He failed to dissuade Pompey and verbally abused him. Hyrcanus claimed that he was the rightful king as the elder brother and that he had been usurped, accusing Aristobulus of making incursions in nearby countries and being responsible for piracy, thus causing a revolt. This angered senators, who debated a punishment for them, and the consul Cornelius Lentulus advised them to leave the Senate, for their safety. The Senate thought that the arrival of Caesar's army from Gaul would take time and that he would not rush with a small force, directing Pompey to levy 130,000 Italian soldiers (mainly from the veterans) and to recruit as many men as possible from the neighboring provinces. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. A little later, ambassadors from Hyrcanus and Aristobulus went to see him. When he heard that Caesar was approaching, Pompey left and went to Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, to take on board his wife Cornelia and his son. From there, he reached the coast with a retinue of 30 cavalry and boarded a grain ship.[209]. His 8th legion had arrived, increasing the number of his veteran legions to three, and Curio had brought up twenty-two cohorts of recruits. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Curio maintained his stance that both men should lay down their command, because they were suspicious of each other and there would not be peace. When Caesar was given Pompey's seal ring, he cried. Caesar sent a detachment to Ariminum (Rimini), the first town in Italy, and took it by surprise. Editor of Greenidge and Clay's. "[82] Plutarch described Gabinius as one of Pompey's intimates and claimed that he "drew up a law which gave him not an admiralty, but an out-and-out monarchy and irresponsible power over all men. Julius Caesar who is pompey. Mithridates did the same and encamped on a mountain that was difficult to attack. The pirates pillaged coastal fields and towns. The news created factional discord and unrest in Rome as it was thought that the death brought the end of the ties between Caesar and Pompey. He demanded an indemnity and ruled that the son should be king of Sophene, which Tigranes accepted. In Cassius Dio, this battle occurred when Mithridates entered a defile. When he completed matters in Judea, he went to Cilicia instead of Amisus. [47] Memmius, Pompey's brother-in-law and the most capable of his commanders, also fell. His soldiers, who had not received as much of a share of the war booty as they expected, threatened a mutiny, but Pompey said that he did not care and that he would rather give up his triumph. [193], Pompey hastened to Nuceria and then to Brundisium, the main port for crossing to Greece. Once in office Lepidus attempted revolution, and Pompey promptly joined the forces of law and order against him. The next day, Pompey heard the claims of father and son. [119] He also took Heliopolis. According to Appian, the next day, Sertorius attacked Metellus' camp unexpectedly, but he had to withdraw because Pompey was approaching. Lucullus called Pompey a "vulture" who fed from the work of others, referring not merely to Pompey's new command against Mithridates, but also his claim to have finished the war against Spartacus. [175][176] Florus wrote "Caesar's power now inspired the envy of Pompey, while Pompey's eminence was offensive to Caesar; Pompey could not brook an equal or Caesar a superior. In Anatolia, he created the new provinces of Bithynia-Pontus and Cilicia. Such developments increased the long-standing hostility between Jews and Hellenized people.[134]. Josephus mentioned five of these cities as being taken away from the Hasmoneans and restored to their inhabitants (i.e. There was a false rumor that Caesar was marching on Rome, to which Claudius proposed that Caesar be declared public enemy and that the army at Capua be sent against him, but Curio opposed this on the ground that it was a false rumor. Caesar then returned to Italy, crossed the Adriatic Sea and landed in what is now southern Albania, even though the Pompeian fleet controlled this sea. According to Suetonius (Roman historian who wrote The Life of the Caesars), Caesar uttered the phrase alea iacta est (“the die has been cast”). Pompey divided the sea and the coast into thirteen districts, each assigned to a commander with his own forces. This turned the soldiers who had to stay behind against Sulla, but Pompey said that he would rather kill himself than go against Sulla. He joined seven towns east of the river Jordan that had been under the Hasmoneans of Judea, plus Damascus, into a league. Pompey the Great, one of the great statesmen and generals of the late Roman Republic, a triumvir (61–54 bce) who was an associate and later an opponent of Julius Caesar. Plutarch remarked that, if he arrived in Rome with such a large crowd, he would not have needed an army for a revolution. In the latter case, the two men would remain a match for each other and would not cause trouble. Besides resorting to bribery, they promoted factional violence, which Plutarch saw as a civil war. There were 75,100,000 drachmas of silver coin and 700 ships brought to the port. Julius Caesar (left) By Mithrandire CC BY-SA 3.0; Pompey (right) By Alphanidon CC BY-SA 4.0 The rivalry between Marius and Sulla was doomed to repeat itself within a generation when Julius Caesar emulated Sulla’s action and crossed the Rubicon to march on Rome. