Pompey

This article refers to the prominent military leader and politician of the late Roman republic, who also had descendants named Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.

Historic View

To the historians of his own and later Roman periods, the life of Pompey was simply too good to be true. No more satisfying historical model existed than the great man who, achieving extraordinary triumphs through his own efforts, yet fell from power and influence and, in the end, was murdered through treachery.

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He was the hero of the Republic, who seemed once to hold the Roman world in his palm only to be brought low by his own weak judgment and Caesar's indomitability. Pompey was idealized as a tragic hero almost immediately after Pharsalus and his murder: Plutarch portrayed him as a true Roman Alexander, pure of heart and mind, destroyed by the cynical ambitions of those around him. The truth, of course, is another matter.

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