratical party was too firmly secured by Sulla's military colonies to fear any attempts that Lepidus might make, since he did not possess either sufficient influence or sufficient talent to take the lead in a great revolution. He seems, moreover, to have reckoned upon the assistance of Pompey, who remained, on the contrary, firm to the aristocracy. ”

“ Although he was of an old patrician family, he came into politics as the brilliant darling of the people. He spent great sums and incurred heavy debts to provide public festivals on the most lavish scale. He opposed the tradition of Sulla, and cherished the memory of Marius, who was his uncle by marriage. For a time he worked in conjunction with Crassus and Pompey, but after the death of Crassus he and Pompey came into conflict. By 49 B.C. he and Pompey, with their legions, he from the west and Pompey from the east, were fighting openly for predominance in the Roman state. ”

“ Sulla himself fought an indecisive battle against Carbo; but his legates, Marcius and Carrinas, were defeated by Pompey. Carbo then retreated to Ariminum, and sent Marcius to the relief of Praeneste; but Ponmpey defeated the latter again in the Apennines, and compelled him to retire. Despairing of success, Carbo then abandoned Marius to his fate, and set sail for Africa. Praeneste shortly afterwards surrendered. Sulla thus became the master of Italy, and was proclaimed dictator. He then proceeded to reward his partizans, and to take vengeance on his enemies ”

“ Sulla had re-established the outside show of a strong government—a government which was strong enough to enable rich men to live securely in Rome; but he had done nothing to consolidate the Empire. Even Lucullus in the East had only partially succeeded, leaving Mithridates still to be dealt with by Pompey. Of what nature was the government of the provinces under Sulla's aristocracy we learn from the trials of Verres, and of Fonteius, and of Catiline. ”

“ Nabobs as Builders: Sulla, Pompey, Caesar
The aftermath of Sulla’s second march on Rome in 83 B.C. was a spate of political murders and confiscations. The profits were enormous, and Sulla used them for the most ambitious building program in the history of the Republic. His motive was in part the desire to rival what he had seen in the cities of the Greek East, in part his understanding that massive building projects are the outward and visible sign of princely power. ”

“ Fortunate (except in the matter of his wife) was [368] openly unchaste. It was the common talk of Athens, as I learnt in my youthful years when we soon pick up what is bad, and yet Sulla was in the dark, and first got to know the secrets of his household through the abuse of his enemies. Cn. Pompey had an impure wife [369] Mucia, who was surrounded by eunuchs from Pontus and troops of the countrymen of Mithridates. Others thought that he knew all and submitted to it; but a comrade told him during the campaign, and the conqueror of the whole world was dismayed at the sad intelligence. ”

“ Pompey used to be Pompey without a blush. Now with an erudite English writer he is generally Pompeius. The denizens of Africa—the "nigger" world—have had, I think, something to do with this. But with no erudite English writer is Terence Terentius, or Virgil Virgilius, or Horace Horatius. Were I to speak of Livius, the erudite English listener would think that I alluded to an old author long prior to our dear historian. And though we now talk of Sulla instead of Sylla, we hardly venture on Antonius instead of Antony. ”

“ Born in the same year as Cicero, and son of the consul under whom Cicero had served in the Social War (p. 11) , Pompey was twenty-three years of age when Sulla returned from the East in 83 B.C. By his own influence and reputation with the soldiers, Pompey raised three legions in Picthum, out-manœuvred the superior forces opposed to him, and affected a junction with Sulla's troops in Southern Italy. The Dictator treated the young soldier with marked distinction ”

“ It took Sulla three years to dispose of his great enemy, and until this was done, happen what might in Italy, he could not stir. [9] A three years' respite was thus allowed to the new government, and it was only by its own folly that it did not use the time in building up a military and political power against which Sulla would have found it hard to contend. But what chance was there of a similar respite for Catiline? Mithridates was already driven from Asia and Pompey was ready to set sail immediately. A massacre in Rome would have brought the Nobles thronging to his camp ”

“ The world was divided into provinces, each of which was destined to be prey of one member after another of the official caste at Rome. The short period of eleven years between the dictatorship of Sulla and the first consulship of Pompey has for its typical administrators the three men whose names Juvenal selects out of all past history when he wishes to gibbet the most shameless and notorious plunderers of the provinces—Dolabella, Antonius, and Verres. ”

“ On the other side, it was no less distasteful to Sylla to see how fast he came on, and to what a height of glory and power he was advancing; yet being ashamed to hinder him, he kept quiet. But when, against his direct wishes, Pompey got Lepidus made consul, having openly joined in the canvass and, by the good-will the people felt for himself, conciliated their favor for Lepidus, Sylla could forbear no longer; but when he saw him coming away from the election through the forum with a great train after him, cried out to him, "Well, young man, I see you rejoice in your victory. ”

“ Sulla made these remarks to Pompeius, to show that he did not intend to let him have a triumph, but would resist him and check his ambition, if he would not listen to reason. Pompeius, however, was not cowed, but he told Sulla to reflect, that more men worship the rising than the setting sun, intending him to understand that his own power was on the increase, but that the power of Sulla was diminishing and fading away. ”

“ And in these times and occasions, they say, began the emulation and rivalry for glory between him and Pompey; for though Pompey was the younger man, and had the disadvantage to be descended of a father that was disesteemed by the citizens, and hated as much as ever man was, yet in these actions he shone out, and was proved so great, that Sylla always used, when he came in, to stand up and uncover his head, an honor which he seldom showed to older men and his own equals, and always saluted him Imperator. ”

“ Pompeia told her, triumphantly, "all Rome is sure of it."
"I don't believe a word of it," Mucia exclaimed. "Because you hate me you want to think the worst of me, and because you credit anything, however improbable, you persuade yourself that all Rome believes what your malignity conjectures. The idea! Pompey is the handsomest, the kindest, the most fascinating, the most agreeable, the most popular, the most successful, the greatest man the world has ever seen. The idea of me, who am lucky enough to be his wife, so much as thinking of any other man, absurd! ”

“ Had the Sullan constitution passed into the guardianship of men such as have sat in the Roman College of Cardinals or the Venetian Council of Ten, we cannot tell whether the opposition would have been able to shake it so soon; with such defenders every attack involved, at all events, a serious peril.
Pompeius
Of the men, who were neither unconditional adherents nor open opponents of the Sullan constitution, no one attracted more the eyes of the multitude than the young Gnaeus Pompeius, who was at the time of Sulla's death twenty-eight years of age (born 29th September 648) . ”

“ There were then sitting in state upon the bench two censors, Gellius and Lentulus, inspecting the knights, who were passing by in muster before them, when Pompey was seen coming down into the forum, with all the ensigns of a consul, but leading his horse in his hand. When he came up, he bade his lictors make way for him, and so he led his horse to the bench; the people being all this while in a sort of amaze, and all in silence, and the censors themselves regarding the sight with a mixture of respect and gratification. ”