Essay on Pompey The Great

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Pompey the Great
106BC-49BC

An extra ordinary rise

Sources of Power

‘The glory of men’s ancestors is….like a shining light on their descendents which Allows neither their virtues nor their vices to be hidden” Sallust

Learnt by
His
fathers mistakes Confident

Military experience Wealth
Land
Inherited veteran Soldiers

Pompey

Family legacy Clientale
Marriages Ambitious

PLUTARCH 139-141

ATTRIBUTES
RESOURCEFUL
OPPORTUNISTIC
IMPUDENT/BOLD
FORTUNATE
COERCIVE
“ He asked Sulla to bear in mind the fact that more people worshipped the rising sun than the setting sun…” Plutarch

Marriage-an extension of amicitae
Antistia
Daughter
Of his lawyer Julia, daughter of
Caesar

PLUTARCH 142-

Aemilia Scaura
Step daughter
Of Sulla

Mucia Tertia,
Daughter of
Pontifex
maximus

Cornelia,
Daughter of Crassus,
Brought
Wealth,Metelli connections Raised his own ‘private’ army to aid Sulla at 23, gained propraetorian imperium and first triumph.
“That someone of extreme youthfulness, who held no public office, should raise an army in a time of national crisis was innovation. Yet that is what Pompeius did.”
Cicero.
PLUTARCH 143-145

PLUTARCH 145-167

Granted propraetorian command against Lepidus.
Given proconsular command against Sertorius.
“it was totally unprecedented when two eminent and gallant consuls were available, for a Roman knight to be sent out with consular powers…all the same he was sent.” Cicero.

Elected to consulship and given second triumph by threat of force.
He was “elected to a consulship actually before he had the legal right to hold any office at all.” Cicero.
Refused to take a provincial command after his year as consul.

Pompey and Crassus as Consuls
70BC
The changes made to the Sullan constitution in
70BC weakened the Senates position;
Power of the tribunes were restored
The courts were reconstituted so that the Senate had only one third of the places
Power of the censor was revived. Sixty four senators were removed and new ones from the equestrian order were admitted
Citizenship granted to wider areas of Italy which meant that there were masses of new voters not bound by previous patron client obligations
PLUTARCH 157-159

The Lex Gabinia and Lex Manilia were laws giving power to
Pompey. Unlike his previous commands awarded by the
Senate, these were despite the opposition of the Senate proposed by tribunes and passed by the people.
Caesar
speaks
For it

Roscius tries to speak
But is
Drowned out

Lex Gabinia

Use of force
Consul
attacked

Catulus opposes it

Cicero
Speaking for
The interests
Of the equites Catulus
Opposes
it

Lex
Manilia

Aristocrats
Thought it amounted To tyranny “THEIR HEARTS
FAILED THEM,
SO FRIGHTENED
WERE
THEY OF
THE PEOPLE”

‘ So Pompey, who was not even in Rome at the time, was vested with powers almost as great as those which Sulla had exercised after he had conquered the city by force of arms”.

Pompey makes Enemies
According to Plutarch Lucullus accuses
Pompey of “ ….following his usual custom of settling down, like some crazed carrion bird, on the bodies that had been killed by others and tearing to pieces the scattered remains of wars.”
To what and whom is Lucullus referring ?

Cicero on Pompey’s Command
Read Cicero’s speech and discuss
Cicero’s view of Pompey. Consider a variety of possible reasons for Cicero supporting the Lex Manilia
To what extent does Cicero’s support of an unconstitutional command undermine the
Cursus Honorum ?
Who carries the blame; Manilius, Pompey,
Cicero, the Senate as a whole ?

Voted by people for lex Gabinia
(pirates) and lex Manilia
(Mithridates)
Imperium infinitum for 3 years.
Pirates - powers over the whole
Mediterranean and 50 miles inland, unlimited funds, men and ships.
Mithridates - permission to make war or peace on his own initiative.
Takes command of all forces under
Lucullus as well as his own existing army

•The Ascendancy of Pompey
•In 74 BC the King of Bythinia had died, leaving the country to Rome.
However the King of Pontus
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