POMPEII, ,tom-fii"-1-i, a coast city of Cam pania, at the base of Vesuvius, by the great eruption of which it was overwhelmed with ashes, &c., A.D. 79, along with Hercula neum and Stabim. It had been rebuilt only sixteen years before, after being laid in ruins by an earthquake. Many of its buildings have been excavated, and a large number of works of art recovered.
Pommilus, yom-ifii-i-res or fiont,Per-us. t.
MAGNus, mae-nus, the famous Triumvir and rival of Julius Cmsar, was son of (4), and born 3oth September, sot s.c., and early distin guished himself under his father against the revolted Italians, 89. He joined Sulla, for whom he conquered, from the Marians, Sicily and the territories of Africa, and obtained a triumph at Rome, Is ; after Sulla's death, 78, Pompey supported the aristocracy against the remains of the Marian faction, which were headed by Lepldus, and, after five years' ser vice in Spain, he ended the war, 75, with Sertorius (q. v.), for which he received a triumph, and was in 70 elected consul, when he went over to the popular party, and restored the Tribunitian power and privileges. On the proposal of the tribune A. Gabinius, by the Gabinian Law, he was invested 67, with extraordinary powers over the Mediterranean and its coast countries to extirpate the pirates who had long infested it, and had nearly de stroyed the naval power of Rome, and in three months he swept the sea and destroyed them in their stronghold in Cilicia ; and in 66, on the proposal of C. Manilius, by the Manilian Law, he was appointed to supersede Lucullus against Mithnclates VI. (q. v.), whom he overthrew ; he compelled the submission of Ar menia, Albania, Iberia, entered Syria, sub dued part of Arabia, and made a Roman province. On landing at Brundusium, 62, Pompey disbanded his army to allay the fears excited by his great success, and obtained his third triumph. The opposition of the Senate, which, jealous of him, refused to ratify his acts in Asia, drove him to a union with Cmsar and Crassus, and the three founded the First Triumvirate. Cmsar, who had given his daughter Julia in marriage to Pompey, set out for Gaul, where his great successes in the next five years stirred the jealousy of Pompey, who, the bond between them being weakened by the death, in childbed, of Julia, in 54, now looked to his own interests alone, and fomented the disturbances caused by the faction of Clodius, till the Senate, in alarm, appointed him sole consul, 52, to allay the tumults ; and Pompey then again returned to the aristocratic party, thus finally breaking with Cmsar (q. v.), who, after proposing that both should lay aside their power, at length, when ordered by the Senate to dis band his forces, crossed the Rubicon and in vaded Italy, nominally to avenge the insult offered to the sacred person of the tribunes M.' Antony and C. Curio, 49. The troops of Pompey, who had quite miscalculated his popularity, deserted in crowds to his rival, and Pompey fled to Brundusium, and thence retreated to Greece, where he collected a formidable army, and, on 9th August, 48, met Cmsar, who had been repulsed from Dyrrha chlum, and obliged to retreat to Thessaly, on the plain of Pharsalia, where Pompey was totally defeated. He fled to Egypt, to King Ptolemy XII., whose ministers resolved to kill him. Pompey was stabbed when stepping out, in sight of his fifth wife, from the boat which brought him ashore, 29th September, 48, and his head was cutoff and preserved, to be shown to his magnanimous conqueror, who pursued him into Egypt. Cmsar turned away from the sight with tears, and raised a monu ment over his remains. His rapid conquests
in Asia, only paralleled by those of Alexander, well entitled Pompey to the epithet of Mag nus (Great) conferred on him in his youth by Sulla; but every movement, in politics or in war, in his later years, was a blunder, and the series of mistakes in his last campaigns almost effaces the memory of his genius, which seems to have been enervated by his early successes and long prosperity. " The redeeming feature of his latter years was serenity and mildness ; his passions cooled with satiety, and the impetuous ambition of his youth stagnated at last in apathy and pride" (Merivale). a. and 3. CN. MAGNUS and SEXTUS MAGNUS, sex'-tus, sans of (I), and his third wife Muds, fought against Cmsar in Spain, and were defeated at Munda, 45 n.c. , Cn. falling shortly after. Sextus fled to Sicily, where he became possessed of a large fleet, and threatened the communications of Rome. Negotiations were opened between him and the Triumvir Octavianus (Augustus), but without effect ; at length he was totally defeated by the fleet of OctaVianus, 36, and fled with seventeen ships to Asia, where he tried to raise a party ; but he was seized, by Antony's orders, and put to death, 35. 4. CN•, STRAD°, strdb'-U, consul 89 B.C., was father of (1), and very active in suppressing the revolt of the Socii. In 88, when proconsul in the war, he was, by Sulla's orders, superseded by (5), whom he put to death. He was himself soon after killed by lightning, and his soldiers, to whom he was odious for his avarice and cruelty, dragged his body through the streets of Rome with an iron hook, and threw it into the Tiber. 5. Q. RUFUS, rfit-fus, consul 88 3.c., was a supporter of Sulla, by whom, on his going to th. East, he was left in charge of all Italy ; at the instance of (4) he was assas sinated. 6. A son of Theophanes of Mytilene, was intimate with (t), and noted for his learning. 7. A Roman knight put to death by Claudius for adultery with Messalina. 8. Teocus, a Latin historian, temp. Augustus, was a native of Gaul, and son of a noble friend and adherent of Julius Cwsar. He wrote a lost work, Histdriee Phili Mae, a valuable universal history (down to the Roman conquest of the East), grouped round its chief theme, the Macedonian kings. Justin wrote an extant work in forty-four books, consisting of extracts from, and abridgments of it. 9. SEXTUS FESTUS, a Roman gram marian, 4th century A.D., wrote a Latin lexicon, in part extant.
Poxtrimit,ponrlie-f-a, daughter of Numa Pompilius, married March's, and bore Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome.
POMPILIUS,Pom-fiie-i-us (see NUMA). POMPONIUS, .PonspY-nr-us. 1. The father of King Numa. 2. SECUNDUS, an officer in Germany, under Nero, was honoured with a triumph over the barbarians : he wrote some lost poems, much admired by his contemporaries, 3. sex'-tus, a famous lawyer tinder the Antonines. 4. MELA, me'-la, a Spanish geographer, tem,p. Claudius.
PoweuusiE,./Sainif-tf-nee, Or PONTINA, pu le-nee, PALUDES, pd-lie'-des, the Pontine marshes, the low miasmatic coast district of Latium between Tarracina and Circeii, into which the Amas6nus and Ufens, and several streamlets, discharge themselves. It was said to be named from Pontia (3), which had once, with twenty-two other towns, occupied its site.
PowriA,75a/e-a-a. T. The daughter of Petro fins and wife of Bolanus, killed herself by opening her veins when condemned by Nero for conspiracy. 2. A rocky isle off bormia, in Latium, made a state prison under the Empire. 3. An ancient town, early destroyed, on the site of the Pomptine marshes. 4. A surname of Venus at Hermi6nd.'