POMPEY, CNEIUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS, son of Pompeius Strabo, a Roman general; born in 106 B. C. He distinguished himself against the ene mies of the Roman senate, both within the state and without, and at last fell in the struggle against Csar for absolute power. Like his father, serving against Marius, Pompey ranged himself with the aristocratic party of the republic. He was in his 23d year only when he raised three complete legions, 60,000 men, at his own expense, and took the field in behalf of Sylla. By his 26th year Porn and Africa, and on his return to Rome, 83 B. c., was hailed Magnus—the great —by Sylla. On the death of Sylla, in 78 B. C., Pompey went as proconsul to Spain, where the plebeian war was con tinued by Sertorius, and after a four years' arduous struggle, he remained master of the field, his opponent having been betrayed and assassinated. He re turned to Italy in time to give the fin ishing blow to the similar victories of Crassus, and in 70 B. C. Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls. In the year 67 B. C., he destroyed the lawless bands infesting the coasts of the Medi terranean; was made absolute dictator in the East, and superseded Lucullus in the command against Mithridates. The latter he completely routed in 66 B. C., and becoming master of Asia Minor, pur sued his conquests through Syria and Palestine as far as the Red Sea. In 60 B. C. he joined Caesar and Crassus in the triumvirate, the former of whom gave him his daughter Julia in marriage. Succeeding events caused Pompey to draw closer to the senatorial party, and with him, as the representative of the patrician republic, went Cato, the hon est enemy of the ambition of Caesar. In
54 B. C. Julia died; in the year following, Crassus was slain in Asia; and now the hostility between Caesar and Pompey rap idly developed itself. The former hav ing applied for the consulship, refused to present himself in Rome as a private citizen, and a decree of the senate de clared him a public enemy unless he re signed his command. Instead of doing so, Cnsar crossed the Rubicon with his troops, 49 B. C., and Pompey, accom panied by Cato, Cicero, and other nobles of Rome, fell back on Greece, where the great battle of Pharsalia decided his fate. Pompey was advised to seek an asylum in Egypt, then ruled by a sov ereign he had protected, Ptolemy XIV. He was received with pretended friend ship, but treacherously murdered as soon as he had stepped ashore, 48 B. C., and his head being cut off, it was sent to Caesar, who turned away from it and could not restrain his tears. Pompey fell, and with him the republic of Rome. CNEIUS, son of Pompey, who endeavored to carry on the war against Cmsar, was defeated and killed at Munda, 45 B. C. SEXTUS, the younger brother of Cneius, continued the war for 10 years, and ren dered himself formidable as a naval com mander; but he was at last defeated and killed by order of Antony, 35 B. C.