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Julius Caesar and what it means. There were two-horse carriages and litters laden with gold or ornaments, including the couch of Darius; the son of Hystaspes; and the throne and scepter of Mithridates. He learned of the death of Mithridates when he was marching towards Jerusalem. When the cavalry was attacked by Oroeses, it withdrew towards the infantry, which then engaged, letting the cavalry through its ranks. He turned away, loathing the man who brought Pompey's head. There were detachments of Pompey standing around the senate house, that secretly went to Caesar along with Curio. A grateful Cicero stopped opposing Pompey. [184] However, the Parthian threat to Syria did not materialize and the legions were sent to Capua. They secretly sabotaged him and meted out severe punishments on the Hispanic allies, pretending that this was ordered by Sertorius. After the death of Mithradates in 63, Pompey was free to plan the consolidation of the eastern provinces and frontier kingdoms. Plutarch thought that fear of Crassus had led Pompey and Caesar to be decent to each other and his death paved the way for the subsequent friction between these two men and the events that eventually led to civil war. Naturally, these measures were unpopular among the plebeians, the majority of the population. He also occupied a small camp Caesar had abandoned and added an entrenchment so that the two camps were joined, and gained access to a stream. When Sertorius was murdered, the formerly disaffected soldiers grieved for the loss of their commander whose bravery had been their salvation and were angry with Perpenna. It was on the Cilician coast and had been sacked by Tigranes the Great. The Romans built a ramp and brought siege engines and battering rams from Tyre. Once elected, Pompey and Crassus got Gaius Trebonius, a plebeian tribune, to propose a measure that gave the province of Syria and the nearby lands to one of the consuls, and the provinces of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior to the other. Scaurus made an expedition against Petra, in Arabian Nabataea. On it, he recorded that, from the Alps to the limits of Further Spain, he had brought 876 towns under Roman sway. Pompey made a tour of the whole area. In 83 BC, invited by a faction in one of the civil wars, Tigranes II of Armenia invaded Syria and virtually ended Seleucid rule. Pompey sought to contest each hilltop, thereby making the effort more difficult. However, the temple was well fortified and there was a deep valley around it. Curio, helped by Antony and Piso, prevailed, moving for a vote about Caesar laying down his arms and Pompey retaining his command, which passed. Brutus was given an escort and retired to a town by the river Po, but the next day he was apparently assassinated on Pompey's orders. Inscriptions carried in front of the procession indicated the nations he defeated (the Kingdom of Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, Caucasian Iberia, Caucasian Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Judaea and Nabataea) and claimed that 900 cities, 1,000 strongholds, 800 pirate ships and 1,000 pirates were captured and that 39 cities were founded. [215] Theodotus left Egypt and escaped Caesar's revenge. Afrianius also returned to Syria through Mesopotamia (a Parthian area), contrary to the Roman-Parthian agreements. He went to Syria with his army, annexing the country because it had no legitimate kings. He then fought Darius the Mede, and put him to flight. Pompey, instead, declared that he would disband his army after his triumph and then "there remained but one accusation for envious tongues to make, namely, that he devoted himself more to the people than to the senate..."[67] When Pompey and Crassus assumed office, they did not remain friendly. In Appian's opinion, this was a pretense of fairness and goodwill. When Pompey spent most of his private resources on the war, he asked the senate for money, threatening to go back to Italy with his army if this was refused. According to Plutarch, Sulla did not hear him directly, but saw expressions of astonishment on the faces of those that did. Pompey's remains were taken to Cornelia, who gave them burial at his Alban villa. Gaius Scribonius Curio, who was also opposed to Caesar, became one of the new plebeian tribunes. [97], According to Cassius Dio, Pompey made friendly proposals to Mithridates to test his disposition. The flight from Rome was disorderly. Pompey could not look at Mithridates' body and sent it to Sinope. In 51 BC, Caesar’s troops were settled in Transalpine Gaul. However, he was aging and becoming weaker. Caesar and Pompey’s Attempts to … The bone of contention between the two men was the troops they both commanded. However, he was killed in battle and the Seleucids lost all of their gains. He and Pompey then descended from the Pyrenees to the river Ebro. This town also closed its gates, but surrendered when they heard about the fall of Gomphi. Pompey was concerned about the political instability to the southeast of Rome's new provinces in Asia Minor. To promote his own agenda, Pompey aligned himself with Julius Caesar and Marcus Crassus in the First Triumvirate. [87], In Appian's account, Pompey went to Cilicia expecting to have to undertake sieges of rock-bound citadels. In 65 BC, Pompey sent two of his lieutenants, Metellus and Lollius, to Syria, to take possession of Damascus. Some senators proposed that Caesar should disarm first, but Curio maintained that Caesar was a counterbalance to Pompey's power and that either Pompey should disarm first or both should do so simultaneously. [37] After a hard and bloody campaign, Pompey wintered his army near the Roman colony of Narbo Martius. A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered a military career while still young and rose to prominence serving the later dictator Sulla as a commander in Sulla's civil war, his success at which earned him the cognomen Magnus – "the Great" – after Pompey's boyhood hero Alexander the Great. Pompey set sail from Cyprus with warships and merchant ships. Phraates brought many charges against Tigranes and many insinuations against the Romans. This portrayal of him survived into the Renaissance and Baroque periods, for example, in Pierre Corneille's play The Death of Pompey (1642). By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. He also noted that he did not add any title to his name, as he was happy with his appellation as Magnus (the Great), and that he did not contrive to receive any other honor.[144]. However, the royal ships were seen taking crews on board, and there were soldiers on the shore. After Julius Caesar destroyed Pompey the Great’s army at Pharsalus in 48 BCE, Pompey fled to Egypt. Sertorius or Lucullus, for instance, were especially critical. He collected it in such abundance that the markets were filled and there was also enough to supply foreigners. Towns in Italy were also attacked, including Ostia, the port of Rome, with ships burned and pillaged. Because of all this, Tigranes did not want to fight any more when Pompey got near Artaxata. This calendar counted the years from 63 BC, the year when self-government started. [122] From this time onward, Syria was to be a Roman province. Pompey ruthlessly executed Marian leaders who had surrendered to him. However, Claudius Marcellus declared that "since he saw ten legions already looming up in their march over the Alps, he himself also would send forth a man who would oppose them in defense of his country. Aristobulus claimed that Hyrcanus' indolence had caused him to be deposed, and that he took power lest others seize it. [90], In 68 BC, the province of Cilicia was taken from Lucullus and assigned to Quintus Marcius Rex. He was defeated continually. However, Pompey had spread exaggerated rumors about Caesar's defeat, and the governor of Thessaly cast his lot with Pompey. He rebuilt the city of Garara and restored seven inland cities and four coastal ones to its inhabitants. This last point put Pompey off. It seems to have been found among the possessions of Mithridates that the inhabitants of Kos had received from Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Pompey called him for a meeting. Pompey rode away from the camp and went to Larissa. "[178], In the Life of Pompey, Plutarch wrote that the plebeian tribune Lucilius proposed to elect Pompey dictator. Like their forebears, Caesar and Pompey had also been firm allies, but the need of the … He had divorced his third wife, Mucia, allegedly for adultery with Caesar, and now proposed to ally himself by marriage to the party of the young senatorial leader Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger. [136] He then travelled in greater pomp. Several of the towns had been damaged during Hasmonean rule, but the damage was not extensive and reconstruction was completed by the time of the governorship in Syria of Aulus Gabinius in 57 BC. Pompey let them cross the river Cyrnus and then attacked them and routed them. The leniency with which he treated the pirates who surrendered was "equally great" and won over many pirates, who went over to his side. [120][121] Ptolemy was hated in Syria, Phoenicia and Judea; Pompey, however, let him escape punishment in exchange for 1,000 talents (24,000,000 sesterces). Aretas besieged Aristobulus in the Temple in Jerusalem for eight months (66–65 BC). The lack of friendliness on the boat prompted Pompey to tell Septimius that he was an old comrade, the latter merely nodding. For 6,000 talents he set up King Tigranes in Armenia as a friend and ally of Rome—and as his own protégé. Then, he invaded Colchis and reached Phasis on the Black Sea, where he was met by Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet. Artoces fled across the river Pelorus and made overtures, but Pompey would agree to terms only if he sent his children as hostages. He then made a sortie, passed through the enemy lines and joined his new force. He restored the hereditary domains of the father, but took the land he had invaded later (parts of Cappadocia, and Syria, as well as Phoenicia and Sophene) and demanded an indemnity, assigning Sophene to the son. Caesar agreed to negotiate, promising the envoys that no one would suffer harm at his hands and that he would call for the immediate disbandment of the troops. [216], Pompey's military glory was second to none for two decades. The procession included images of Tigranes and Mithridates, who were not present, and the sons and daughters of Mithridates who had died. Pompey then decided to move south because it was too difficult to try to reach Mithridates in the Cimmerian Bosporus and thus, he did not want to "wear out his own strength in a vain pursuit," content with preventing merchant ships reaching the Cimmerian Bosporus through his blockade, and preferred other pursuits. "[143] His triumphs were for victories in Africa, Hispania and Asia. Livy noted that Pompey was made consul after a special senatorial decree, because he had not occupied the quaestorship, was an equestrian and did not have senatorial rank. "[59] The senate decided to send Pompey, who had just returned from Hispania. [179][180], Pompey married Cornelia, a daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica. A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered a military career while still young and rose to prominence serving the later dictator Sulla as a commander in Sulla's civil war, his success at which earned him the cognomen Magnus– "the Great…